She Magazine APRIL 2016 | Page 81

Suffering from Hip Pain? Direct Anterior Hip Replacement: Is it right for you? Join Us for an Evening of Discussion April 19, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. I N MA RCH , DA WN RELEASED HER FIRST CD, The Vicious Hillbilly. “People have been asking me for a long time to record my songs. I just decided that it was time. It has been a wonderful journey.” As with the many songs that inspired her growing up, there’s a story behind each one. “I try to tell the stories when I play the songs out McLeod Medical Plaza 800 East Cheves Street Florence, SC A light dinner will be served. at gigs. What’s even more amazing is that people, especially women, seem to really connect with my songs. I just recently finished a draft of a one-woman show that I hope to use along with the CD. I was driving one day and talking into my phone, trying to figure out the order of the songs on the CD, so I could go back and listen to my thoughts. I realized that these ten tracks are really a chronicle of my pathetic, and sometimes hysterical, love life since moving to South Carolina. I decided that it might be entertaining to put the songs and stories together into a cohesive show. I’ve always seen performing, even social/political theatre, as a platform to observe what David Woodbury, MD McLeod Orthopaedics ‘might be.’ If you put something up on a stage, whether it is music or theatre, it gives the audience a different way to examine it and process it, than merely by reading it. For me, it’s a different way, but a safe way, to test if ideas have validity. I’m not actually doing it, I’m playing at doing it.” Currently, Dawn is working on another one-woman show. “I hope to use historical material, comedy from the Toby shows, and mountain music.” Although it’s in the early stages of development, rest assured it will not be anything short of spectacular. She is also enjoying the moments when she gets to play music with her son, Jacob, who also developed the family passion for music. “His dad is an excellent fiddler and banjo player. The fiddle is the only instrument on which I have never been able to David Woodbury, MD Specializes In: • Anterior Hip Replacement • Arthroscopy • Fracture Care play a song. I’m so glad he inherited this talent from his dad. His ear is astounding. • Shoulder, Hip & Knee Surgery It’s so much fun to play with him. It is an amazing sounding instrument with lots of • Sports Medicine stories in it.” No matter if she’s singing or acting, Dawn is content simply to be performing. “I define performance very broadly. I was trained to understand performance as including five elements: audience, performers, text, space, candy • Children’s Orthopaedics (sets, lights, costumes, sound, etc.). If you look at performance that way, then you • Hand & Upper Extremity Surgery can look at sports, church, and/or that argument you have with your sister every • Cartilage Restoration Procedures Christmas dinner as performance. It illustrates how life and art are inseparable. We all play different roles in our lives. Living and performance are the same thing[s]. I’m really interested in why humans behave in the ways that they do. I think theatre/ performance is the best medium to explore those questions.” For this artist, living a life without the ability to create is simply unimaginable. “If you love your job, it ceases to be a job. I think creating/performing is about joy. It’s about finding your joy and expressing it. I tell my students it’s called ‘play’ for a reason. When creation becomes non-joyful, it’s time to find something else that brings back that joy.” Dawn Larsen resi des in Florence, South Carolina, where she is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Francis Marion University. She is the mother of one son, Jacob Niceley. For more info, visit www.dawnlarsenmusic.com, Facebook.com/ViciousHillbillies and Twitter.com/ DawnLarsenMusic. Her latest CD can also be purchased on iTunes and CDbaby.com. In addition to her teaching and music careers, Dawn is the co-author of American Traveling Tent Theatre 1900-1940. Dawn will be playing at the Rockytown Throwdown music festival in Timmonsville, South Carolina, on May 7th. SHEMAGAZINE.COM Please call McLeod Reservations & Scheduling at 843-777-2005 to register. Space is limited. McLeod Orthopaedics 800 East Cheves Street, Suite 480, Florence, SC 29506 843-777-7900 Same day & next day appointments available. McLeod Health 54866-Dr. Woodbury Talk - She Mag.indd 1 APRIL 2016 3/7/16 81 3:14 PM