Parades and performers have been a key element of Disneyland — actually, a parade kicked off the opening of the park in 1955, and the beloved Disneyland Band performed for company — and so they proceed to entertain at Disney parks around the globe.

Disneyland Dwell Leisure oversees the exhibits, the 1000’s of performers and every thing that goes into the spectacles throughout all parks, resorts, cruise ships and different areas. It’s an enormous enterprise, and as David Lightbody, senior vp for Disney Dwell Leisure and the Muppets Studio, notes, “We’re positively one of many largest theatrical organizations on the earth.” However that doesn’t imply that particulars get misplaced. “I see a personality meet and greet because the purest, easiest type of theater. It’s one character and one visitor having this interplay. It’s pure theater,” he says with enthusiasm as he sits surrounded by piles of parade and theatrical props in a particular rehearsal room on the Walt Disney Imagineering campus in Glendale.

Lightbody honed his stage instincts in Scotland, the place he launched a small theatrical firm “placing Shakespeare on in castles,” he says, ultimately attracting the eye of mega-producer Cameron Waterproof coat. Working with Waterproof coat steeped Lightbody in business musical theater, as he discovered priceless classes about efficiently staging Western exhibits in China. It’s rock-solid base to supervise the worldwide DLE ops.

To cite Walt Disney: “Disneyland is a present.” Disney Dwell Leisure has productions in 12 Disney theme parks and 6 Disney cruise ships, in addition to at international particular occasions. The world over, the crew produces greater than 150 dwell parades, stage exhibits and spectaculars on daily basis, whereas creating and creating dozens of latest exhibits, parades and occasions. The DLE consists of a variety of disciplines, from writers, administrators, producers and designers to technical specialists, costumers and extra — plus 1000’s of performers, technicians, costumers, riggers, lighting specialists and inventive storytellers. The DLE crew additionally works carefully with their colleagues in Imagineering, which has led to some progressive storytelling instruments. And, in fact, a bit bit if pixie mud is a part of the blueprint.

It’s all about storytelling, Lightbody says, and the technical advances of Imagineering work in service of that. DLE groups pioneered projection mapping expertise, whereas persevering with to develop superior animatronics, wi-fi audio, interactive character experiences and cellular present controls.

Paint the Evening, a parade that originated within the Hong Kong park, stars within the Disneyland seventieth anniversary celebration. It’s the primary parade Lightbody produced for Disney. It’s additionally Disney’s first all-LED gentle parade and options greater than 1.5 million lights in addition to different progressive technical achievements, together with a flying Tinker Bell. 

“That’s form of modified the sport even additional than the Fundamental Road Electrical Parade, within the sense that it’s obtained a lot motion and colour and dynamics,” Lightbody says. 

The refreshed World of Colour Happiness! present at California Journey additionally incorporates new eye-popping projections, music and such film stars as Pleasure from “Inside Out.”

Lightbody makes the reference to the traditional origins of theater and the way in which DLE makes use of expertise right now to interact viewers imaginations within the service of a narrative. “Whether or not it’s projection mapping, whether or not it’s using new expertise just like the digital programming setting, drones — we’re utilizing increasingly in our nighttime spectaculars, and that could be a actually fascinating space to me. And that requires us to be hand in hand with our tech companions.”

Apart from the technical improvements, “I really feel fairly fortunate within the sense that the opposite factor that retains coming is nice new tales from our filmmakers,” he says. “So that could be a fixed refresh, and I’m very fortunate that my job is to reinterpret these tales in a dwell method that permits the company to work together with that story in a extra quick method.”

And with DLE, it’s showtime around the globe, 24/7.