Happy New Year From Antic in a Drain!

After four months of travel which included touring The Greatest Monkey Show On Earth to two fringe festivals in Edmonton and Vancouver, Canada and traveling with the love of my life to Colorado, Thailand and Washington, DC, I am finally settling back into San Francisco and getting a chance to breath (kind of). I’m feeling blessed and fulfilled by all the experiences I had the good fortune to have this year and look forward to building upon this momentum for 2015.

One of my goals for 2015 is to keep a regular blog. I will be writing posts about my 2014 tour experiences, my travels in Thailand, my current projects and travels, my thoughts on art and world events and whatever the heck else inspires me to write something.

Here’s some of the special happenings that defined 2014 for me:

  •  After 4 years of training Chinese pole with Master Lu Yi I built a solo Chinese pole act.
  • I auditioned for Circus Bella (a company I’ve long wanted to work with) and got into the company!
  • I performed my pole act at over 11 different parks and festivals in the Bay Area with Circus Bella
  • I met the love of my life Amelia Van Brunt. She’s the bees knees. Our first date was a Prince Tribute Circus Show. It was Scandalous.
  • I wrote two grants and didn’t get either of them.
  • I started my own performance company called Antic in a Drain and got fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas. Join the Antic Movement Here!
  • I built a new website for myself and my company at www.rosstravis.com
  • With lots of help and feedback from my incredible web of supportive friends I wrote, acted, directed, designed, built and produced my first one person show with Antic in a Drain called The Greatest Monkey Show On Earth.
  • I successfully fundraised $2,600 to help produce and create the Monkey Show.
  • I toured the Monkey Show to the Edmonton and Vancouver Fringe Festivals where I got a four star rating from Todd James of the Global News and I won the inaugural Artistic Risk Award which made my year to be honored in this way.
  • In Vancouver I got scouted by a Cirque Du Soleil talent scout who came to my show and asked me to audition for them. I was one of two performers who made it all the way to the final cut and into Cirque’s database. That felt affirming.
  • I traveled to Colorado, Thailand and Washington, DC with my lover Amelia to spend time with family and travel. We had a freaking blast. In the Pei Pei Islands we both got so ill we spent the night in the hospital and I crapped my pants and threw up simultaneously in front of her. In the morning she said she still loved me so I think the deal is sealed.
  • I whipped my self back into shape in two weeks after having not trained for a month and a half (a painful and humbling experience) and performed my pole act in Mittens and Mistletoe with Sweet Can Circus Productions (another company I’ve admired and long dreamed of working with.)
  • I worked three part time jobs. One as an outdoors educator/fake sailor at Maritime National Park, one as a standardized patient at Stanford School of Medicine and one as a motion capture performer with Mixamo and Phasespace.

In 2015 I will continue to tour and develop the Monkey Show. I am also excited to be joining forces again with Firefly Theatre and Circus in Edmonton, Canada this year. I had an incredible time working with Firefly in 2013 on their production of Craniatrium. For two weeks in March I will go to Edmonton to collaborate in the development of a new piece which is slated to premiere in 2016.  This year I’m also thrilled to help my girlfriend who is creating her own solo show and company. Her company name is Bad Bad Bunny and I’m excited to see what she comes up with. I am also writing grants and beginning work on some new ideas. One is a web series about an antic living in a drain. The other is a satire about dwindling natural resources and what happens when nature strikes back at the superior species. But more on that stuff later.

Thanks for reading! And Happy New Year!

 Ross Travis