By Harold Flickinger, Jr. ’07

Opening night at the theatre is always a grand occasion. There’s the tying of ties and the zipping of dresses, always the pre-show dinner at a fancy restaurant, and usually the last-minute task of finding a babysitter for the little ones. Except on opening night at the Children’s Theatre in the Nashville Public Library. There the show is geared towards the sippy-cuppers and it’s the parents who are the tagalongs.

On November 3, the lights went down and the curtain went up for the opening of a mystical adaptation by Brian Hull ’84 of John Updike’s acclaimed children’s book, A Child’s Calendar. Updike, who was in the audience, and thrilled with the production, remarked to Brian, “When I heard you were going to make this book into a puppet show, I wondered how in the world you were going to do it. But you did. And it’s wonderful.”

In the studio, Brian (second from right) and the “Imagination Library” crew with Dolly Parton.

A few weeks earlier, the theatre wrapped on a festive and frightening adaptation of Sleepy Hollow for Halloween. The director took the stage as Brom Bones, and chased Ichabod Crane using shadow puppets to scare parents and children alike. At one point the Headless Horseman tore through a projector screen used for a backdrop. “The kids were absolutely horrified,” Brian said.

Whether it’s scaring the kids with shadow puppets, or entertaining them with colorful adaptations, Brian’s journey to become the resident artist at the Nashville library has been full of opportunities and success.

His creative ventures began after graduation when he moved to Nashville. There he joined the cast of “General Jackson’s Showboat,” one of the city’s famous attractions in Opryland. The “Showboat,” is a vintage riverboat that gives tourists a night of dining and entertainment on the Cumberland River. Brian performed songs, either solo or in a group, almost daily. From there, he became a main player for twelve years with the “Tennessee Repertory Theatre.”

Brian’s stage design for A Child’s Calendar is dominated by an enormous tree designed to lose its leaves as it cycles through each season.

In 1990, he created and developed a character called “Professor U.B. Sharp.” The one-man act consisted of singing, juggling, and lots of interaction with children from the audience. Brian noted, “This is where I developed my love for children’s entertainment.” Professor Sharp was so successful and such a crowd-favorite that Brian was commissioned to film a series of short videos staring as “The Professor.” The videos went on to win an Emmy award for Children’s Programming. According to Brian the award was a “big, big surprise. I didn’t expect it.”

Animation is another artistic passion that allows Brian to express his ideas in another medium involving a different creative process.

In Opryland’s final year of operation, Brian signed on with BMG Music to develop an animated project entitled Crawlspace. The story is about a group of insects who live in the crawlspace under a porch. They find adventure by forming a rock band and attempting to “make it.” Each character is the stereotype of their real life counterpart. For instance, a roach portrays the shady, money-grubbing manager, and each member of the band resembles a famous rock star in real life.

Brian found inspiration for the story from his wife’s work in the music business. Time and time again, he heard stories about musicians who devoted their lives to their music only to have their demos tossed in the trash after only a few seconds of listening by record exes. Crawlspace is Brian’s version of these stories.

While working on his animation, and several musical theatre projects, Brian applied for the resident artist position at the library. Within the same year, Opryland closed and Brian took the job. Since “Professor U.B. Sharp” was his own character, he was able to take him along and begin performing children’s shows. Now after his nine-year tenure as director, the theatre’s reputation has grown and is internationally recognized for its puppet shows, a tradition in children’s programming begun in 1938 by puppetry pioneer and Nashville native Tom Tichenor.

Standing still, but only for a moment, Brian relaxes outside the Nashville Public Library.

The theatre itself is newly renovated, and Brian was asked to help in the design with renowned architect, Robert Stern. The new house seats about 120, with an average of 6,000 to 8,000 kids attending shows every month.

Brian’s shows are designed for children, but there’s something for everyone. “These are not your typical sock puppets. Our puppetry is taken very seriously breaking the stereotypes of what most people presume. The goal is for children, but no one expects what they see.”

Brian’s theatre uses more than 500 different marionettes and hand puppets for their stories. He said the average amount of work time that goes into just one adaptation takes about eight months to produce, and plays for about two months, fifteen times a week.

For the Updike show, he used Bunraku puppets, a style of puppetry that originated in 17th century Japan with the puppeteers cloaked in black, maneuvering the characters from the stage. A different puppet appears as each month passes reciting a poem or song. Dominating the stage is an enormous tree designed to lose its leaves as it cycles through each season.

Other famous puppeteers in the industry have come to see Brian’s work. He’s received frequent visits from Phillip Huber, the man who designed the marionettes for the movie, Being John Malkovich. Speaking of Huber, Brian remarked that it is “outrageous that he comes.”

Along with welcoming guests like Huber and Updike to his theatre, Brian gets to travel overseas to promote his productions. Recently, he was in Magdeburg, Germany, Nashville’s sister-city. And in December he visited Caen, Nashville’s sister-city in France. Puppetry in Europe is very cutting-edge, and Brian benefits by experiencing what puppeteers are doing at the forefront of the art form.

Despite the time consuming nature of his library work and his animation, Brian manages to find time for more. He works as the director of the 50s stage show at Dollywood in nearby Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. He designs the shows, picks the vintage costumes, and works closely with Dolly Parton to maintain an exciting and nostalgic musical experience for audiences.

Brian also works directly with Parton and her “Imagination Library Project.” The country singer founded the project years ago in her hometown, and it’s steadily expanded to the national level. Each year, Parton sponsors a book for participating libraries with the idea of setting a specific time when kids across the country will sit down to read together.

In Nashville, Brian adapts these selections into puppet shows. Once the book is chosen, Brian writes the script and sends it off to Dolly for approval, and then she supplies the music. He described Parton as “a workhorse in the studio. It’s no wonder she is where she is in the business.” He’s currently working on adaptations of two possibilities for next year, Hank the Cowdog, by John Ericson, and The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson. This year Brian adapted The Little Engine that Could.

The creative juices never stop flowing for Brian. He has several other animated projects in the works including a 30-minute animated version of a Russian folktale titled “Maryna Morevna” due out soon. And he’s animating The Librarian from the Black Lagoon for Scholastic. He hopes to have the DVD, which is part of Scholastic’s popular book series by Michael Thaler and Jared Lee, ready for release in Feb 2007.

Brian owes much of his success and opportunities to the fact he has always worked in the arts. “I never waited a table,” he explained. “I’ve never had a job that didn’t deal directly with the arts.” As a theatre major and a music minor at Ship in the early 1980s, Brian was heavily influenced by his professors: Tom Colley, William Kingsley, Mark Rehr, and especially Blaine Shover. All were very accessible and always willing to listen to students’ ideas and encouraging them to write and perform.

It was through Dr. Shover’s choral groups that Brian met classmates Scott Riddlesberger, J.R. Hontz, and Richard Troxel. Together they formed a barbershop quartet called the “Forest Four,” aptly named after the group’s favorite practice space in Ship’s surrounding forest area. The quartet sang on campus and at local events, giving the four students the foundation and much-needed experience for careers in the performing arts.

Brian spoke fondly of his mentors. “They gave us the opportunities to write shows and try them out. They set me up to try things out, which led to me having the guts to say ‘here’s this thing I’m responsible for.’ It was the opportunity to fail at this and still be okay, something you can’t do in the real world.”

Now, as part of the “real world,” his puppet theatre is growing in recognition, and his work as an animator is in demand. “Ship was a lot of fun” and integral in supplanting his ideals of art and education.

“I’m always encouraging kids at the theatre to go to school. That is the time for fun, the time to discover.”

Clockwise: The set of A Child’s Calendar. Brian, without his shoes, is joined by the smiling author John Updike after the performance of his work. Updike and Brian listen to a review from a young audience member.