“Women, especially older women, are treated as if we are invisible. Ironic because at this age, I am finally accruing enough wisdom and life experience to write in a more meaningful way.”
Responder: Dawn Larsen, just me…
Name of Company: Dawn Larsen Music
Name of Show: Granny’s FixIt: An Ozarks Guide to Healing the Body and Soul
- Why should people see your show?
I wrote this show mainly to bring awareness of how women have always taken care of other women and have always been covert pillars of their communities. We have all known women like this. Now that I’m crone-aged-ish, we all know, or we should, that women’s stories have often been excluded from history. Women, especially older women, are treated as if we are invisible. Ironic because at this age, I am finally accruing enough wisdom and life experience to write in a more meaningful way. Sooo…I think crones have something to say….I do anyway, and this show celebrates the crone, the granny woman and brings her out of the holler and into the light! As well, I’m old enough to have known one of these women when I was a child. I have always been fascinated by them and fancied myself growing into one. Featuring original and historic, music, spoken word, comedy, and images, let this show help heal what ails you!
- What about festivals intrigues you? Any why the Atlanta Fringe?
Fringe festivals give audiences opportunities to see work and artists that they would not ordinarily encounter AND festivals provide performers receptive audiences for shows that are on the fringe. Personally, it’s all about the people… At almost all festivals I’ve attended, certainly Atlanta Fringe, audiences are receptive and open; staff is encouraging and friendly; and the community of fringe is THE most welcoming, helpful, fun people I have had to pleasure to meet and now call my friends. I’ve been performing in the music and theatre industries for a long time. There is always a degree of competition/rivalry. I don’t find that so much with fringe. Instead, it is a group of people whose motive seems to be to experience and encourage art. I am so glad I found this community, even if it happened later in my career. I met Madeline O’Malley at the 2019 Atlanta Fringe, which got me into her zoom women writers’ (from all over and all types of writers) group, which then motivated me to polish this show. In fact, they are the reason it is multi-media. They said the audience needed to see what I was describing. They were right!
On the more mundane side…I use fringe to workshop new material. With live performance, you have to get your work in front of people, not just edit on the page. Fringe is a great place to do that, especially because you can then talk to and get constructive information to help make your piece better. Atlanta’s preview night and judging are very helpful. Preview, so that I get to see what is being done and the written comments are incredibly helpful.
- What inspired you to create this?
See the first answer. I have always been fascinated by these women, as well as a women’s advocate. Since I was small, I have been fairly prescient and intuitive, and I’ve always been interested in the natural world (thanks Grandpa). When I started really researching these women, I knew they were plant medicine practitioners, midwives, and seers; but I didn’t know how much they took care of their communities, especially women who had been shunned/cast out because of pregnancies not in line with white, mountain, Protestantism. They took them and taught them how to care for themselves. My favorite line in my show, which is a direct quote from granny woman Ella Ingenthron Dunn, “the sins committed in the name of morality are appalling!”
- This year ain’t normal and there’s no sense pretending it is. How has Covid affected what you’re doing for this festival?
The original incarnation of this show had granny interacting more intimately with audiences and even giving presents. I have had to distance myself more than I would like to, for my safety and theirs. That’s so weird, as I mentioned above, I love that fringe provides an intimate space to foster meaningful connections between audience and performers.
- What have you learned from working on your show so far?
You know how in the midst of rehearsal/editing/workshopping there is a point where you think, “I don’t even know if this is any good or if anyone would want to see it”? Here is my favorite story, and what proved that I needed to get out there and perform this show. I just workshopped a very early incarnation at my university in the midst of the pandemic with a small audience in a giant space. There was very little audible reaction. I walked out feeling like I just didn’t know if it was worth it for anyone but me. As I walked down the hall toward the door, two middle aged African American women, who I knew because they worked on the janitorial staff for the theatre building, stopped me to tell me that they “sneaked in.” They told me they loved the show and thought I was so talented. I thanked them. The younger woman said, “You told the story of all women, yes you did…” And there you have it! If these southern, coastal, African-American women connect with a white mountain Ozark (southern Midwest) story, then yes, it’s worth it.
- There’s a mysterious stranger in the back row of your show, wearing a big ol’ N95 mask and a baseball cap and there’s something weirdly familiar about them, and then they come up afterwards to tell you they loved your show. In your WILDEST DREAMS, who is this mysterious stranger? (Bonus points if your mysterious stranger is an Atlanta celeb.)
It would be Stacey Abrams. I would hug her and donate more money to her.
[Above: Stacey Abrahms arriving at the Atlanta Fringe Festival.]
- Fringes are the place to really push the boundaries so we gotta ask: are you inviting your family to this show are “Hey, maybe sit this one out you guys…”
My youngest sister and nieces have never been to Atlanta, so this is a great opportunity to see the city and my new show. Our middle sister recently passed from a very long battle with cancer. My whole family lives in the Ozarks and we have always been very women-centered, so I’m excited that those women can come see a show about women from their homeland. My middle sister would have loved it.
- We’ve asked this question every year for the past ten years or so but it hits different this year: Will your show change the world?
If it helps one woman to understand that she and her story are “worth it,” it has changed the world.
- Zoom meetings: dress up head to toe or Donald Duck it?
I have a cat who demands to be part of zoom meetings… My heart is pants-free, but my skin must be protected from claws.
- We’re making an excellent Fringey Feelings playlist. Describe your show in two or three songs we can add to keep the jams flowing.
Well the first two are mine and the third is a traditional. You can find them in Granny’s FixIt, on my CD Hillbillyland, on Spotify, and on YouTube:
Go Where It’s Green:
Old Love Songs:
Pretty Saro:
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