Brian Luedtke's Atomic Path to the South

By Erick Daniel Richman

Brian Luedtke’s historic home base here in Columbus is a settlement from which he explores and expands his connections with the city around him: Volunteering in the mornings, jogging in the late afternoons, performing on stage in the evening.

Jim Pharr & Brian On Stage In 2019 At No Shame

As a child on a Nebraska farm in 1974, he was struck by determination: “One day, I’m going to be a Southerner.”

Today, he has a prolific role in the city of Columbus, allocating his time to the theater scene, committee appointments - serving with many organizations including the Historic Columbus Foundation, the Historic Linwood Foundation, the American Legion, Uptown Columbus, and the Historic District Preservation Society - and to hands-on work.

“I get out an oar and I help row the boat,” he says, “or hitch up the wagon and help pull. That’s what I do.”

Brian Luedtke

From Scene in ‘Steam It’

At the Springer Opera House, for example, he is a board member, actor, easily one of the most enthusiastic and ardent supporters (and performers) of No Shame Theatre, and also the window revitalization specialist, entrusted with the difficult and painstaking task of preserving the National Historic Landmark’s original windows.

Brian’s journey – from Nebraska farmer to nuclear artillery officer to Columbus community pillar – echoes and reinforces his beloved Springer Academy’s motto:

“Life skills through stage skills,” he nods emphatically. “As an officer, you’re always in front of people, always teaching, always writing.”

RESTORATION & PRESERVATION

In the 1990s, when Brian purchased his historic home, he set out to learn how to repair and rehabilitate it himself. Known as the Lion House for the pair of stone-faced big cats out front, its complex history was explored by writer Tom Ingram in a January 2018 issue of The LocaL.

Today, Brian has carefully restored the home, adorning it with all manner of retrieved and reclaimed artifacts: eighty-year-old blenders that still function, hand-made advertising signs for long-shuttered diners, one-off folk-art pieces, and the family’s furniture that was delivered to Nebraska on covered wagons and more recently brought to Georgia by automobile.

The Lion House

In a free moment, he might be found tinkering with ‘built-to-last’ tools from “before planned obsolescence” was standard: as determined to hear an old weed-whacker spin up once more as to restore a rotting, mottled window to beauty and clarity.

NEBRASKAN FARMHAND

Brian’s penchant for working with his hands was formed – alongside his childhood memories - in the harsh farming conditions of Nebraska; the child of a Korean War veteran descended from immigrants following the wave created by the Homesteading Act of 1862, he recalls his young days spent raising crops, defeathering chickens, and straining milk.

“We subsistence gardened,” he says, “It was land Mom and Dad bought for $50 an acre back when I was a year old.”

Patting dry freshly-birthed piglets, a young Brian didn’t know the winding journey that would eventually allow him to settle such an expansive space for himself in Columbus, Georgia.

Brian Luedtke in Arcadia, Nebraska

“I was in a class of 22 in my high school,” he says, and “one of only three that went to college.”

He considered staying to tend the farm, but he says he knew what he really wanted to do: “become a southerner.”

ACTING & ARTILLERY

As a high school junior, he was inspired by Elizabeth Hendricks, a fellow Nebraskan who returned from college to teach her first year of English literature.

“I’m sitting in class and I’m looking at her,” he says, “I’m mesmerized by how cute she is, but she also taught southern authors and southern culture, which I’d never heard before.”

Inspired by his teacher and their classes on the writings of Mark Twain and William Faulkner, he determined then that he wanted to relocate to the idyllic, dynamic southern locales he envisioned.

“I was just a farm kid doing chores on the farm and going to school,” he says with a smile, “It makes me light up to think about it because it’s ultimately what made me push myself to get here.”

Realizing that “the way to get me south is to get the army to do it,” so he joined the campus’ Reserve Officers Training Corps and completed a teaching degree in English, theatre, and speech.

“And then the first thing that the army did,” he recalls, “was they sent me to Germany!”

Bonnie Jayne Vornlocher (Left) And Brian At The Springer

Although it wasn’t the assignment he’d hoped for, his patience – as well as his education in communication and performing under pressure - would pay off.

“I was living in Nuremberg, Germany,” he says, “Great experience; That’s where I first was introduced to nuclear weapons.”

His role as a Pershing 2 Missile Officer in the Cold War of the late 1970s meant he was responsible for maintaining the readiness of the front-line nuclear arsenal against the Soviet Union.

“You’re staring into the eyes of what was once a very dangerous man,” he says with a drawn breath, “because all I needed was a release from the president, and I was sending off the very first nukes.”

In February 1985, his circuitous path to the South finally came around; he was assigned to Fort Benning to initiate the development of a new nuclear artillery unit there.

“It worked out that I could come here,” he says, “so that was pretty good.”

STEPS, STAGE, AND SCREEN

Nearly two decades later, Brian is well-known throughout the city for his expansive personality, tenacious work ethic, and inclination toward volunteerism.

His jogging route leads him throughout downtown, past the tables and chairs of Broadway’s popular eateries.

“I’m either running from my demons,” he says, “or toward my goals.”

His recurring characters (such as Norma, his most cherished) have been mainstays on the No Shame Theatre stage for years.

Mike Murphy (left) & Brian as Norma

“I created [Norma] while I was driving back from Nebraska, years ago,” he says, “She’s a gossipy old woman and you never really know what she’s going to say or do.”

Brian remembers the first week of No Shame back in 2009: “It was like, wow, how come we haven’t had this before? It was a lot of fun.”

He’s still an active participant thirteen years later, believing No Shame to be a powerful and transformative setting that lets people “get their creative urges out” and “boost your own ego and confidence.”

Opening Scene From ‘Stream It’

In 2020, he starred in the Springer/Seven Zero Six collaboration film titled Stream It, which prominently features his carefully restored Lion House home. “It was a ball to do,” he says simply. Directed by John Houzer and written by Dan Quigley, with contributions from other Columbus based artists, Stream It is available to watch for free at vimeo.com/393085512.

Rooting into Columbus “Folks just come up to me,” he says, “and they go, ‘Brian, you’re always so involved. How can I be like you?’”

Malik Jordan (left) & Brian

“I go, ‘Oh, geez, you don’t want to be like me,” laughing with a little self-deprecation before clarifying, “Well, here’s your guidance. Don’t do what I’m doing. If [something] is important to you, then roll up your sleeves and get involved. Do what would be a passion for you.”

To learn more about Brian and his role in the community, visit SpringerOperaHouse.org, HistoricColumbus.com, or search “The Lion House Columbus, Georgia” on Wikipedia. You can also catch Brian on the podcast “Off the Cuff Drunks,” on anything other than SoundCloud.

On Friday nights, you’re likely to find him performing at No Shame Theatre, often as Norma or one of his other personas; performances begin at 10:30 p.m. with only a $5 cover charge.

Or, just hang out downtown and you might see him eclipsing the sun on one of his afternoon runs.