Trav S.D.

Donald Travis Stewart (born 1965), known professionally as Trav S.D., is an American author, journalist, playwright and stage performer. He has been called a leading figure in the New Vaudeville and Indie Theater movements.
Career.
Originally from Rhode Island, Trav S.D. started out as a stand-up comedian and studied at Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence before moving to New York City in 1988 to self-produce and perform in his own plays. In 1990 he worked as a personal and administrative assistant to the singer Tony Bennett. Following two years in the development office of the Big Apple Circus in 1995, he founded his company Mountebanks, a platform for producing original theatre pieces and vaudeville shows. He first began to attract notice in 1998 as one of a number of Lower East Side “performance comedians” colloquially known as Art Stars, working at alternative night clubs and theatres such as Surf Reality, Collective Unconscious, Todo Con Nada and The Present Company. In 2001, he was featured in an Adam Gopnik article for "The New Yorker" about New Burlesque.
Journalist.
In 1999, Trav S.D. began publishing regular features and reviews in the "Village Voice", "Time Out New York", and "American Theatre" (where he was an Affiliated Writing Fellow in 2001, leading the magazine’s 9-11 coverage). He has also written for the New York Times, New York Sun, and Reason. In 2008 he launched the arts and culture blog Travalanche in 2008, which features biographies of vaudeville, burlesque, circus, sideshow and other variety arts performers and professionals, as well as related news, reviews, and commentary.
Author.
Trav S.D.'s first book "No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous", was released by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2005, followed by "Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube," published by Bear Manor Media in 2013.
Playwright/Dramatic Stage.
Trav S.D.'s original plays have been produced at Joe's Pub, La Mama, Theater for the New City, Dixon Place, Metropolitan Playhouse, , The Brick Theater, and HERE Arts Center. As a stage actor he appeared in numerous productions with Untitled Theatre Company #61, including the 2006 American premiere of Vaclav Havel's "Guardian Ange"l, Edward Einhorn's 2010 adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," and the titular role in 2018's "The Resistible Rise of J.R. Brinkley." 
In 2014, Trav S.D. directed and produced the first-ever revival of the Marx Brothers' musical "I'll Say She Is", in the New York International Fringe Festival.