{"id":9705,"date":"2013-10-07T12:07:57","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T17:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=9705"},"modified":"2013-10-17T01:30:58","modified_gmt":"2013-10-17T06:30:58","slug":"ole-miss-theatre-presents-a-mind-full-of-dopamine-written-and-performed-by-rory-ledbetter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ole-miss-theatre-presents-a-mind-full-of-dopamine-written-and-performed-by-rory-ledbetter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss Theatre presents: A Mind Full of Dopamine – Written and Performed by Rory Ledbetter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MindFullOfDopamine_1010-1011\"<\/a>October 10 and 11 at 7:30pm <\/span><\/h3>\n

Meek Auditorium at Ole Miss<\/span>
\nSuggested Donation: $5.00<\/span><\/p>\n

All proceeds go towards funding Theatre Arts Scholarships<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA Mind Full of Dopamine\u201d is a comedic solo-show delving through the depths of a mind powered by dopamine. Using storytelling, characters, philosophy and snippets of Shakespeare, Rory takes us down a roller coaster filled with high risks and sometimes big rewards. It\u2019s a hero\u2019s journey laced with riots, romance and harmonicas. And at least one lucky viewer gets a prize!<\/span><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Interview by Nature Humphries:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Is this the first solo show that you\u2019ve written and performed?<\/span><\/strong> Yes. You could say I\u2019ve been working all my life to create this one. I\u2019ve created small portions before (20 minutes at most), but never a full 60 minute show until now. This has been a great experience and there will be more solo shows to come in the future. <\/span><\/p>\n

What is the most challenging aspect of performing solo as opposed to with a cast and crew?<\/span><\/strong> The hardest thing is finding the stamina for a full 60 minutes and realizing that you\u2019re performing without a safety net. Usually acting about listening to your scene partner and then responding. in a solo show you\u2019re just listening to yourself and the audience, who isn\u2019t saying much at all, and responding. <\/span><\/p>\n

What was your inspiration for writing A Mind Full of Dopamine<\/em>?<\/span><\/strong> The original impetus came from a series of childhood and family stories that I was putting together. However, I had to come up with a title before I had finished writing it. I had taken an online personality quiz on Chemistry.com some years ago that proceeded to tell me that I had a high concentration of dopamine in my system. It seemed silly, but after reading the description of the dopamine-thrill seeking mentality I thought, \u201cWhoa, this is me!\u201d Using A Mind Full of Dopamine as a descriptor for myself I began researching dopamine and how its presence influences behavior. The more and more researched dopamine, the more and more I realized that I indeed have a mind full of dopamine, and the rest of the stories used in the show unfolded from there. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/a>We see this play described as a \u201ctragicomic thrill ride\u201d\u2026more comedy or tragedy?<\/strong><\/span> A little more comedy than tragedy, but definitely some tragedy. The show ends on a positive note, but it definitely takes a turn towards the dark side of town along the way. <\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us a little bit about the Theatre Arts Scholarships program.<\/span><\/strong> Every year the Theatre Arts Department offers up to 25 Theatre Merit Scholarships based on auditions and portfolio reviews. The scholarships are very competitive and act as a recruiting tool and a means to provide financial assistance to talented theatre majors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"linesimple\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Get to Know Your Local Folks:<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Name:<\/span><\/strong> Rory Ledbetter<\/span>
\nHometown:<\/strong><\/span> Atlanta, Georgia<\/span>
\nHow long have you been in Oxford?<\/strong><\/span> Five years<\/span>
\nFavorite playwright and play:<\/strong><\/span> Alan Ayckbourn, The Norman Conquests<\/em><\/span>
\nFavorite actor:<\/strong><\/span> Tom Hanks<\/span>
\nFavorite movies:<\/strong><\/span> O Brother, Big Fish, Galaxy Quest<\/em><\/span>
\nWhat are you reading?<\/strong><\/span> Voice and Speech Training in the New Millennium:\u00a0 Conversations with Master Teachers<\/em> by Nancy Saklad<\/span>
\nWhat\u2019s on your iPod?<\/strong><\/span> Cake<\/span>
\nWhere is your favorite place to eat in Oxford?<\/strong><\/span> Rice & Spice<\/span>
\nAndroid or iPhone?<\/strong><\/span> iPhone!<\/span>
\nWhat are you looking forward to most this fall?<\/strong><\/span> My Birthday<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 10 and 11 at 7:30pm Meek Auditorium at Ole Miss Suggested Donation: $5.00 All proceeds go towards<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":9712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,127],"tags":[2157,2212,2211,2160,2156,2210,1597,2159,2213],"class_list":["post-9705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-people","category-theatre","tag-auditorium","tag-dopamine","tag-full","tag-ledbetter","tag-meek","tag-mind","tag-of","tag-rory","tag-solo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/MindFullOfDopamine_1010-1011_feat.jpg?fit=1000%2C421&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}