Adult
Activities & Entertainment
Disney Behind
the Scenes - Review
As part of it’s tour series the ship offers a behind the
scenes look at how the stage in the Walt Disney Theater
is worked. It is hosted by one of the stages stewards
and over the course of about an hour you are introduced
to the stage manager, costume coordinator and the stage
technician manager.
If you are a theater lover, performer or work in a company
regularly you will love this tour. First I can’t imagine
a more lovely theater to take a tour of and second this
theater’s only equals lie on land. The Walt Disney Theater
is the most technologically advanced theater on the seven
seas and as a comparison, if you’ve seen Phantom of the
Opera and marveled at the stage work and automation bare
this in mind: Any theater with a moveable or programmable
set works off of channels much like the channels that
are on a mixing console for audio or a lighting console
for lights. Phantom’s stage had 8 channels of programmable
movement. The Walt Disney Theater has 96 channels of programmable
movement (believe me that is a lot)! While that is a more
technical example of the theater’s capacity as far as
efficiency and ability to change sets and scenery it is
one of the most profound examples of it’s technological
dominance. In fact that information was given to us by
the head stage technician who had come to the Magic after
being a part of the national tour of Phantom of the Opera
in Australia.
As well our costume coordinator came from the same Australian
tour and she had some great information about costumes
on board. We had as our examples sections of costumes
from Voyage of the Ghost Ship: the previous production
on the Magic before Hercules the Muse-ical (which can
be seen on the Disney Wonder). The costumes were very
elaborate and we had the opportunity to feel the weight
of some of them. Myself and another tour “victim” were
lucky enough to get the chance to try on some of the costumes.
She got to wear one of the ball gowns that the ladies
wear at the end of Voyage of the Ghost Ship and I was
slated to wear the Captain’s jacket (it was gorgeous,
encrusted with jewels and embroidery; probably weighed
about 15-20 pounds). Unfortunately I was too tall to wear
that particular costume so I got the next best thing:
I got to wear a dress. Actually I wore the male Muse’s
dress from Hercules and it fit like a glove (an Isotoner
to be exact!). While I try not to make a regular habit
of dressing in drag this was an occasion to take one for
the team as it provided much entertainment for the rest
of the tour group (I know there are a couple of photographs
floating around the site somewhere of this golden moment).
To get back to the important information: the price tag
on the costumes for the Voyage of the Ghost Ship (for
a cast of 10-15) was $58,000. That’s quite a budget huh?
After getting
acquainted with the ways in which the theater operated
we had the opportunity to go up onto the stage and have
a look behind the scenes. While we weren’t allowed to
travel below the stage into the trap or behind the flats
in the wings we got a good feel as to what it is like
to stand on a stage on the sea. This is a one of a kind
experience for anyone interested in the theater because
you have the opportunity so see, touch, wear, hear and
learn the mechanics of not only running a world class
theater but a world class theater at sea.
