IN MEMORY OF . . .

Most of my blogs i try to see the lighter side of Disney life. But as we approach Easter eve and my thoughts tend to drift toward life, death and the 'here after', i want to take a moment and make sure some of my friends who have passed on get remembered. In the past blogs, I have never use a person's real name for security and privacy reasons. But this one time i want to wave that.

Joel, entertainment technician, football player. I worked with Joel on the opening crew for Fantasmic!. He was a big guy with and even bigger heart. One christmas eve, he wanted to bring the tradition of reading the Christmas story to the Fantasmic! cast and asked if my Bible was in my car. That night he had a mini-church service in the green room. To see him you'd think he could crush anything. To talk with him you knew he was a big teddy bear.

He played on an arena football league for several years, but never achieved his dream of making it big. He had a part time job as a bouncer at a bar and it was assumed someone got ticked off that night. After hours Joel was sitting in his car and was shot several times in the chest. At last report, they still had no idea who did it.

Aeyrk was a dancer for Beauty and the Beast (B&B)and Pleasure Island. He was one of those people that every body knew. My fondest memory of Aeyrk was between shows when he was bored. He'd come into wardrobe, sit on the clothes dryer and keep us all amused with stories. One day particular, we got sex tips from a gay guy. . . it was very educational and kind of odd.

One afternoon, while riding his motorcycle, he was involved in a head on collision with a car. His was the first African-American funeral I had ever been to and it was the biggest emotional roller coaster I have ever been on. We laughed. We cried. We laughed some more. Disney management cancelled the morning's shows at B&B and any where else he had worked so people could go to the funeral. They also provided a bus to transport anyone who wanted to attend. For me it was very impressive that an individual was so well loved and respected by managment that they shut down several shows that day in his honor.

One last thing about Aeryk, when a friend of mine and I left the funeral, there was a car alarm going off. We were rather upset that some one would 'just allow thier alarm to keep going off'. Then we realized . . . it was her truck. She didn't even know she had a car alarm and had no idea how to turn it off. After fiddling with some wires and with some help from several of funeral attendees, we were able to turn the thing off. We decided that it had to have been Aeryk saying good bye to everyone in his own special way.

Joe, stage manager, was one of the sweetest, nicest guys you could ever meet. He worked at Epic for a long time and never once let the boy's shannigans get the better of him. Which is saying alot for that show. In fact, one day the boys had been watching too much wrestling on TV and started trying out wrestling moves on any one who walked through the door. Joe came in to announce 'Places' for the next show. One of the guys tried a few moves on him and he played along.

Joe had brain cancer. He was gone for a very long time while he had chemo, surgery and other treatments. I'll never for get when i saw him again for the first time. I said, "It is nice to see you back here again." His said, "It's nice to been seen." That really stuck with me, because that was his way of saying he was just happy to be alive. Sadly, Joe lost his battle with cancer a short time later.

Tom, Character Coordinator, was one of the most dedicated cast members I have ever seen. He lived, slept and breathed the Star Wars event at the studios every year. In fact, when he was sooo sick during his last Star Wars event that he could barely stand, we told him he should go home and take care of him self. He was almost in tears when he said, "If I do, they'll take the event away from me." Tom had terminal cancer and while in his thirties, in the middle of his beloved special event, he passed away. One of my most profound memories of his passing, was the fact that his fellow cast members rallied around him morning, noon and night. They practically moved into the hospital waiting room. They also put on a benefit show to help raise money for his mounting medical bills.

Donnie was one of the few managers who everyone respected. Things weren't good between hourlies and managers in costuming for years (but that is a whole other blog). Most managers, if they asked us to extent to cover a shift, we'd say, "nope, gotta go." If Donnie asked, we usually stayed because we could never tell Donnie no. Why ? He worked side beside with us. He backed us up and he respected his cast. One friday he left for the day with huge plans for his weekend. I was called Sunday and told that he had died from a heart attack. That week, we were all wrecks.

I want to end this blog on a high note and tell you one of Donnie's stories. He was in Bogota, Columbia with a bunch of costumes for a Latin America promotional tour. He realized too late that his driver's license had expired and the rental car company refused to rent him a car. After catching a cab to the his hotel, he decided it was not a good place to walk on the streets. He had no idea when he was supposed to meet his contact person, he was getting hungry and spoke no spanish. He tried to ask a housekeeper if the hotel had room service. She looked horrfied at him and ran away. Not knowing what he had said, the next day he told his contact person about the incident. He was told that instead of asking for room service. . . as in food, what he had asked for was to be serviced in the room . . . as in sex. Poor Donnie.

God Bless and Happy Easter

FANTASMIC!. . . enough said.

Being apart of the opening crew for Fantasmic! meant being apart of one of the biggest shows on property, having no fear of heights or of the water and enduring nearly four months of sleepless nights. Our rehearsals were from sun down to sun up and from what I was told, the guests in the Swan and Dolphin hotel were getting pretty miffed at hearing Maleficent (I never could remember how to spell her name) dieing evey night around two in the morning.

One of the first things the character performers had to learn was how to paddle a canoe for the Pocahantas scene. From our stand point, it was rather amusing watching them go round and round in circles. It became clear that none of these people had every been a Boy (or Girl)scout. The canoes were actualy gas powered, they just had to steer. Once thier trainers got them going in one direction, then came the fun of seeing bumper boats as they tried to pass each other in the begining of thier scene. What was even more fun was watching the Princess Barge's collide with each other or the wall and that was the entertainment techs driving them. Speaking of the barges, we had one sink due to a maintance error. . . . as in a maintainence men siphened water into the barge by accident. If I remember the story right, There was some work that had to be done to one section of the moat, so the mechanics siphened the water into the other sections. Except the huge siphen hose crept up the side of the barge and manage to completely fill it with water.

Have people fallen in the moat? Yes. At least one time, that I know of, it was intentional. In order to give the Rescue Boat training time and to answer the question "what would happen if a character falls in ?", Mickey took a walk one day. . . off the front of the stage. What we didn't know was that his shoes are made of an extremely bouyant material. He went in, his feet went up and his head went down. It became known at the 'Day we almost drowned Mickey'. But Never Fear, The Rescue Boat Was Near! I'm sure there has been more incidents of unintentional swimming since I have left the show, but one of the first times was when a tech took a dive. The canoe people are, when approaching the docks, supposed to put out thier oar and the tech pulls them into the dock. One night the character was a little impatient and tried to hurry it along. However, instead of the tech pulling the canoe in, they pulled the tech into the water. During the show the canoes stop on the sides of the stage and let thier passanger out. Whether or not the pocahontas indian makes it to the stage is based on how good the canoe driver is. Some times they fall in when they stop too far away from the platform.

A windy day at Fanstasmic! is always fun. For those who have seen the show, there is a huge purple and orange snake that comes out on stage. Each snake section looks like and inflatable pup tent. On more than one occasion, i have seen the wind blow a section into the moat. Then the techs have to go fishing for it. At one time costuming used a huge cloth bin to move costumes from point A to point B. This bin was later preset for the characters to throw their costumes in as they ran passed. The bin was set. We went to lunch. We came back to stage. It was gone. I looked over the edge and there it was, on the bottom of the moat. THe tech guys stood around and discussed how to get it out. One the tech girls came up with a grappling hook and helped us retreive it. (Score one for the girls!!). During a show, the wind can be brutal. The water screens soak everything and everyone. It may be my imagination, but I always felt like I was covered in a oily film after one of those nights. Heaven only knows what's in that water. Every so often a pair of ducks would find the moat. We'd always try to scare them off. I'm not really interested in seeking a three headed duck.

Fantasmic! is not a show for those afraid of heights. 66 steps to the top, and when you are carrying Mickey's Sorcerer costume to the top, it feels like 666. (no pun intended) In the middle of the mountian is a fairly good size deck, but it's all metal slat floors. You look down and see people running around below you. At the very top it's a pretty cool view of the park. . . and with more metal slat flooring, it's a good view of every one else two floors down.

Lighting in Florida summers is pretty much a given. We are the lighting capital of the Americas (I think one place in asia, Japan maybe, has more). Take my advice, If it's lighting and thunder immediately follows, don't remain in the Fantasmic! theater. You are surrounded my high voltage power lines for the stage lights. You are sitting on metal bleachers. Can we say "TOASTED" ? Not long after the show opened, we had one of those wonderful Florida thunderstorms and the show had to be cancelled. We alomst had a riot. The audience was yelling profanities and BOooing. I actually heard some brainiac scream "F*** Mickey". Except he used the uncensored version. Now, I understand that these people have been waiting for a long time . . . However, IT'S LIGHTING PEOPLE.

One last tip. FANTASMIC! is supposed to be spelled with the exclaimation mark. As the show was opening, we got word of some merchandise that was printed with out the exclaimations mark. Several of us stocked up on the misprint items. So if you see something written with out the '!' grab it, it could be worth something. . . in a hundred years or so.

Hunchback of Notre Dame: A Musical Adventure !

Way back when each new movie was welcomed by fan fare and a new show or parade being added to the park, there was a show based on Disney's bastardized version of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame Classic. The animated film was 'ehh' and was kind of out of step with most of Disney's animated movies. The show however took on a life of it's own as a thirty minute retelling of the film and had a huge fan base.

Located in the back of the park, it seemed to always be under threat of closing. We were amazed when we lasted one year, much less seven. This show was and always will be one of my favorites. It was a show about outcasts, and being an entertainer you never quiet fit the social norms of society, anyway. We had a little bit of everything in that show: seven Equity performers (anyone who has special skills, talks or sings is Equity), nine character performers (pupeteers who in another life worked with Mickey, Pluto, Chip, Dale etc.), pyro techs (they burnt down Paris five times a day), six costuming dressers (who were always ducking out of the way of props, and dodging cast members who were late for enterances), two cosmetologists (it is amazing all the uses there are for doublesided hair and makeup tape) and one preshow juggler act (who had his own fan club following after a while).

It's petty sad when you'd rather be at Work on a holiday that with your family, but the cast and crew at Hunchback was my family. . . sort of. On our first Easter sunday, we turned the court yard between the stage and the greenroom into a little outdoor French Bistro. The techs had two hot plates in the back corner making omletes. We had electric skillets and waffle irons with pitchers of batter to make pancakes and waffles. Breads and pasteries of every size and discription was on another table. You name it we had it. Costuming put together an Easter Egg hunt. I found the quickest way to turn grown adults into children again is to hide something and tell them to go find it.

Costumes were alway an issue at that show. One of our gypsies (characters) hated his hat. He called it the "Herbie the Misfit Elf" hat. In one show it fell off, as it usually did, but this time he never got it back because his precious cast members kept kicking it around the stage like a hacky-sack. After that the stage managers made the hat go away. Costuming's claim to fame was a seven second complete Esmeralda costume change. It didn't have to be seven seconds, but we wanted to prove we could do it. Esmerelda would sneeze on stage and disappear behind a curtian and a poof of smoke. One of us would unzip her red dress, drop it to the floor. The second dresser would drop the blue dress over her head. The first dresser would zip it while the second dresser would snap the sash into place. Meanwhile, cosmetology straightened her hair and she was off.

The characters took being a gypsy to heart and were the mischievous bunch of people I have ever worked with. They had themed shows like the 'Riverdance Show' where everyone moved around on stage like they were in Riverdance. In one scene the gypsies where thrown in jail. The top of the jail was a stair way where the Gargoyles stood. We had certian gypsies that loved to torment the Gargoyles by untying thier shoe laces or pulling on thier tights.

As with most theater shows, Broadway and other wise, we had understudies. Everyone knows that. One particular day, we ran out of Quasimodos and the managers had to call in the under study. . . We'll call Quasi J. The only problem was, Quasi J, being his day off, was at the Epcot WINE and Food festival. (note the emphasis on Wine) Quasi J told them he was at the WINE and Food festival, but Stage Managers said "We'll deal with that when you get here, just come in and save the shows." I happened to be dressing that track that day and had to deal with the tipsy Quasi. . . lucky me. Quasi T wanted the lead in the show so bad, but there was one minor issue, a rope swing stunt from one side of the stage to the other that he was petrified of. He almost never landed right, in fact we refered to his rope swing as 'Bowling for Guards' since he usually took out several guards each show.

Props were a big part of that show. Let me emphasize BIG. We had a life size horse puppet we lovingly refered to as Snowball. Frollo would ride out on this thing being pushed by a puppeteer. I was always amazed the Frollo never took a header off the front of the stage. After his scene, we used Snowball to preset costumes on. His right ear became The Official Spot for the stiltwalking gypsy's dew rag. Since the show went away five, six years ago, Snowball turned into a convention prop. Just the other day I actually ran into him at some holiday promotion thing. I ignored the people working the event and told Snowball how much I missed him. The people thought I was nuts.

Back stage at Hunchback was 'all about no where to stand'. In our seven year run, we only had one costuming manager who wasn't afraid to be back stage during a show. In fact we had one manager (blonde . . .enough said) that came to see us right before the show. The music started. People started running. This manager was like a deer in headlights. When the 'burning buildings' were rolled back stage (real flames), she was gone and never came back to the show again. Between flaming set pieces, Snowball the life size horse, a Madonna and child statue, various size puppet racks, stiltwalkers and just the general wierd costume/props, we were always moving out of the way of something, not the least of which was running cast members.

Disney shows are live microphoned singers, so let me end with our blooper reel and Hunchback had some real doosy's.

One of the gargoyle parishoners was supposed to "ask for fame."
Instead he asked for "pain" one day.

In a touching scene, Quasi is supposed to tell Esmerelda that "I don't think I'm your type." Esmerelda replys "Nonsense, your sweet, intellegent (yada yada yada)"
However, Quasi T said one day "I don't think you're my type." Esmerelda had no response for him. Although it was interesting to watch her dig herself out of the hole.

Clopin in the opening of the show was supposed to say something about Paris "...and the cities awake."
What he said was yada yada Paris. ". . . and the titis awake." Hmmm wander who he was looking at in the audience.

Clopin in the Feast of Fools scene, he was supposed to say, "Tospy Turvy is when you shock the Prig and mock the Priest."
One day he said, no lie, "Tospy turvy is when you shock to prig and f##k the priest."

And the stories continue, but at another time.
I found a pretty good version of the old show on youtube. check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZrYogrA2Ao

If All The World's a Stage, Why Am I stuck in the Dress Rehearsal

For those of you who have never worked in theater, let me first of all say, "I'm sorry". There is nothing quiet like an entertaiment family. And we truly are a family. Wardrobe / Costuming is mom to everyone. We always knew when some one needed to have a shoulder to cry on or a confidential friend to talk to.

Creative Costuming, those responsible for making the stuff, always seemed to a little out of touch with reality. They could make the most beautiful garment. . . on a dress form, but put it on a living, breathing, sweating person and it would fall apart. Silks looked awesome, but when they were washed, they would bleed like a rainbow. Belle, from the Beauty and the Beast Show, her ball gown was at least thirty, forty pounds. I could never get the thing off the ground to hang it up.

The Technicians are always the dads, (male / female it didn't matter). The techs are the keepers of all things safety, all things flammable and all things that when used wrong or carelessly can injure and or maime someone.

When you hear the words "Pyro coming through..." you Move. The holidays around 2005 or 2004, (i'm keeping it intentionally vague for privacy sake) there was a holiday show that, it was said, the techs wanted the last show of the season to go off with a little extra flair, so they added extra pyro. The performers were not told this and several members of the cast were injured with minor burnes. Some costume pieces melted. I saw one of guys a short time later and he didn't have any eyebrows. They had been singed off.

Then we have our precious children 'The Cast'. I loved my cast . . . most of them. There will always be those individuals that have been seared in my mind that if maiming was legal . . . . sorry, let's move on. I always have a philosophy 'when in rome do as the romans'. Each stage has it's own ambience, it's own culture, it's own unwritten rules of order. Any show with equity dancers, tends to be a bit high maintenance. 'My gloves are not in the right place. OH, I can't go on. My life is ruined.' (disclaimer, for those dancers who will get upset when you read this, go out to the stage, check your preset, then come back and finish reading my blog.)

My favorite stage will always be the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, or as we call it, EPIC. The testostrone runs thick at that show. Predominately a male cast, teaching the boys to pick up after themself usually takes some unorthodox methods. When shoes, hats, etc. would get left laying around the greenroom, the offender would find his items in the freezer the next day frozen in a block of ice. My managers would always freak out when they heard that, but they were always to afraid too step foot in the Epic trailer, so they never knew about the other stuff we'd did. One of they boys newest games (before I left) was throwing hangers at the clothes rack and trying to see if it would stay there. The words "Hanger In Flight !" Usually meant "DUCK".

Parade performers and puppteers always seemed the be the children of the children. You had your old school performers that were awesome. They looked at a new costume and figured out how to make it work. Then some where along the way we aquired a new set of darlings that worked harder at getting out of doing the parade than they ever did in the parade. To watch a puppeet show like Playhouse Disney or Lion King from under the stage is pretty darn cool. From sliding on their knees from one side of stage to other at Playhouse Disney in order to make thier next enterance to learning to see in the dark at Voyage of the Little Mermaid, the puppeteers are usually pretty intense about their jobs.

Then there are the musicians, streetmosphere, face painters, convention performers, Epcot Cultural performers, the horse people, and . . . we'll get to them later.