Special Reports - Jul 12, 2014: "Heresy!" you might be shouting at the screen while clutching your pearls and annotated copy of The Complete Plays of Eugene O'Neill. "Disney offers nothing but cheap amusement-park thrills!" Au contraire. Within the first day of a visit to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, one thing becomes strikingly clear: Almost all of the attractions revolve around a story, often told in rigorously theatrical ways and with the use of live actors. None of the rides offer thrills for the sake of thrills. They're almost always using those tingles in your stomach to further the plot.
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Disney is one of the biggest, most exciting theater troupes around the world. The shows that they put on not only on Broadway but on a smaller scale within their many parks have imagination and creativity all over. The things that Disney brings to the table are always new and revolutionary. It doesn’t matter if it is a calm animatronic story-based ride, an intense thrill ride with a plot or even an actual theatrical staging. They all carry the values of Disney and hold one of the highest production qualities of all time. They will undoubtedly continue to be on of the front-runners in theatrical story telling as well as continue to be a leader in the development of new production technologies for the world to use. Disney plays a crucial world in our modern creative arts industry in a way that most people don’t understand. Disney will always be leading the way.
Disney and Broadway share a common goal: to entertain. It only makes sense that there are many theatrical elements in Disney theme parks because live performance is a way to entertain. Disney also uses short films, sculptures, and many other art forms throughout their theme parks. It is what works for their audience, and what gets their message across. That being said I just don’t agree that Disney is what American Theatre’s should be following. Mainly because the audience’s of plays and musicals are looking for a different experience. They want a comedy or drama they can invest themselves in, a show they can be engrossed in for 2 hours, not 20 minutes. They want humans they can identify with on a personal level, with no robots in the cast. They want a story that took time to construct, not something submitted by an audience member. While Disney is undisputedly successful in its ways of performance, their success came from recognition of what their audience wanted from them. And theatres across the country should do the same.
Even at the age of sixteen, I still have an admiration for Disney World. As a kid, it was for the unknown fantasy world unfolding before my eyes. Now that I have grown up and the illusion has been broken, I watch as more of a bystander, witnessing the effortless ability Disney has in affecting the perspective of children. The article does a great job in highlighting the most essential part of drawing audiences in: audience interaction. Disney creates a world unlike any other. They surround you with all five senses. You are no longer sitting and watching the chaos unfold, you are a part of it. This inclusion is what draws people in. It is an attractive concept that even teenagers and adults want to experience. While they can differentiate between reality and fantasy more easily, the world created is strong enough that it is worth it to experience. If American Theater were to adopt the same mentality towards their shows, the possibilities for exploration both in performance and behind the scenes are endless.
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