Hydock Does Battle with Medieval Text for 'Silence'
-- Mary Colurso, music and arts columnist, The Birmingham News

Ladybugs on the crown molding of Dolores Hydock's house in Irondale have heard the story of "Silence" many times. The pomegranate tree near her patio and the muscadine vines in the back yard have heard it, too.

Hydock, a writer, storyteller and actress, has been developing her new performance piece for about two years, adapting a little-known tale from the 13th century into a 90-minute evening of theater. "I'd write some, tell some. Write some, tell some," she says.

Audiences who watch her slip into the character of a grumpy crone, the plain-spoken and opinionated narrator, will very likely be caught up in the adventures of Silence, a brave and beautiful girl pretending to be a boy so she can one day claim her inheritance.

They'll hear of battling knights and jealous minstrels, lustful queens and elusive wizards. If all goes well, Hydock says, modernity will melt away as she relocates her listeners to a drafty castle in England, building the medieval world brick by brick, word by word. In that task, she'll be aided by PanHarmonium, a trio of players from Birmingham that specializes in recreating ancient music.

"The music adds so much to creating a context for the story, a setting for the story," Hydock says. "You hear the harp and recorder on the opening song, and those two minutes of music slowly begin to edge you back, century by century." But what seems nearly effortless on stage - the recitation of a lively and absorbing story, supported by period songs and instrumentals - actually has required much effort.

Those spotted red beetles on the walls of Hydock's place know, because they've watched her reading, editing and working at the computer. Also, while planting, pruning and otherwise tending the garden she loves, Hydock has shaped "Silence" by telling it to herself, out loud, over and over.

If the neighbors think she's crazy, talking animatedly into the air while wearing a wide-brimmed sun hat, Hydock doesn't mind. Art requires a few sacrifices, and she's willing to make them.

Hence, all those hours Hydock has spent pondering ways to turn a thick text - an academic translation of French poetry, no less - into something lighter, tighter, brighter and more theatrical. With the help of Gilbert Ritchie, Susan Marchant and David Cantrell of PanHarmonium, she believes she has succeeded.

But when Hydock discusses the evolution of "Silence," her sentences contain phrases like "struggling hard" and "sweating bullets." She is grateful, she says, for a fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts that allowed her to devote time to the project, and add "Silence" to other performance pieces in her repertoire. Professionally speaking, Hydock can mix, match and tell about 65 stories - and does so frequently at theaters, colleges, businesses, libraries, churches and community gatherings.

Typically, her tales are grouped into thematic programs with titles such as "Holidazed! A Story Tour of the Holiday Calendar," "Made From Scratch and Other Accidental Stories," "Momorabilia: Stories About Mothers" and "No, Really, My Dog Ate It: Stories for Teachers and Students of Life."

Hydock has recorded several of these stories on four spoken-word CDs she sells at shows and bookstores, as well as through her web site at www.storypower.org. She'll sign copies of "Silence," her latest disc, and present an excerpt from it, from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at The Alabama Booksmith in Homewood. Of necessity, that performance will be short, clocking in around 10 minutes. But even a full, in-concert telling of "Silence" zips along for her, Hydock says, despite the program's official length of 63:22, plus intermission. "It goes by in a minute," she says, "particularly if the audience is into it."

During a recent appearance at the UAB Honors House, for example, Hydock was delighted to hear a woman in the front row gasping at every twist and turn of "Silence." The building pleased her almost as much: a beautiful old church equipped with spotlights that cast giant shadows of Hydock in costume as the crone.

The crotchety character's attire includes a stout wooden staff with a ring of colored stones and a claw at the top, clutching a mysterious off-white globe. It's her story stick, Hydock says, designed for leaning, pointing and poking into other people's business.

"The woman who tells this story is so much fun to be," she says. "I imagine her as a person in the background, who sees all but isn't allowed an official voice at court. You might think: How does she know all this? Maybe she hung out in the kitchen in the palace."

Hydock and PanHarmonium have inserted themselves into a courtly setting before, teaming for adaptations of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "The Juggler of Notre Dame."

Teenagers - "Lord of the Rings" fans, no doubt - have been surprisingly enthusiastic about these stories, and some adults have no qualms about being transported into a realm of kings and queens, dragons and peasants. Hydock realizes she may never convince other folks to accept the idea that 600-year-old literature can sound fresh, exciting or relevant, but she's determined to give it a try.

"They get worried," she says, "thinking, 'I have to be good. I have to sit still and be quiet.' But there was danger and violence and sex in the medieval world. Life was severe. And these were very earthy people. They had to populate the 14th century somehow."

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dramatically different stories and shows

DOLORES HYDOCK

OCTOBER 2020

Thursday, October 29: Every Picture Tells a Story: The Storytelling of Norman Rockwell. 10:30 - 11:30 - 3 a.m. First Baptist Church of Trussville, 128 North Chalkville Road, Trussville, AL. Free. All are welcome to attend. (The event will be held in the church sanctuary, where there is plenty of room to spread out and social distance. Face coverings are required.)

Norman Rockwell didn't just paint pictures; every picture told a story. In this presentation, storyteller Dolores Hydock shares surprising stories from Rockwell's life and career, and gives a behind-the-scenes look at how Rockwell created his one-image stories. Using slide images of his sketches, models, paintings-in-process, and finished work, this program follows the step-by-step creative process Rockwell used in becoming “America’s painter” – and storyteller on canvas.

NOVEMBER 2020

Thursday, November 5: Castles and Cathedrals. 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., Fayette Music Club, Fayette, AL. Event held at Fellowship Hall of the First Baptist Church of Fayette, 432 Temple Avenue North, Fayette, AL. Free. Sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation and the Fayette Music Club. (The event will be held in the church fellowship hall, where there is plenty of room to spread out and social distance. Face coverings are required.)

Vernon and Irene Castle were ballroom dancers of the Vaudeville era. In thefirst part of the 20th century, they revolutionized the idea ofsocial dancing by making it respectable for partners to dance – in public – to ragtime music. Their story has unexpected detours into theshadows of ragtime, the glittery world of fame and fortune, and thebattlefields of World War I. But the real hero of this intriguing tale is thepublic library system whose resources make their story come to life.

DECEMBER 2020 (tentative)

Saturday, December 5: The Unexpected Christmas. 10 a.m. - noon, holiday brunch sponsored by the Sheffield Public Library. Clarion Inn, 4900 Hatch Blvd., Sheffield, AL. Brunch at 10 a.m., with stories to follow. Tickets available starting in November. For more info, call the library at 256-386-5633.

2020 has been a year when perfect plans got turned upside-down. Why should Christmas be any different? Storyteller Dolores Hydock brings two stories of plans for "perfect" Christmases that turned out to be ... well, different than expected.

Tuesday, December 8: The Unexpected Christmas. 2 - 3 p.m., Anniston Public Library, 108 East 10th Street, Anniston, AL. Free. The event is in the library's auditorium, where there is rooms to spread out and social distance. For more info, call the library at 256-237-8501.

2020 has been a year when perfect plans got turned upside-down. Why should Christmas be any different? Storyteller Dolores Hydock brings two stories of plans for "perfect" Christmases that turned out to be ... well, different than expected.

Wednesday, December 9: It's Not the Food, It's the Fellowship. Alabama Homemakers Christmas Gathering. Private event.

Tuesday, December 15: Stubby Pringle's Christmas, with the music of Bobby Horton. Part of an "old-time Christmas" at the We Piddle Around Theatre, Brundidge, AL. More info coming soon!

2020 has been a year of perfect plans turned upside-down. So let's finish it off with a funny, charming story about a cowboy whose perfect plan for a foot-stompin' good time on Christmas Eve gets derailed by an unexpected detour.

Thursday, December 17: Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory and It's Not the Food, It's the Fellowship. Virtual storytelling performance of two Christmas stories, part of the Storytelling Online series of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Tickets are $12; the online session is available for viewing by ticket holders from December 17th through December 20th. For tickets, visit www.storytellingcenter.net/storytelling-online

Writer Truman Capote spent part of his childhood in Monroeville, Alabama, living with some elderly cousins. One of those cousins, Miss Sook Faulk, became, as he said, "his first friend." A joyful Christmas from that simpler time and the enduring friendship of a 7-year-old child and his 60-something cousin became the subject of Capote’s beloved story A Christmas Memory. In this special presentation, Capote’s holiday classic is brought to vivid life by storyteller Dolores Hydock.

In the story, Miss Sook’s annual exclamation – It’s fruitcake weather! – sets in motion a ritual of holiday baking that was an essential part of that long-ago Alabama Christmas. Holiday baking steams up another, more modern Alabama kitchen in It’s Not the Food, It’s the Fellowship, the story that begins this two-part, hour-long program.

Both stories will remind you that other people’s relatives and rituals are crazy, too. But most of all, they’ll help you celebrate that spirit of comfort, joy, and connection that makes this such a memorable time of year.

Thursday, December 17: Christmas stories. Private event.

Sunday, December 20: Christmas stories. 10 - 10:45 a.m., Independent Presbyterian Church Highland Hall. Free.

JANUARY 2021 (tentative)

Sunday, January 31: Soup and Stories for the Soul. 12:15 - 2 p.m. Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church. Lunch and story program benefitting the church food pantry. Ticket info TBA.

FEBRUARY 2021 (tentative)

Tuesday, February 9: Valentine stories. Metro Dinner Club, Birmingham, AL.

Saturday, February 20: DKG State Conference, Huntsville, AL.

MARCH 2021 (tentative)

Friday - Saturday, March 19 - 20: Do Tell! Storytelling Festival, Madison, GA.

APRIL 2021

Friday - Saturday, April 16 - 17: Sounds of the Mountains Storytelling Festival, Bethel, VA.

MAY 2021

Friday - Saturday, May 20 - 21: Shoals Storytelling Festival, Florence, AL.

JUNE 2021

Tuesday, June 8: Private event, Birmingham, AL.

Thursday, June 10: Soldiers in Hoop Skirts. Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table, Huntsville, AL.

JULY 2021

AUGUST 2021

SEPTEMBER 2021

OCTOBER 2021

Friday - Sunday, October 1 - 3: National Storytelling Festival, Jonesborough, TN. Ticket info TBA.

NOVEMBER 2021

DECEMBER 2021

With Dolores Hydock on stage, `Search' turns up excellent show
5 out of 5 stars -- review by Mary Colurso, staff writer and arts reviewer, The Birmingham News

If you see "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" at Terrific New Theater, you just might forget that Dolores Hydock is the only person on stage.

What higher compliment can be paid to an actress who takes on Jane Wagner's mercurial one-woman show?

Oh, we might say that she's better than Lily Tomlin, who originated the role on Broadway.

But that would be rather silly praise. Lily is Lily. Dolores is Dolores. Each brings her own style and sensibility to the script, interpreting the words in subtle and personal ways.

Better to say that Dolores Hydock handles this complex material so well, audience members aren't compelled to wonder how Lily Tomlin did it. Nor do they long for an ensemble when a single player has the power to transform herself into at least 13 characters.

Hydock never misses a beat as she introduces Trudy, a New York bag lady who's wise in her insanity. Shock therapy has convinced Trudy that she can communicate with space aliens who are studying our planet and its inhabitants, trying to decipher the meaning of life.

A discarded umbrella hat becomes Trudy's psycho transmitter, allowing her to leap from sketch to sketch, character to character. Hydock grabs onto Wagner's premise with comic grace, changing with quicksilver fluidity.

Furious teenager from a broken home. Haughty rich witch who's bored by privilege. Motor-mouthed secretary at an aerobics class. Elderly couple, squabbling in front of the TV set.

Hydock brings these people - and more - to life in an elemental way, using only her voice and body movements. Costumes or props? She doesn't need 'em.

All that's required is effective lighting, a bench, a few sound cues and a savvy director (TNT founder Carl Stewart).

Don't imagine for a second that "The Search for Signs" is a disconnected affair; Wagner's script is marvelously funny, thoughtful and well-constructed. The playwright forges links between characters that are revealed slowly throughout the plot, bringing the chain full circle at the end.

Applaud Wagner as you cheer for Hydock, then, because each woman is equally important to this splendid evening of theater.

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