Blog 11 - Holiday Project Update

1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?

• This winter break I went to Orlando, Florida to live my dream of visiting Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando as a graduation present for me from my parents. We were gone all 2 weeks of break and didn't return until the night of January 4. In this case, I wasn't able to do anything that requires work. Even if I was able to, my mentor was on winter break so I wasn't able to ask him for any sort of mentorship work. However, both theme parks I went to allowed me to watch extremely well put on shows and parades (yes they have acting) that had amazing acting, singing, dancing, movement, stunts, tech, and so much more. I was able to learn a lot about acting and the business in theme parks. Here are the shows I watched in the parks over break:
• Walt Disney World
• Dream Along with Mickey
• Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade
• Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade
• Journey of the Little Mermaid
• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
• Fantasmic!
• Festival of the Lion King
• Finding Nemo the Musical
• Universal Studios Orlando
• A Grinchmas Spectacular
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• Not only do shows require acting, but so do characters in character meet and greets throughout the parks. This is especially challenging because everything is unexpected. Doing this requires a huge amount of improv and ability to stay in character at all times. On this trip, I had two of the greatest character meet and greets with Tarzan and Gaston. They were two amazing actors who always stayed in character and were a lot of fun to talk to. Here are some pictures:

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why? What was the source of what you learned?

• One of the most important things I learned from this experience us that working in a theme park as an actor/actress is a really good idea. Being able to perform daily in front of big audiences is one of the greatest things an actor can ask for. (I wouldn't exactly mind working as a performer for Disney). I think this information is extremely important for any actor who is looking for a career in this field. Not only did I realize this while watching these performances, but I had also read an article where it stated that theme park performing is one of the best jobs an actor can have.

3. If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers for your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

• I would most likely talk to a working actor or director because they would have the most knowledge and would currently be using their own methods that can provide me the answers to my essential question.