Fools for Love

For Valentine’s Day, I took my mother and mother-in-law to see Dolores Hydock at the Willow Theatre.  Hydock gave us a host of fascinating imagery of the reign of George IV and his lavish parties and secret life with Maria Fitzherbert.  Hydock shared her “Fools for Love” story and insight into the art of Georgian miniatures, paintings of eyes, mouths, and “other” parts. I found Hydock’s story structure and organization very compelling and was able to see the similarities with Lebov and Waletzy story structure.  As Hydock entered the theatre she was chanting (or calling out) 1700s British “cheapside” phrases to grab the attention of the audience pulling them into creating the atmosphere for her story.  Lebov and Waletzy might consider this Hydock’s abstract leading to her orientation.  As she stepped onto the stage, she immediately began tying her abstract into her first set of characters, the Cockney or British “cheapside” people with George IV, and how one day per year the peasants were allowed into George IV’s home.  Hydock weaved story after story, each following the four traditional components in a story: orientation, conflicting action, evaluation and resolution, some had abstracts and codas and others did not.  Overall, it was a fascinating and informative evening that every aspiring storyteller should attend.  Hydock is a true artist that I felt honored to have heard and look forward to writing a Rhet Crit review on her show.

Later in the week, in my Rhet Crit class we spoke about visual rhetoric. The Lover’s Eye miniatures remind me of the purpose an image.  The miniatures portray the gaze of the lover, The rhetorical purpose of the gaze in the 1700s (and today) helps us remember people important to us, and anything intimate in nature, making the making the holder of the keepsake an exclusive beholder and in return create a reciprocal gaze from far.  It would be an interesting research project to look at the visual rhetoric of the Georgian miniatures.  It was fascinating and out of the ordinary how Hydock’s story tied into teaching/learning about  storytelling and visual rhetoric.

Make It A Great Day!

Cynde