From “Aladdin” in Mexico City to “Frozen” in London to “The Lion King” in Tokyo — not to mention “Lion King” and “Aladdin” on Broadway — Disney Theatrical Productions is in the middle of launching nine new shows and reviving 14 others that were impacted by the epidemic.
They're doing all of this in approximately seven months. To put it simply, that's a lot.
The staff at Disney, on the other hand, saw a clear rationale in executing everything at once.
On the latest edition of Stagecraft, Anne Quart, senior vice president of production and co-producer at Disney Theatrical, stated, "We could have stretched it out much farther, but we made the choice that at the core of what we do is people." “We need to go back to work with our performers, crew, musicians, and designers.
The whole ecology must be lifted off the ground.
There can't be one program that is more essential than the other.
We must all work together to bring it up.
We won't have an industry until we do this.” Quart and Thomas Schumacher, DTP's producer and president, spoke on Stagecraft to discuss how they manage scheduling, worldwide travel, remote work, and different foreign COVID-19 limitations to get these performances off the ground.
Quart observed, "Everything has 500 stages that it didn't have before COVID."
She went on to say, "Plus, each individual person inside the system has their own emotions." “How they feel about safety, about COVID, and how they feel in the place.
You'll need to make space for it as well.
So there are a lot of variables.” In addition, in the latest edition of Stagecraft, Following the reckoning that has taken place in the theater business and the entertainment industry at large over the past year, Quart and Schumacher addressed how Disney Theatrical is moving toward equality and racial justice.
In terms of the company's equality and accessibility efforts, Schumacher stated, "We're deep into this discussion, and that implies a lifetime conversation."
“When you look into this subject, you'll see that we weren't really following through on the commitment we made to ourselves, and it's been a wake-up call.”
When it came to the theater industry, Schumacher acknowledged he didn't know what to anticipate in the near future, but he was extremely enthusiastic about the long-term possibilities.
“How will the world be in a year's time? He said, "I honestly don't know." “However, I am sure that in the long run, this will be remembered as a period of transition.
Some of it was really beneficial change that made us much better and more vibrant.” COVID Expert on Broadway Discusses Returning to Theaters Safely.
