GRIDgevity by Travis Santell Rowland (Qween)

GRIDgevity was chosen as a title based on the significance of this location/site in Golden Gate Park as it links the National AIDS Memorial Grove with the Queer past, present and future, the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s to the present punk rock, cruising, drag, nightlife scenes. GRIDgevity is an exploration of identity with a seemingly infinite choice of pathways to navigate a direction forward as we traverse through our lives.

The audience is invited into the fold of the National AIDS Memorial Grove park site circumference with the ushering of a gentle build of complimentary sounds based off their current surrounding like footsteps, bending tree branches, clattering leaves, wind breathing by their ears, soft conversations in the distance and the buzz of nearby cars driving by in succession. As they are welcomed into the entrance of the trail they begin to feel a sense of stalking and swarming along the parameter’s edge of the memorial site. A slow build in sound volume and intensity increases as the audience makes their way walking along the trail as they peek down into the center of the park memorial site with a curious sense of wonder and intrigue through the chiaroscuro light beams dovetailing through the nature formed trees trunks, moss drippings and floral blooms to the heart of what they are about to embark into below. This flirtation of walking along the outskirts of the memorial site while listening to the sounds of nature and humankind, and peering into the seemingly forbidden center compliments a feeling of anticipation as the audience is guided around the entire 360 degree circumference before being permitted to enter into the heart of the memorial site. All the while, the sound score begins to incorporate such things as, but not bound or confined to, iconic LGBTQ voices both sung and spoken, protesters, activists, preachers, politicians, disco and dance music, words of writers and poets etc. spliced into the sonic fold in creatively distorted ways.

Travis Santell Rowland (Qween) is an interdisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, and arts educator who holds B.A. degrees in both Drama (Popular Theatre) and Dance (Performance & Choreography) from San Francisco State University. Rowland has performed at Curran as Dandy Minion in both Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce (2018) and A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2017), San Francisco Opera as Soldier in Tosca (2018) and as Orazio Coclite in Andrea Chénier (2016), Shotgun Players as Ensemble in Iron Shoes (2018), San Francisco Playhouse as Player #6 in Colossal (2016), California Shakespeare Theater as Sprite in The Tempest (2012) and Faerie in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014), Magic Theatre as Mary Subprime Love in Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge (2011). Rowland was Choreographer at Magic Theatre for Dogeaters (2016), Central Works Theater for The Red Virgin (2013) and Ada and the Memory Engine (2015), San Francisco Conservatory of Music for Admeto (2013), A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory for Every 17 Minutes the Crowd Goes Crazy (2013) – Co-Collaborating Choreographer at Shotgun Players for Iron Shoes (2018), California Shakespeare Theater for The Tempest (2012), Intersection for the Arts for Sitting In a Circle (2011), Magic Theatre in Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge (2011) – Co-Collaborating Movement Director for California Shakespeare Theater for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014). Rowland was also invited by Johnathan Moscone to be a presenting drag artist and floor host for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ 25thAnniversary Gala in 2019.

GRIDgevity by Travis Santell Rowland (Qween)

GRIDgevity was chosen as a title based on the significance of this location/site in Golden Gate Park as it links the National AIDS Memorial Grove with the Queer past, present and future, the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s to the present punk rock, cruising, drag, nightlife scenes. GRIDgevity is an exploration of identity with a seemingly infinite choice of pathways to navigate a direction forward as we traverse through our lives.

The audience is invited into the fold of the National AIDS Memorial Grove park site circumference with the ushering of a gentle build of complimentary sounds based off their current surrounding like footsteps, bending tree branches, clattering leaves, wind breathing by their ears, soft conversations in the distance and the buzz of nearby cars driving by in succession. As they are welcomed into the entrance of the trail they begin to feel a sense of stalking and swarming along the parameter’s edge of the memorial site. A slow build in sound volume and intensity increases as the audience makes their way walking along the trail as they peek down into the center of the park memorial site with a curious sense of wonder and intrigue through the chiaroscuro light beams dovetailing through the nature formed trees trunks, moss drippings and floral blooms to the heart of what they are about to embark into below. This flirtation of walking along the outskirts of the memorial site while listening to the sounds of nature and humankind, and peering into the seemingly forbidden center compliments a feeling of anticipation as the audience is guided around the entire 360 degree circumference before being permitted to enter into the heart of the memorial site. All the while, the sound score begins to incorporate such things as, but not bound or confined to, iconic LGBTQ voices both sung and spoken, protesters, activists, preachers, politicians, disco and dance music, words of writers and poets etc. spliced into the sonic fold in creatively distorted ways.

Travis Santell Rowland (Qween) is an interdisciplinary performing artist, choreographer, and arts educator who holds B.A. degrees in both Drama (Popular Theatre) and Dance (Performance & Choreography) from San Francisco State University. Rowland has performed at Curran as Dandy Minion in both Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce (2018) and A 24-Decade History of Popular Music (2017), San Francisco Opera as Soldier in Tosca (2018) and as Orazio Coclite in Andrea Chénier (2016), Shotgun Players as Ensemble in Iron Shoes (2018), San Francisco Playhouse as Player #6 in Colossal (2016), California Shakespeare Theater as Sprite in The Tempest (2012) and Faerie in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014), Magic Theatre as Mary Subprime Love in Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge (2011). Rowland was Choreographer at Magic Theatre for Dogeaters (2016), Central Works Theater for The Red Virgin (2013) and Ada and the Memory Engine (2015), San Francisco Conservatory of Music for Admeto (2013), A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory for Every 17 Minutes the Crowd Goes Crazy (2013) – Co-Collaborating Choreographer at Shotgun Players for Iron Shoes (2018), California Shakespeare Theater for The Tempest (2012), Intersection for the Arts for Sitting In a Circle (2011), Magic Theatre in Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge (2011) – Co-Collaborating Movement Director for California Shakespeare Theater for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014). Rowland was also invited by Johnathan Moscone to be a presenting drag artist and floor host for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ 25thAnniversary Gala in 2019.