A Face In The Crowd
Is your kindergartner becoming a little teletubby? Brian Hull can provide some literary nourishment. He produces story times and children’s theater for the Nashville Public Library downtown. His popular Professor U. B. Sharp character charms the sandbox set with hat tricks, song routines, juggling and a supporting cast of assorted puppets on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. On weekends, the Professor removes his lab coat to perform marionette shows and other live theater—like the current Anansi the Spider production, an African folk tale he adapted. Last June, Brian’s shows earned him a Multicultural Diversity Award from the National Association of Counties, but he says the best rewards come from the kids. “They don’t care about the lighting or the arrangement or whether you hit that note,” he says. “They just want to see something good.” As a theater and music major at Shippensburg University back home in Pennsylvania, he never intended to work in children’s theater. But a cappella singing and roles with the Tennessee Rep didn’t fulfill him. “Kids are the most honest audience,” he says.
—By Jonathan Harwell Jr.
Is your kindergartner becoming a little teletubby? Brian Hull can provide some literary nourishment. He produces story times and children’s theater for the Nashville Public Library downtown. His popular Professor U. B. Sharp character charms the sandbox set with hat tricks, song routines, juggling and a supporting cast of assorted puppets on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. On weekends, the Professor removes his lab coat to perform marionette shows and other live theater—like the current Anansi the Spider production, an African folk tale he adapted. Last June, Brian’s shows earned him a Multicultural Diversity Award from the National Association of Counties, but he says the best rewards come from the kids. “They don’t care about the lighting or the arrangement or whether you hit that note,” he says. “They just want to see something good.” As a theater and music major at Shippensburg University back home in Pennsylvania, he never intended to work in children’s theater. But a cappella singing and roles with the Tennessee Rep didn’t fulfill him. “Kids are the most honest audience,” he says.
—By Jonathan Harwell Jr.
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