Star Wars Weekends just so happened to land right in the middle of Gay Days at Disney. Now, Gay Days isn't so much a sanctioned event at Disney, as it is the theme parks taking advantage of a golden opportunity. It all started when some people met on line and decided to meet at Walt Disney World. (Since then Sea World, Universal and Downtown Orlando has gotten involved as well.) The group of men then decided to wear red shirts at the parks so they could find each other.
Enter Star Wars Weekends. Among the characters at the event are three Royal Guards dressed head to toe in red. Red helmets. Red velvet capes. Red gloves. Red wellington boots. Lets just say, there were certian individuals scrambling to be Royal Gaurds on Gay days.
In the beginning years, adult fans were not allowed to dress up, but as time went on they started to lighten up on those rules. One year I saw Obi Wan Kenobe pushing a baby stroller. I often wondered why he didn't just use his Jedi telepathy to move it along. We had one fan that came every day of every weekend dressed like a Jedi. She even legally changed her name to one of the character's last name.
Let be known here and now, not every 'body' is meant for spandex. After seeing my fair share of chunky Storm Troopers, I am convinced that some friends need to warn thier Star Wars fan friend that 'maybe you should consider being. . . say, a Tuskin Raider.' When the one of the stars was an ewok, we had a fan try to bring a tiki torch into the park. Management put a stop to that at the gate.
The one fan that kind of gave me the creeps was dressed in a blue velvet cape with a silver hair barrette pulled down over his eyes. He kind of looked like Jordie from Star Trek. I'm not sure if he got his movies confused or what. We had a fan give Darth Maul the creeps one year when she sat next to his autgraph cue line and told everyone that they were married.
As usual, with every good thing, there has to be those dim wits that take things too far. We had a group of high schoolers at Disney on a school function that decided to corner Greedo and attack him. Needless to say the teens were sent home (up north somewhere, so it wasn't cheap airfare) and thier school was banded from Disney invited functions for three or five years (I believe). Lessoned learned: Don't Mess With the Mouse, or in this case The Bounty Hunter.
Most of the fans, however, were just in awe of seeing thier favorite stars. We had one star that played young Anakin. He kept his VIP tour guide hopping. One day before the motorcade, our cast had loaded into the pargos for a ride to the parade step off. Young anakin comes flying around the corner on a bike he had found back stage and was racing the pargos to the front gate. About three minutes back you see his VIP guide in her plaid vest and skirt pedaling her bike for all she's worth trying to catch up
to him. The kid was old enough to know were he had to be and when he had to be there, so in between those times he . . . was being a kid.
I have to say it was amussing to watch one of our stars deal with the throngs of adoring fans. . . when he was hung over. THe VIP host said it was a bout of food poisioning. . . rrright. No one believed it for a minute. As fast as he ran from the motorcade car to the bathroom, he should have been a track star.
Most of the Star Wars stars were great to work with back stage. Down to earth. Easy to talk to. One however, decided to smoke in the covertible before the motorcade and came pretty close to smoking out the ewok that sat nearby. We were more worried about an ash landing on him and setting his fur on fire. He survived. The motorcade went on. And there's one more story for the record books.
Showing posts with label star wars weekends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label star wars weekends. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Star Wars Weekends - "In a galaxy Far Far away..."
Here we are, nearing the end of another Disney's Star Wars Weekends and it's been three years since I've had any involvement with the event. Do I miss it ? . . .Not really. . . Okay, maybe a little.
For several years i was heavily involved with the Star Wars event. The first year we did it, I saw an audition notice go up in the greenroom and literally pestered the heck out of the manager until he officially assigned me to work on it with the Costumer and Costumer assistant.
Long hours. Late night and early morning rehearsals. Rooms filled with glue fumes filled my days for five years around April through June. The first week of the 2009 event and mother nature dumped buckets of rain. From my past experience, I know the cast and costumers were NOT having a fun day. Jawas, The Emperor and Tusken Raiders's costumes are all made out of a type of burlap-y, loose weave cotton, a.k.a. they soak up rain like a sponge. Jawas are little. A strong wind could blow some of them over. One year, when it rained, the poor Jawas could barely walk beacause their costume has become so heavy with rain water. And once they become soaked, they take DAYS to dry. I believe a Jawa robe was put in the dryer one year and it shrunk because we suddenly had a baby Jawa robe. It took trying to hand wash a Tusken Raider costume one time to realize they were meant to be drycleaned.
One of my first duties on the very first Star Wars event was a road trip. I saw paperwork on the manager's desk from a circus / traveling show producer in my home city. They weren't just from my home town, they were literally next door to my dad's office. I told my manager that I knew exactly where they were and "I'd love to go pick up the Star Wars on Ice costumes from them." That's right, I said Star Wars on Ice. . . Yeah, I never heard of it either.
Since they were still packing up the last of the costumes when I arrived, I had lunch with my brother and did d speedy "Hi, How are ya?" to everyone back home before heading back north to Orlando. Most of the pieces were used for years. . . until Disney invited THE Star Wars fan club, 501 Legion, to join our parade one week end. My manager and the costumer were checking out the 501 Legion's costumes and realized our Storm Troopers had to have an over haul.
The next year, we had all spiffy new Storm Troopers. Funny how we all of a sudden 'finally had the budget' to get new costumes. One last thing, before i leave the Star Wars on Ice costumes. The people that wore those were itty bitty people and we had to get inventive about how to make plastic bigger. Also, some one had glued a stip of wood inside one of the leg pieces, as if wearing plastic wasn't uncomfortable enough, they now had a chunk of wood banging them in the shin. . . We threw that piece away. If fact we threw alot of those pieces away, since PVC plastic costumes tend to crack easily.
Life hasn't been easy for the Storm Troopers. When you wear spandex and plastic armour in public, the PUBLIC tends to get a little frisky with the roaming hands. . . you get the picture. When it rained, some characters couldn't go out, like Queen Amadalla, a drop of rain would damage the velvet. The Storm
Troopers, however, had no such luck. Rain, shine, they never missed thier sets. . .EXCEPT for the frequent wardrobe malfunctions. The only thing that could keep the costume together was a glue that literally melted the plastic together. A squeeze of glue, squirt of activator and quicklyputthepiecestogether. The first year we had clone troopers and sand troopers, I should have bought stock in the glue company.
An Oh the 5 am Storm Trooper on the Turnstiles rehearsals. We had to be at work at 4:oo-4:30 in the morning, get the characters out the door with thier stuff, then follow them to the front of the park with the Pargo with many tubes of glue and activator. For those who have never seen Star Wars Weekends, 'The Powers That Be' decided to enhance the event by putting three Storm Troopers up on top of the gates entering the park. This is kind of an "A" cast event since they wanted to make sure who ever was up there wasn't going to fall off.
The troopers would heckle the guests coming into the park and try to look menacing. One year, when the state was trying to burn down with hundreds of forest fires, the poor Storm Troopers could barely see the edge of the roof, much less any of the guest down below. Everyone was wearing painter's masks to block some of the smoke. When we all starting to cough when by mid morning, the coordinator called it quits for safety reasons.
There are many more stories to come.
For several years i was heavily involved with the Star Wars event. The first year we did it, I saw an audition notice go up in the greenroom and literally pestered the heck out of the manager until he officially assigned me to work on it with the Costumer and Costumer assistant.
Long hours. Late night and early morning rehearsals. Rooms filled with glue fumes filled my days for five years around April through June. The first week of the 2009 event and mother nature dumped buckets of rain. From my past experience, I know the cast and costumers were NOT having a fun day. Jawas, The Emperor and Tusken Raiders's costumes are all made out of a type of burlap-y, loose weave cotton, a.k.a. they soak up rain like a sponge. Jawas are little. A strong wind could blow some of them over. One year, when it rained, the poor Jawas could barely walk beacause their costume has become so heavy with rain water. And once they become soaked, they take DAYS to dry. I believe a Jawa robe was put in the dryer one year and it shrunk because we suddenly had a baby Jawa robe. It took trying to hand wash a Tusken Raider costume one time to realize they were meant to be drycleaned.
One of my first duties on the very first Star Wars event was a road trip. I saw paperwork on the manager's desk from a circus / traveling show producer in my home city. They weren't just from my home town, they were literally next door to my dad's office. I told my manager that I knew exactly where they were and "I'd love to go pick up the Star Wars on Ice costumes from them." That's right, I said Star Wars on Ice. . . Yeah, I never heard of it either.
Since they were still packing up the last of the costumes when I arrived, I had lunch with my brother and did d speedy "Hi, How are ya?" to everyone back home before heading back north to Orlando. Most of the pieces were used for years. . . until Disney invited THE Star Wars fan club, 501 Legion, to join our parade one week end. My manager and the costumer were checking out the 501 Legion's costumes and realized our Storm Troopers had to have an over haul.
The next year, we had all spiffy new Storm Troopers. Funny how we all of a sudden 'finally had the budget' to get new costumes. One last thing, before i leave the Star Wars on Ice costumes. The people that wore those were itty bitty people and we had to get inventive about how to make plastic bigger. Also, some one had glued a stip of wood inside one of the leg pieces, as if wearing plastic wasn't uncomfortable enough, they now had a chunk of wood banging them in the shin. . . We threw that piece away. If fact we threw alot of those pieces away, since PVC plastic costumes tend to crack easily.
Life hasn't been easy for the Storm Troopers. When you wear spandex and plastic armour in public, the PUBLIC tends to get a little frisky with the roaming hands. . . you get the picture. When it rained, some characters couldn't go out, like Queen Amadalla, a drop of rain would damage the velvet. The Storm
Troopers, however, had no such luck. Rain, shine, they never missed thier sets. . .EXCEPT for the frequent wardrobe malfunctions. The only thing that could keep the costume together was a glue that literally melted the plastic together. A squeeze of glue, squirt of activator and quicklyputthepiecestogether. The first year we had clone troopers and sand troopers, I should have bought stock in the glue company.
An Oh the 5 am Storm Trooper on the Turnstiles rehearsals. We had to be at work at 4:oo-4:30 in the morning, get the characters out the door with thier stuff, then follow them to the front of the park with the Pargo with many tubes of glue and activator. For those who have never seen Star Wars Weekends, 'The Powers That Be' decided to enhance the event by putting three Storm Troopers up on top of the gates entering the park. This is kind of an "A" cast event since they wanted to make sure who ever was up there wasn't going to fall off.
The troopers would heckle the guests coming into the park and try to look menacing. One year, when the state was trying to burn down with hundreds of forest fires, the poor Storm Troopers could barely see the edge of the roof, much less any of the guest down below. Everyone was wearing painter's masks to block some of the smoke. When we all starting to cough when by mid morning, the coordinator called it quits for safety reasons.
There are many more stories to come.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Fans, The Fanatics, and The Fanatic Fans
You hear about rock stars and boys bands dealing with crazed fans, but what you may not realize is that Disney is a magnet for the odd and sometimes extreme fans. We've had families up and move to the area, just so they could get closer to a performer. This happened when we had a show called Doug. It originally was a Nickelodeon show that Disney bought. They made a movie out of it that did poorly and created a show at The Studios that was short lived. Basically, Disney almost killed the franchise. Nickelodeon bought it back after a couple of years though. For those who are not familiar with Doug, it was a show about a pre-teen boy with a huge imagination. The cast wore various colors of make up like Skeeter was Green, Rodger was blue, Patty was orange. A young girl had a huge crush on Rodger and convinced her mom to move to Orlando so they could get closer to Disney. In fact, the cast member had to start leaving through different doors each day on his way home because she'd wait for him at the stage door. We never knew if she wanted Rodger 'the person', 'the person' who played Rodger, or if she just had a thing for blue people.
Hunchback of Notre Dame seemed to have the freaky fans coming out of the wood work. We had one fan, a young lady, we refered to as cape girl. During the show, she'd spin around with her jacket and pretend to do the gypsie cape routine. But Wait, there's more. She later got hired as a costuming cast member. Let's just say she scared the cast. One day she was in the green room and showed someone the secret compartment in her ring. I kid you not, she said, "This is where I keep my poison to kill people." Needless to say, managment moved her very quickly.
One of our Quasimodo cast members got a fan letter one day. It started out normal. "I love your show. I think you're a great singer. . . " . Then it got odd. She said that 'she was new to the area and we were the closest thing to family that she had and that she was coming back on her birthday to spend all day at the show,' and she gave us the date. THEN it got weird. she asked our Quasimodo cast member, 'are you into paganism ? If you're not, that's okay.' Needless to say, we were a bit alarmed and intrigued. In the greenroom there was a dry erase board that listed who where the equity cast members and who were the gypsies for the day. In the middle of those two lists someone wrote COUNTDOWN TO W##F3N DAY (I don't want to use her name, but let's just say it was not a normal name.) Sure enough, on that day, half way through the day, one of the operations people came to the green room and told us she was there. I have never seen that green room clear so fast in my life. Everyone ran out to the stage to see who this girl was. It scared her and she never came back.
We have a gentleman who insists on putting disney performers on his body. Across his back is a tatoo of one of our Streetmosphere performers. The face of one of the Indy Stuntmen (the German Giant) is tatooed on his knee. During the Star wars Weekends we have a lady fan who has legally changed her last name to Skywalker Quigon Kenobi. She'd come every day to the event and stay all day dressed in her Jedi garb.
The Studios is known for it's special events. StarWars Weekends has seventy to eighty Star Wars characters from various Jedi's to three different type of troopers (storm, sand and clone). Storm troopers wear spandex and plastic armour. Guests tend to get a little frisky with some one in spandex. . . I wonder why? Not all Storm troopers are guys. One of the female storm troopers got pinched by a couple of flirty girls. The Storm Trooper informed them she was a girl and embarassed the snot out of these girls. Supersoap Weekends is a time I was glad to be behind the wall. When the park opens, they do a little rope drop ceremony. During Super Soap, it is like the running of the bulls, or as one of our stage managers put it, the running of the house wives. They open the gates and literally thousands of normally sane individuals turn into steam rollers and book it to the back of the park so them can get numbers for the autograph sessions. While I was working as a runner at a resort, I had to drive a guest to the Studios during Super Soap. The whole way over there she kept saying, " I'm not one of those crazed fans." Then she'd turn to her daughter and say, "As soon as we get out you have to run." Not a crazed fan . . . rriiight. ESPN The Weekend is a testostrone version of Super Soap. It's very amusing to see all these guys try to act calm, cool and collected, but as soon as one of the sports stars walk past, they turn into a twelve year old. That's okay, Mr Armchair Quarterback, no one saw you get all giddy when the cheerleaders came out.
Then we have the Dead Dog Lady. Yes, that's right I said the Dead dog Lady. When she and her daughter come to the park, her husband stays in the car all day. He thinks Disney is evil or something. The mother and daughter go to Beauty and the Beast and sit down front center for all five shows. In her lap is a plastic grocery bag. In the bag is a freeze dried / taxidermied little black poodle. Needless to the say the cast gets a bit un-nerved knowing that there is a dead dog in the front row.
Hunchback of Notre Dame seemed to have the freaky fans coming out of the wood work. We had one fan, a young lady, we refered to as cape girl. During the show, she'd spin around with her jacket and pretend to do the gypsie cape routine. But Wait, there's more. She later got hired as a costuming cast member. Let's just say she scared the cast. One day she was in the green room and showed someone the secret compartment in her ring. I kid you not, she said, "This is where I keep my poison to kill people." Needless to say, managment moved her very quickly.
One of our Quasimodo cast members got a fan letter one day. It started out normal. "I love your show. I think you're a great singer. . . " . Then it got odd. She said that 'she was new to the area and we were the closest thing to family that she had and that she was coming back on her birthday to spend all day at the show,' and she gave us the date. THEN it got weird. she asked our Quasimodo cast member, 'are you into paganism ? If you're not, that's okay.' Needless to say, we were a bit alarmed and intrigued. In the greenroom there was a dry erase board that listed who where the equity cast members and who were the gypsies for the day. In the middle of those two lists someone wrote COUNTDOWN TO W##F3N DAY (I don't want to use her name, but let's just say it was not a normal name.) Sure enough, on that day, half way through the day, one of the operations people came to the green room and told us she was there. I have never seen that green room clear so fast in my life. Everyone ran out to the stage to see who this girl was. It scared her and she never came back.
We have a gentleman who insists on putting disney performers on his body. Across his back is a tatoo of one of our Streetmosphere performers. The face of one of the Indy Stuntmen (the German Giant) is tatooed on his knee. During the Star wars Weekends we have a lady fan who has legally changed her last name to Skywalker Quigon Kenobi. She'd come every day to the event and stay all day dressed in her Jedi garb.
The Studios is known for it's special events. StarWars Weekends has seventy to eighty Star Wars characters from various Jedi's to three different type of troopers (storm, sand and clone). Storm troopers wear spandex and plastic armour. Guests tend to get a little frisky with some one in spandex. . . I wonder why? Not all Storm troopers are guys. One of the female storm troopers got pinched by a couple of flirty girls. The Storm Trooper informed them she was a girl and embarassed the snot out of these girls. Supersoap Weekends is a time I was glad to be behind the wall. When the park opens, they do a little rope drop ceremony. During Super Soap, it is like the running of the bulls, or as one of our stage managers put it, the running of the house wives. They open the gates and literally thousands of normally sane individuals turn into steam rollers and book it to the back of the park so them can get numbers for the autograph sessions. While I was working as a runner at a resort, I had to drive a guest to the Studios during Super Soap. The whole way over there she kept saying, " I'm not one of those crazed fans." Then she'd turn to her daughter and say, "As soon as we get out you have to run." Not a crazed fan . . . rriiight. ESPN The Weekend is a testostrone version of Super Soap. It's very amusing to see all these guys try to act calm, cool and collected, but as soon as one of the sports stars walk past, they turn into a twelve year old. That's okay, Mr Armchair Quarterback, no one saw you get all giddy when the cheerleaders came out.
Then we have the Dead Dog Lady. Yes, that's right I said the Dead dog Lady. When she and her daughter come to the park, her husband stays in the car all day. He thinks Disney is evil or something. The mother and daughter go to Beauty and the Beast and sit down front center for all five shows. In her lap is a plastic grocery bag. In the bag is a freeze dried / taxidermied little black poodle. Needless to the say the cast gets a bit un-nerved knowing that there is a dead dog in the front row.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Mother nature's fury meets the Magic Kingdom
Pardon me if I seem a bit side tracked at the moment. As I am writing this, I am also watching my state burn down on the news. Florida is extremely dry and crispy right now and some idiot decided to light several forest fires. Back in 1998 we had a similar set up that got real close to home. A huge fire burned really close to the Magic Kingdom for serveral days that year. Disney, so far, has faired very well in the face of mother nature's fury, however.
Since there are nightly fireworks displays, Disney keeps every thing well watered and I mean everything. During the 1998 fires, I was working on a Star Wars event at the Studios. If you have never been to Star Wars Weekends and are a Star Wars Fan, you gotta go. We have seventy to eighty Star Wars characters, stars from the movies and hundreds of fanatical, if not a little scary, fans. But more on that at another time.
At the front of the park during Stat Wars Weekends they put Storm Troopers up on top of the turnstiles to torment and amuse the people waiting to come in. If you are familiar with the Studios, you'll know that just inside the front gates is a small information kiosk called Crossroads. On top of it is a spire with a Mickey statue. During the 1998 fires all of the smoke lifted up and over Magic Kingdom and dumped on the Studios. We could barely see a few feet ahead of us. The Storm Troopers on top of the turnstiles couldn't see Crossroads, if fact they could barely see the guests down below. They later said that they only way they kept from falling off the turnstiles was to follow the yellow caution tape marking the edge of the roof.
365 days a year, Disney is never closed. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Y2K scares we were open. However, a stiff hurricane and police ordered evacuation tends to stop us in our tracks. Disney has Hurricane Rideout crews that are made up of Cast members who volunteer to ride out the storm and to keep the place from blowing away(and it's huge amounts of overtime pay). I worked one Ride out Crew years ago. I think it was Hurricane Opal. We gathered in our main wardrobe building and watched one of our managers climb around on top of the fourth tier of the clothes rack as he spread plastic over everything, in case we lost a roof. (It was amazing how much dust he stirred up doing that too.)
That night, nearly a hundred of us tried to sleep on the floor of the Great Movie Ride. The following morning we were expecting destruction and mayhem. No, just branches down and leaves. After a through cleaning, the park was opened a couple hours later. We 'the Rideout crew' were expecting to go home that morning. Oh no. Because of call ins, we had go to work the shows that day. I walked into Beauty and the Beast and said, " I am here to just dress the shows. In between shows, you can find me sleeping underneath the rail of ball gowns."
Y2K, the disaster that never was. Disney planned for the Apocolypse, I think. They had pages of protocol and multiple plans if the world's computers were to crash on January 1, 2000. At every traffic intersection there were generator powered work lights. There were multiple generators staged all through out the parks. You name it, they did it. I also worked part-time at Universal Studios as an Entertainment Tech back then too. After seeing Disney's over planning, I was amazed at how non-chalant Universal was. I arrived at work December 31, 1999 and was handed a sheet of paper. One sheet, that's it. Basically it said, We are shutting down the rides at 11:30 pm. If all hell doesn't break loose at mid night, the rides will be reopened at 12:30.
One last thing, after our record setting four hurricane year with Charley, Francis, Jean and Ivan, the powers that be made pins to thank us for all of our hard work. It's one of my favorite Disney momentos. It's Mickey holding onto his Sorceror's had as the wind is trying to blow it away. http://eventservices.disney.go.com/pintrading/pin?id=34775
Since there are nightly fireworks displays, Disney keeps every thing well watered and I mean everything. During the 1998 fires, I was working on a Star Wars event at the Studios. If you have never been to Star Wars Weekends and are a Star Wars Fan, you gotta go. We have seventy to eighty Star Wars characters, stars from the movies and hundreds of fanatical, if not a little scary, fans. But more on that at another time.
At the front of the park during Stat Wars Weekends they put Storm Troopers up on top of the turnstiles to torment and amuse the people waiting to come in. If you are familiar with the Studios, you'll know that just inside the front gates is a small information kiosk called Crossroads. On top of it is a spire with a Mickey statue. During the 1998 fires all of the smoke lifted up and over Magic Kingdom and dumped on the Studios. We could barely see a few feet ahead of us. The Storm Troopers on top of the turnstiles couldn't see Crossroads, if fact they could barely see the guests down below. They later said that they only way they kept from falling off the turnstiles was to follow the yellow caution tape marking the edge of the roof.
365 days a year, Disney is never closed. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Y2K scares we were open. However, a stiff hurricane and police ordered evacuation tends to stop us in our tracks. Disney has Hurricane Rideout crews that are made up of Cast members who volunteer to ride out the storm and to keep the place from blowing away(and it's huge amounts of overtime pay). I worked one Ride out Crew years ago. I think it was Hurricane Opal. We gathered in our main wardrobe building and watched one of our managers climb around on top of the fourth tier of the clothes rack as he spread plastic over everything, in case we lost a roof. (It was amazing how much dust he stirred up doing that too.)
That night, nearly a hundred of us tried to sleep on the floor of the Great Movie Ride. The following morning we were expecting destruction and mayhem. No, just branches down and leaves. After a through cleaning, the park was opened a couple hours later. We 'the Rideout crew' were expecting to go home that morning. Oh no. Because of call ins, we had go to work the shows that day. I walked into Beauty and the Beast and said, " I am here to just dress the shows. In between shows, you can find me sleeping underneath the rail of ball gowns."
Y2K, the disaster that never was. Disney planned for the Apocolypse, I think. They had pages of protocol and multiple plans if the world's computers were to crash on January 1, 2000. At every traffic intersection there were generator powered work lights. There were multiple generators staged all through out the parks. You name it, they did it. I also worked part-time at Universal Studios as an Entertainment Tech back then too. After seeing Disney's over planning, I was amazed at how non-chalant Universal was. I arrived at work December 31, 1999 and was handed a sheet of paper. One sheet, that's it. Basically it said, We are shutting down the rides at 11:30 pm. If all hell doesn't break loose at mid night, the rides will be reopened at 12:30.
One last thing, after our record setting four hurricane year with Charley, Francis, Jean and Ivan, the powers that be made pins to thank us for all of our hard work. It's one of my favorite Disney momentos. It's Mickey holding onto his Sorceror's had as the wind is trying to blow it away. http://eventservices.disney.go.com/pintrading/pin?id=34775
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
