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Thursday, March 03, 2022
How Disney Imagineering Crafted the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Experience for Hardcore and Casual Fans Alike
www.thewrap.com: This week, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World opens to its first paying guests, offering them the opportunity to journey to a galaxy, far, far away like never before.
Ostensibly a “Star Wars” hotel, the Galactic Starcruiser tells the story of the Halcyon, a luxury cruise ship that is taken over by the villainous First Order.
I remember the surge of discussion when the news of Galatic Starcruise first came out, and then another wave half a year ago when the trailer first came out. As the interview says, it’s a new concept that “disrupts the entertainment travel industry” that blends immersive theatre with gameplay and accommodation. The idea that each guest is part of the story and experiences the plotline through their own lens is definitely a concept heavily adapted from the immersive theatre. I personally love Star Wars and will be super interested in spending two nights in the Galatic Starcruiser. However, I remember the big discussion at the time when this project was first open to the public was its very expensive price. In addition to that, in the trailer published by Disney, the interior design of the hotel/Galatic Starcruiser was disappointing to many people, especially huge Star Wars fans. I hope that Disney is able to create a successful project with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser because I cannot imagine what it means to the entertainment travel industry if it works.
I’ve heard a lot about this experience from the internet and this is absolutely where I see the future of live entertainment and performance going. There’s this really interesting juxtaposition of preparation and improv that I want to talk about. The Imagineers on the project said that there is over 48 hours of possible content to explore, with the actors having to memorize every single plot point that they are guiding people (audience, guests, players?) through. With all of this preparation being done, there’s still a significant amount of improvisation that the actors have to do in order to get each person from plot point to plot point. This has to be such a challenge for the actors and I’m extremely impressed at how they have been able to handle such a taxing performance. I’m also left wondering more about how this environment is fully fleshed out through design elements like lighting and sound. This experience is essentially a theatre festival but with every detail handcrafted to create the world of Star Wars. Amazing!
One of the things that first got me interested in theatre was how you can be so experimental with it. The immersive Star Wars experience that was mentioned in the article was one of those things that caught my eye because it sort of reminded me of the pandemic style of theatre. I think during the pandemic, the industry often questioned whether theatre can be as immersive an experience as live. However, I believe that new tech like these shows that it is possible. As the landscape of the world changes, there has to be new ways to use theatre to tell these ever changing stories. Additionally, I want to note the use of lighting in these museums. I think I never really thought about lighting too much when I think about sets, but I think it is something that really pulls everything together when it comes to theatre making. Light really transforms the mood and the space and it is often one of the first things one notices. I think it is cool that there are so many different ways to light something, even though it is such a seemingly natural thing.
3 comments:
I remember the surge of discussion when the news of Galatic Starcruise first came out, and then another wave half a year ago when the trailer first came out. As the interview says, it’s a new concept that “disrupts the entertainment travel industry” that blends immersive theatre with gameplay and accommodation. The idea that each guest is part of the story and experiences the plotline through their own lens is definitely a concept heavily adapted from the immersive theatre. I personally love Star Wars and will be super interested in spending two nights in the Galatic Starcruiser. However, I remember the big discussion at the time when this project was first open to the public was its very expensive price. In addition to that, in the trailer published by Disney, the interior design of the hotel/Galatic Starcruiser was disappointing to many people, especially huge Star Wars fans. I hope that Disney is able to create a successful project with Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser because I cannot imagine what it means to the entertainment travel industry if it works.
I’ve heard a lot about this experience from the internet and this is absolutely where I see the future of live entertainment and performance going. There’s this really interesting juxtaposition of preparation and improv that I want to talk about. The Imagineers on the project said that there is over 48 hours of possible content to explore, with the actors having to memorize every single plot point that they are guiding people (audience, guests, players?) through. With all of this preparation being done, there’s still a significant amount of improvisation that the actors have to do in order to get each person from plot point to plot point. This has to be such a challenge for the actors and I’m extremely impressed at how they have been able to handle such a taxing performance. I’m also left wondering more about how this environment is fully fleshed out through design elements like lighting and sound. This experience is essentially a theatre festival but with every detail handcrafted to create the world of Star Wars. Amazing!
One of the things that first got me interested in theatre was how you can be so experimental with it. The immersive Star Wars experience that was mentioned in the article was one of those things that caught my eye because it sort of reminded me of the pandemic style of theatre. I think during the pandemic, the industry often questioned whether theatre can be as immersive an experience as live. However, I believe that new tech like these shows that it is possible. As the landscape of the world changes, there has to be new ways to use theatre to tell these ever changing stories.
Additionally, I want to note the use of lighting in these museums. I think I never really thought about lighting too much when I think about sets, but I think it is something that really pulls everything together when it comes to theatre making. Light really transforms the mood and the space and it is often one of the first things one notices. I think it is cool that there are so many different ways to light something, even though it is such a seemingly natural thing.
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