Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1999 - 29

COSTUMES
Many of the costumes, designed by Marianne Verheyen, could
have easily been taken right from the parks. However, the production team felt that for the staged productions on Disney
Magic, the costumes needed more theatrical touches. For example, the Beast's blue jacket (Beauty and tbe Beast) in the
park is made from a solid blue fabric, but for Disney Magic, a
fabric woven with hints of gold metallic thread was used.
According to Catron, there are approximately -60 costumes for the three major productions. He also notes that
there are nearly 200 wigs and 350 pairs of shoes used in the
shows. Awardrobe crew of three maintains the costumes and
helps with backstage changes. About half of the costumes were
built at Walt Disney World with the rest being supplied by
Carrelli COSnInleS of New York and Costume Works of Boston.

Scene from Hercules - A Muse-ical

Comedy and costume sketches of
same by Lynne McKinley Ford.

LIGHTING
Jeff Da\~s, lighting designer for the Walt Disney Theatre, developed a plot for the three shows in rep, Disney Dreams, Hercules-A Jlfuse-ical Comedy, and The Voyage of tbe Gbost
Ship. The rig also pro~des flexibility for lighting special events
like guest speakers or solo '"headliners." There are two light
bridges over the house and three behind the proscenium. The
plot in the \Valt Disney Theatre contains some 400-plus static
units (most of which are ETC Source Fours), forty-seven moving lights (Cyberlights and Studio Colors), along \~th Wildfire
blacklight units and several strobe fixtures. Many of the
Source Fours are outfitted with Wybron Coloram4 color
scrollers. Control is through an Obsession II with 3,000 channels and ML (mo~ng light) technology built into the board. A
second Obsession [J functions as a backup to the primary
board. Additionally, there is a rack of non-dim control circuits
that allow designated circuits throughout the theatre to be
grouped and activated as any event may require.
One would think that the ship's movement and ~brations
would make it difficult to maintain the focus of the shows. So
far, the only problems have been with a few of the scanner
units (mo~ng mirrors on the Cyberlights) which on occasion
will pick up ~brations from the ship causing some minor
movement in the projected light.

SOUND
Joe Knapp (who has designed extensively within the parks)
was responsible for the sound specifications and overall
acoustic design for the WDT and its productions. The musical director was Steve Skorija. With the musical format,
sound reinforcement for the productions in the Walt
Disney Theatre is extensive. All of the principals and some
of the chorus performers are live (in contrast to normal
practice in the parks where many are recorded). This requires fourteen Sennheiser wireless mikes. Taped vocal
tracks are available in case of illness. The primary playback system is an Akai DR-16 hard drive. This allows sixteen audio tracks to be supported through the primary

Costume sketches of Disney Dreams

by Marianne Verheyen.

T O&T

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1999