ALUMNI PROFILES
Nielsen’s long resume all started with horse named Flash by
Linsey Marshall
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omposer. Actor. Director. Teacher. Horse. During his career, Alan “Butch” Nielsen has been all of the above. Leta Powell Drake remembers him best as the horse. Drake and Nielsen first met in 1974 on the set of “Cartoon Corral,” a Lincoln children’s television show. Drake starred as Kalamity Kate, while Nielsen manned the puppet Flash the Horse, Kate’s sidekick. Although working the puppets for hours at a time could be physically exhausting, Drake said Nielsen was always in good spirits and loved what he did. “Live television can be unpredictable, and sometimes you have to improvise,” she said. “Butch was multi-talented, and he filled in everywhere if he was needed. If someone wasn’t there, he could do the women’s voices and the children’s voices too.” Nielsen, who had received a bachelor of education in music composition from Concordia Teachers College in Seward in 1968, also wrote the opening and closing theme songs for “Cartoon Corral.” His friend David Landis sang the lyrics. Landis said Nielsen was a talented character actor with the ability to play an eerie, spooky character one day and a comedic light-hearted character the next. “What a compelling figure on the stage Butch was,” he said. “He really was very skillful across a very wide spectrum of characters and genres.” Nielsen was used to multi-tasking. In addition to the morning children’s show, he worked with the Nebraska Repertory Theatre and was a full-time student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Drake said his contribution to theatre while at UNL made him a deserving candidate for the for the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts Alumni Board’s Alumni Achievement Award, so she nominated him in December 2007. He received the award this spring. Landis said Nielsen deserved the award for his quality work as a director, writer and teacher. In 1977, Nielsen earned a Master of Arts
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Photo courtesy of Leta Powell Drake.
Alan Nielsen with Flash the Horse from the Lincoln children’s television show “Cartoon Corral.”
degree in playwriting from UNL and moved to New York, where he worked for the BMI Music Theatre Workshop, writing, composing and arranging for theatre companies across the nation. Nielsen still found time to go back to school, and in 1989 he earned his Ph.D. in Theatre Arts from the City University of New York. It was in New York that Drake and Nielsen’s paths crossed again. In 1980, Drake was in the Big Apple for a national workshop for children’s television show hosts. When she was charged with producing a show from scratch in five days to present to the other attendees, she immediately thought of her former sidekick. “I called him up and said, ‘Come down here and help me with this!’” she said. “And sure enough, he came down, and we created a musical number that we presented to the other groups, and it was a smashing success.” Landis said Nielsen’s creativity was an influence on everyone around him. “He constantly had ideas and perceptions about how something could be or should be,” Landis said. “He’d have insights that made something better—deeper, richer, funnier, more touching, sentimental.” It would be another 30 years before their paths crossed yet again, this time at a Nebraska Rep performance in Lincoln during the sum-
mer of 2006. A man Drake hardly recognized approached her on the way out and called her something she hadn’t heard in years. “He said, ‘Hey, Kate! It’s me, Flash,’ and I immediately gave him a hard time for not calling me,” she said. They agreed to keep in touch better this time around, Drake said, so when she was asked to submit nominations for the Alumni Achievement Award, she remembered her summer encounter with her old friend. “I tracked him down, got his number in Texas, called him up and said, ‘Is Flash the Horse there?’” she said. “And he said, ‘Yep, Kate, it’s me.’ I asked him to send me his bio, and when he did, I realized he’d been busy.” And busy he has been. Nielsen spent 10 years in New York before moving to Nacogdoches, Texas, where he has been teaching at the Stephen F. Austin State University for the last18 years. The tenured professor has still found time to write, direct, arrange and compose for more than 50 college productions in addition to teaching and serving on several college and university advisory boards. Landis said Nielsen’s students are especially fond of their teacher for listening to them, challenging them and inspiring them. “A distinguishing characteristic in Butch’s academic career will be the level of personal involvement with his students,” he said. “You’re going to find a whole lot of kids who are going to say this guy changed my life.” Nielsen said he credits much of his writing and researching skill to time spent on his master’s thesis at UNL. Without the atmosphere UNL provided, Nielsen said, he wouldn’t have gotten the full college experience. “Lincoln really is a college town,” Nielsen said. “I don’t live in one now, and it’s amazing what a difference it makes.” No matter what he does in life, Nielsen said, he will never forget his time in Lincoln. “I will always be grateful for my experience at UNL,” he said. And no matter what else Nielsen does in life, Drake said, she will never forget Flash the Horse. After all, “It’s how he got started,” she said with a smile.
University of Nebraska–Lincoln