Trash Can Thursday

Here's the full photo of last time's trash can:

Did you guess Boardwalk?  The full photo makes it obvious of course!  The resort in the background is the Beach Club though.

Here's the photo for this week:

Someone has too much time on their hands...or they are just awesome.

Someone has created the majority of Disney World in Mine Craft. This is rather incredible.  You can find all the images here in way better detail. Apparently the rides even work.   I am mightily impressed, oh person who has played more Mine Craft than I will every be able to even if I did not have to work or finish writing a graduate thesis.

I so want to play with this. Someday.

Trash Can Thursday

The trash can of two weeks ago can be found at the main pool area at Saratoga Springs.  While on this last trip in January I spent a half an hour walking around Saratoga Springs.  I stayed on that property back in the days when it was the Disney Institute, a far cry from its current theming.   If it weren't so far away from everything and so spread out I would actually really enjoy staying here.

I'm changing Trash Can Thursdays to an every other week feature for the moment, so here's the photo from this week.  Can you identify the location?

Leap of Faith

I'm going to take a step away from Disney theme parks, please bear with me. 

I went to the theater last night to see one of the early previews of Leap of Faith.  There’s a lot I could criticize about the book of the show itself, and even some praise, but it was the actual theater going experience of the show that I want to write about.  .  I cannot claim to have ever been to one of the “revivals” portrayed on stage, something which probably comes as no surprise to those of you who know me, so my only experience with mega preaching is of flipping through the channels and encountering the televangelist types and moving on quickly.   I should also mention that I’ve never even seen the movie on which this musical is based. 

Entering the St. James last night was one of the most awkward experiences I have had getting into the theater.  I realize it was an early preview, but let’s face it, the actual entry process into the theater and the scanning of tickets is basically the same for every show they do, so why the confused mob of people all trying to cram into a single door at ten minutes to curtain? 

But let’s leave that aside and move on to the experience of being seated and then encouraged to “interact” with cast members placed in all levels of the theater as though they were ordinary members of the audience.  It seems almost every new show (see Once, which does it better) is now determined to spill out from the stage and have a preshow.  This one also included a live video feed that played on four screens, two on each side of the house. 

These screens fascinated me throughout the show as they were used fairly consistently to film Raul Esparza as Jonas Nightingale or members of his “Angels” during the “revival” scenes.  Well, it seemed that was the convention, except for a couple of moments that the video feed seemed to be on for scenes that weren’t part of the “revival” performance.  This may have just been a mistake made in previews, and it was clear this was still an early preview as evidenced by the hold in the second act when the automation on the tent structure on stage failed. It did lead to a convention throughout the show that I found frequently distracting wherein the videographer and the stagehands were constantly on stage filming or setting up and hooking up pieces.  Usually this took place during dance numbers which somewhat covered up that action, but I was consistently distracted by what seemed like far to much work for not enough scenic payout.

Getting back to the screens though, what I found so fascinating was that even I, who attend the theater on a regular basis and love live performance, found myself watching the screen more than the stage.  Some of this was clearly because I was sitting in the mezzanine and due to the lack of rise in the St. James mezzanine and the decision to build out the stage well over what would have been the orchestra pit and I think several rows out into the audience, the sight lines were atrocious.   I totally understand the desire to bring the show closer to the audience, and clearly they were making an attempt to envelope (or shall we say immerse?) the audience in the action, but the whole thing felt, well, fake. On the one hand that’s a good comment on the story line itself, but on the other I was struck by the fact that for a good portion of the show, I felt like I was in an amusement park being asked to “interact” in a way that felt forced.  The entire time that they used the platforms out in the audience just felt like cheap pandering to try to make the audience feel like they were part of the show, without actually really achieving the effect.

Maybe I’m a party pooper about these things or I was in the wrong mood last night, but there’s a time and a place for these things.  If you want me to take your show with any seriousness, asking me to raise my hands up for Jesus and trying to get me excited pre-show with what felt like forced audience warm up just isn’t going to do it.  That said, there was at least half the audience that clearly loved the whole experience.  I’ve never had such vocal seat companions.  The elderly gentleman sitting near me was openly weeping at the end and kept repeating “wow”, loudly. Very loudly.   I’m obviously the wrong demographic though, and I have complete faith that this show is going to tour really well in the Midwest.

Marvel in the Parks

Here's an official photo of the first non merchandise sighting of a Marvel property in the parks.

The AvengeRail!   

I've been wondering for sometime how Disney would begin incorporating Marvel into the parks.  There's been merchandise available for some time featuring various Marvel characters.  Obviously it's going to be an interesting situation given that Universal still has a Marvel Super Hero land in their park. 

I'm way more excited about the Avengers than I was for the last Monorail wrap featuring Tron.

Trash Can Thursday

 

Trash Can Thursday returns!   This one I found while exploring someplace I had never been before this past January.  Any thoughts?

Theme Parks as a Cultural Center

New York has long been considered the cultural capital of America. Is it still? If not, where?

This is the question posed by Spring For Music’s blog contest for the best arts blogger challenge.  I don’t write a traditional arts blog and there are many who would consider the idea of Disney theme parks as “art” as something to be sneered upon. However, despite the fact that I live and work in theater in New York City, as could be expected, I’m going to have to make an argument for the center of culture in America being in Orlando, Florida.   When speaking of culture in the arts world, there is often an assumption that culture should imply “high art” and not “pop culture”.  America at its artistic heart has, in my opinion, always had a thriving popular culture and that popular culture has proven its greatest contribution to the world.  I am arguing Orlando as the center of culture in America (though of course similar arguments could be made for the LA/Anaheim area) because American culture is popular culture and the various theme parks of the greater Orlando area embody the popular aspect of our artistic culture.  I see Orlando, and yes, Disney World, as the heart of American culture in part based on the sheer number of people it reaches, but more importantly on the influence that the various theme parks and other Orlando based attractions has on the average person and children on what to expect from the performances that they see later and on. For better or worse, the Orlando area is a top tourist attraction for both Americans and international visitors (even more so than the LA/Anaheim parks).  While many people come to New York and maybe catch a Broadway musical, once a visitor or family is in the Orlando theme parks, they are there for an all inclusive cultural experience, from live performances and rides to themed dining and pyrotechnics.  The end result is that more people have seen Disney’s Hoop De Doo Musical Revue dinner show than have seen almost any Broadway show or tour (except maybe Phantom of the Opera) and certainly more than any off-Broadway performance.

            So what then do the theme parks of Orlando provide culturally? Between the various theme parks it allows two important things, the ability to create one’s own experience and the option of immersive escapism.  So many of the narratives that fuel Disney, Universal, and Sea World are drawn from other sources and remade into something that adds an American cultural twist, whether it be in altering the narrative itself (see all those Disney princess movies) or the more cynical gross commercialization of a narrative (oh wait, there’s those princesses again!).  No matter what, between the shows, rides, and immersive park experience that isolates you from the rest of the world, there is always a happy ending and often a popular theme that provides a universal experience that everyone can latch on to.  It is unsurprising that in building the Harry Potter section of Universal Studios Orlando that the designers went for the kind of experience, already present at Disney, where the entirety of the experience is housed in a fully imagined and detailed space.  Nor is it surprising that as with so many of the properties used by Universal and Disney that aspects of the films it draws from (see for instance that wild ride in Gringott’s Bank) seem to be crying out to become a theme park ride.  It’s also important to mention the element of nostalgia and a type of moral education that is particularly relevant to the experience that these theme parks provide.  From the familiar music, the sense of old-time American patriotism, and the stories we are all familiar with, the experience of going to one of the parks is meant to wrap you in a feel-good moment.  I think this focus on nostalgia and a narrative with a universal center (whether it is about sharing with Winnie the Pooh, dreaming with Cinderella or protecting the animals of the world at the Animal Kingdom) is something that audiences seek in the revivals and new plays that they prefer.  Tapping into a universal idea is something Disney in particular does well, and it allows the visitors to feel like they are a part of the manufactured world around them and thus provide their own sense of reality.

Historically there is a definite argument to be made for the evolution of the kind of theme park that Walt Disney created from the popular performance forms of Vaudeville, Circus and Wild West Shows of the earlier part of the 20^th century.  Today though I see influence coming from the opposite direction where shows today aspire toward a more heightened artistic version of the kind of experience offered at Disney World.  I don’t wish to take away anything from the wonderful working playwrights, musicians, etc. of New York who continue to create masterful works, push boundaries and explore new things and provide voices to numerous problems and narratives that need to be told.  However, even taking a quick glance around the Broadway and Off-Broadway world I can see the influence of theme parks.  I regularly hear complaints of the Disneyfication of 42^nd St. but Disney theatrical is hardly the culprit.  One need only look at Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark to see the desire for theme park spectacle.  In fact I would argue that shows like the Finding Nemo musical are actually more artistically sound and provide a more coherent narrative than that particular piece.  In a more interesting way I would argue the popularity of a show like Sleep No More is in keeping with the desire that we have developed to control our own experiences.  We seek to be enveloped by the experience, but still maintain the illusion of control in what we are seeing.  This idea of envelopment in a world and detail I think can also be seen more subtly in the ways in which stage design has moved from being self contained behind the proscenium wall to becoming all encompassing as in recent productions of Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson and Follies on Broadway. The theme parks also frequently serve as a training ground for actors, dancers, singers, directors and designers who later go on to perform around the country.

I’m sure if I looked I could find the exact numbers for the families that go to Disney World at least once in their children’s lifetimes, but we probably all know more people in our lives who have gone at some point than haven’t.  I see in looking at the shows around me that there has been a movement since the opening of Disney World in the 1970s towards bigger and more spectacular shows, more experiences that involve the audience (whether sitting on stage, or bringing them into a part of the show) and allow them to feel like they are a part of what is being presented.  Is it the cultural center of America? Well, you can be the judge of that depending on your definition of culture.   I for one though do see it as the heart of American popular culture.  While it may not be the creator of new pieces, the influence on audiences and their expectations has shaped the performance culture they expect.





You can view other people's response to this question from the link at Spring For Music.  You can also vote for your favorite entries there until Thursday the 29th at noon.