About Us
Biography
Puppetry, Animation and illustration
Kaytek the wizard in the us
Emmy Award-winner Brian Hull is renowned for bringing compelling original ideas with arresting visual style to fruition. With over 40 years’ experience in entertainment, Brian Hull is known for implementing high standards of quality and creativity into literally hundreds of successful productions. Brian also has international experience
Emmy Award-winner Brian Hull is renowned for bringing compelling original ideas with arresting visual style to fruition. With over 40 years’ experience in entertainment, Brian Hull is known for implementing high standards of quality and creativity into literally hundreds of successful productions. Brian also has international experience and has visited and been inspired by the puppet markets of Europe. During the early 1990’s he developed and was Professor U.B. Sharp of the “Professor’s Backyard” for Opryland USA in Nashville, TN. In 2019 he appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Present in Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol at the Boston Emerson Colonial Theater as well as in God, Help Us!, co-starring Ed Asner, at the Franklin Theater in Franklin, TN.
Brian retired as head of Wishing Chair Productions Puppet Theater at the Nashville Public Library for 25 years where he was also the Artistic Director of their International Puppet Festivals - and was a former board member and President of PUPPETEERS OF AMERICA - http://www.puppeteers.org/
Brian has worked in the theme park industry for three decades. For Dollywood Theme Park: the writing, directing and development for The Imagination Playhouse with numerous original mini-musicals and shows - adapted from books and associated with Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.
Mary Tanner’s 40 year acting and puppeteering career includes 100+ professional roles on the stage and in film and television with companies in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Nashville. For the first 10 years of her career she landed regular roles in two national series for PBS and CBS as well as numerous roles across the‘80s film and television landscape. Home called in the early 1990’s and she returned to her native Nashville to be close to family and to create art in a more meaningful way. Participating in a great deal of local theater as well as writing and producing various productions she eventually made her way to Wishing Chair Productions in 2004 to begin a new chapter of creativity with puppets! She was awarded the Individual Artist Fellowship Grant for acting from the Tennessee Arts Commission in 2005 and has continued to participate in Nashville theater, film and voice over work while maintaining full time puppeteering with Wishing Chair Productions and Brianimations. As a result of fifteen years of creating puppet theater with Brian Hull she is now a puppeteer, puppet builder, writer, producer, lyricist, and as always an actor! In 2019, she was seen in Dolly Parton’s Smokey Mountain Christmas Carol as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Mrs.Dilber at the beautiful Emerson Colonial Theater in Boston, MA. Closer to home she could be seen in God, Help Us!, co-starring Ed Asner, at the Franklin Theater in Franklin, TN and Pipeline as Laurie at Nashville Repertory Theater. Favorite puppet projects include Kaytek, the Wizard and WCP’s Cinderella. In theater, playing Anne of Green Gables at the Nashville Children’s Theater was a highlight as well as The Beauty Queen of Leenane at Tennessee Repertory Theater.
Kaytek the wizard in the us
Puppetry, Animation and illustration
Kaytek the wizard in the us
PUPPETEERS OF AMERICA NATIONAL CONVENTION
2019 - MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
HUDSON OPERA HOUSE, HUDSON, NEW YORK
2017 INTERNATIONAL KORZAK CONFERENCE - SEATTLE
SANTA BARBARA PUPPETPALOOZA FESTIVAL
NASHVILLE INTERNATIONAL PUPPET FESTIVAL
GRACIE THEATER - BANGOR, MAINE
TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
WEST LIBERTY CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL, IOWA
VIO
PUPPETEERS OF AMERICA NATIONAL CONVENTION
2019 - MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
HUDSON OPERA HOUSE, HUDSON, NEW YORK
2017 INTERNATIONAL KORZAK CONFERENCE - SEATTLE
SANTA BARBARA PUPPETPALOOZA FESTIVAL
NASHVILLE INTERNATIONAL PUPPET FESTIVAL
GRACIE THEATER - BANGOR, MAINE
TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
WEST LIBERTY CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL, IOWA
VIOLINS OF HOPE EVENT
NASHVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY
FISK UNIVERSITY THEATER
ARTS AT CENTER STREET THEATER
TPAC EDUCATION TOUR - NUMEROUS SCHOOLS
Puppetry, Animation and illustration
Puppetry, Animation and illustration
Puppetry, Animation and illustration
Mary and Brian have written, developed, built and performed many and varied puppet plays for over two decades. They have worked in many aspect on numerous projects with companies such as Sony/BMG as well as with BigFott Studios - Directed by Galen Fott: http://www.bigfott.com/