INTO VIEW
Scott Paulson, a man of many hats

An oboist, foley artist and sound-effects expert, he also stages exhibits at UCSD

By Anne Marie Welsh
THEATER CRITIC

September 2, 2007

Pop quiz: What do toy pianos, paper theater, men's hats and the UCSD carillon have in common?

If you guessed Scott Paulson, the madcap musician who has devoted Geisel Library exhibits to each of those subjects, mark your answer Correct.

An oboist by training and a foley artist by trial and error, Paulson has turned up in high-profile theater events at Sledgehammer and Cygnet Theatre where his arsenal of sound effects and his trademark derby have marked him an avant-garde vaudevillian. Think Samuel Beckett meets John Cage.

But Paulson's day job – one he coveted for seven years before getting it – is as outreach coordinator for the Arts Libraries of UCSD. There, he presents (actually stages) monthly visual art exhibits on topics that intrigue him and draw from the university's academic and research departments.

An afternoon with Paulson means a meander behind the scenes of music and video shelves to see his collections of toy pianos, anti-snow-globes, Etch-a-Sketch toys, noisemakers, eccentric instruments including a miniature harpsichord and hats of all shapes and sizes.

“I started wearing the derby for 'Kid Simple' at Sledgehammer,” he says, citing a wild Jordan Harrison play conceived as a live-action fairy-tale by director Scott Feldsher. Staged in 2004 at St. Cecilia's, the show required, Paulson says, “335 different live sounds, but I got to pick them myself.”

Now 48, Paulson first performed in far more conventional settings, as an oboist with the Bangor (Maine) Symphony. He knew, he says, “I was a big fish in a small pond and needed something different.” Giving up his musical career for a major in linguistics at UCSD was a mistake, he says now, but “fortunately I got that rare second chance.”

At a free concert at the Athenaeum in La Jolla, he heard UCSD professor Susan Barrett play and called to sign up for lessons. The skill came back quickly, and after two sessions Paulson was concertizing with his “teacher.” He's now second chair oboist to her first with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, where they've played several Vivaldi double oboe concertos among other works.

Paulson has worked at UCSD in a variety of jobs since graduating. During the time he was waiting for the job he wanted at the music, video and arts libraries, he developed “a headful of ideas.” So, when he began working there “at just the right time when just the right people were on vacation,” he was able to launch his first interactive exhibit.

The subject: the carillon at UCSD, which Paulson had been regularly playing as “official carolliner.” Having discovered a number of 16mm silent films in the library, he launched a silent film series in the Seuss Room, a once-a-month event for which he either solos or joins his Teeny Tiny Pit Orchestra to play the accompaniment.

Other projects include his Short Attention Span Chamber Music Society concerts in the library; these are “parking meter friendly,” meaning they last half an hour and occur during the summer or intersession so as not to disturb studying students.

He's commissioned composers, including Peter Mueller, to write pieces for toy pianos and in the process “accidentally ended up with a toy piano collection” – and from that, an exhibit on toy pianos.