Two unique Nashville institutions joined forces to make this production possible: Wishing Chair Productions, Nashville Public Library’s resident puppet troupe, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the premiere repository of country music knowledge in the nation. Because of the rich artistic and educational resources these two partners could offer, as well as the support of the Nashville Public Library Foundation, we were able to create a show that could only have been made here in Nashville. The challenge was to have this unique educational production reach the broadest possible audience. Wishing Chair Productions already had a long history of providing literature-based marionette shows to the public, but we wanted this show, the kickoff of our 2013 Nashville International Puppet Festival, to transcend barriers of language and culture. The resulting travelling show allows us to tell Nashville’s story to local, national, and international audiences. The wide range of time periods represented also makes this a truly intergenerational learning experience, with music that resonates with children, their parents and their grandparents. Despite the notion of a puppet show being just for children, String City offers something for audiences of all ages.

In order to make the show accessible to all audiences, the hour-long production tells the history of country music visually and musically, without narration. This allows audiences to fully participate in the show regardless of age, and whether or not they know the English language. The show is a combination of the centuries-old tradition of puppetry arts with state-of-the art digital technology in music, animation, and lighting. Through a wide variety of puppetry styles and sets, viewers learn about the songs, artists, history, culture and economic development of Music City. Each of the nearly three dozen country artists featured in the narrative is represented by a puppet doppelganger. These include shadow puppets, marionettes, rod puppets, and hand puppets. In addition to the lessons imparted during the show, an accompanying curriculum has also been developed by Bringing Books to Life, the library’s literacy program, in collaboration with the education department of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. This curriculum correlates to state and local elementary learning standards for literacy, math, science and social studies and emphasizes the use of library resources—both digital and analog—in the classroom. BBTL and the CMHOF staff are currently working on developing additional lesson plans and may even co-host a teacher professional development event on the show and its themes. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum also hosted a songwriting workshop for students as a part of their String City programming, and is planning a “Making of String City” exhibit for their new Taylor Swift Education Center.

The response to String City has been overwhelming. After opening the Nashville International Puppet Festival, the show played to 4,083 people in the library auditorium and 1,322 people in a second, shorter run at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The troupe was then invited to open the national 2014 Americans for the Arts Conference in Nashville, but was unable to do so due to a concurrent invitation to a puppet festival in Magdeburg, Germany. String City’s trip to Magdeburg is being funded in part by the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau and Sister Cities of Nashville, which speaks to the strong support the show has garnered citywide. String City is also a vivid example of Nashville Public Library’s “Books are only half the story” campaign. By offering unconventional programs like String City, the library generates excitement about learning while at the same time leading people back to our musical and print collections. Overall, the production has increased our institutional value in Nashville and elsewhere, and introduced both Nashville Public Library and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to brand new audiences.