You are here: Los Angeles Arts and Entertainment Orlando Theater and Film Examiner

Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor

Orlando Theater and Film Examiner
Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor has written about film and theater for more than a decade. Her respect for the art grew from a brief stint onstage, which taught her that writing about it is much easier than doing it.

  

Orlando Examiners

Joseph Hayes
Orlando Restaurant Examiner
Most Recent Post
Thanksgiving at Funky Monkey all week
 
 

(i.e. Los Angeles hiking, Los Angeles parenting)

Disney, Universal actors enrich local theater

October 9, 9:25 PM
by Jennifer Greenhill-Taylor, Orlando Theater and Film Examiner
 
 
 

 

Disney's Adventurers Club at Pleasure Island, an intense incubator of improvisational skills, closed down at the end of September.
 
 
 
 
The Adventurers Club is gone, as are the Comedy Warehouse and the rest of the clubs on Disney’s Pleasure Island. The last mask laughed and winked a couple of weeks back, and the actors have moved on to different theme-park stages, or left town for other opportunities. The Pleasure Island clubs will be missed, as their interactive atmosphere was unique among theme parks.
 
It isn’t the first time actors have been laid off by Disney. After 9-11, when Central Florida tourism tanked, about 100 full-time Equity actors were shown the door.
 
How does this affect the local theater scene, which has been enriched by the presence of high-quality actors, directors and theater workers here for the union pay scales at the theme parks? Fortunately for Orlando theatergoers, Disney has retained many of the Pleasure Island performers whose faces we’ve come to know and love on local stages.
 
Why do talented actors stick around Central Florida? Because the area offers a situation rarely found outside New York or Los Angeles. Actors can actually make a living here.
 
“The security of a one-year contract,” is one reason to stay, said T. Robert Pigott, an actor who has appeared on theme park and local stages for more than a decade. “Not to mention the medical and dental benefits.”
 
Pigott, Jay Becker and Philip Nolen, all actors who thrive on the combination of theme park work and local theater, shared their thoughts about life in Orlando with me this week. All three came to town after studying theater in school, seeking professional employment in films or at the parks.
 
Becker and Nolen arrived in the early 90s, went to Disney auditions, and ended up working at the Adventurers Club and Comedy Warehouse, among other park venues. Pigott performed in Europe and New York before going to work for Disney in 1995. He also was a staple at Adventurer’s Club. Between them, the three have performed at nearly every theater company in Central Florida.
 
They all say the parks have changed the local theater scene, whether through the quality of acting, directing and backstage workers available, or in influencing the move toward professional theater status.
 
Becker called the Pleasure Island clubs “the gold ring of theme park acting,” where actors received an intense daily workout in improvisation, and then took those skills into the local theaters. The main change Nolen has noticed is “what the actors expect.” The theater scene was vibrant in the early 90s, he said, but it definitely had a community-theater feel. “It was a fun, collegial environment, but now there is an expectation from the actors of a more professional environment, with pay.”
 
With the greater number of Equity actors in town there are a greater number of Equity contracts available, Pigott said. There’s a special Actors Equity Association contract designed especially for Orlando, he said. It gives theaters the chance to use professional actors at a slightly discounted rate. It also allows union actors who work full time at the parks to do outside theater.
 
For more, see Part II.

 

For more info: Check out a tribute site to the Adventurers Club at www.MySpace.com/adventurersclub.

 


Topics: Theater
   Subscribe   Feed
 

Comments

Name:  
Email Address:  
Comments:  

More from Orlando Theater and Film Examiner

Enzian, JCC present 10th annual Jewish Film Festival, starting Sunday

November 12, 11:23 AM
The 10th Annual Central Florida Jewish Film Festival at the Enzian Theater is coming up this weekend, and it features a documentary,  Constantine's Sword, by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Oren Jacoby. The documentary explores the dark side of Christianity,... Read More
Topics: Movies , festivals , Jewish Community Center , Holocaust Center

Shakespeare puts on his poker face in a game night at Orlando Shakes

November 7, 11:00 AM
Orlando Shakespeare Poker night is Saturday, so gather your eyeshades and your poker faces and get on over to the Dr. Phillips Patrons Room at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center by 6 p.m. Saturday night.The game is No-Limit Texas Hold-’em and your... Read More

Take a trip to Mars at SCC planetarium

November 7, 10:27 AM
Port of Call: Mars! opens today at Seminole Community College Planetarium. Sit back and enjoy some intergalactic travel as the original show takes visitors aboard the USS Star Dancer, flag(space)ship of the Virgo Galactic Interplanetary... Read More
Topics: Movies , Mars , space , SCC

Puppets hit the stage for downtown Orlando fest

November 7, 10:15 AM
The Orlando Puppet Festival kicks into high gear today, Nov. 7. The event is produced by Ibex Puppetry, a group formed by Heather Henson, daughter of Jim Henson of Sesame Street and Muppet fame. Ibex is an entertainment company dedicated to promoting... Read More
Topics: festivals , Puppets , Sesame Street , Muppets

Free screenings offer fun at the Film Fest in downtown Orlando

November 7, 9:42 AM
The 2008 Orlando Film Festival continues to screen films through Nov. 9. Two of the nearly 20 feature films will have world premieres, others will have their  national and state debuts. There are also dozens of short films to see... Read More
Topics: Movies , festivals

Tibetan monks to perform The Mystical Arts of Tibet at Rollins' Tiedtke Center

November 7, 9:22 AM
 The famed multiphonic singers of Tibet’s Drepung Loseling Monastery, whose sellout performances in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center received national acclaim, will perform Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing at 8 p.m. today, Nov.... Read More
Topics: Performance , Richard Gere , Tibet , Brad Pitt , Martin Scorsese

Sesame Street puppeteer featured at Puppet Fest

October 31, 1:10 PM
The Orlando Puppet Festival is coming to town starting Nov. 7, featuring national and local puppet artists, including Fran Brill, who was the first female Muppet performer hired by Jim Henson on Sesame Street.You can have brunch with her on Sunday,... Read More
Topics: Puppets , Sesame Street , Muppets

Downtown Orlando goes Hollywood as it gears up for 3rd Film Fest screenings, parties

October 29, 12:57 PM
  The 2008 Orlando Film Festival will screen dozens of films starting Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 9. Two of the nearly 20 feature films will have world premieres, others will have their  national and state debuts. There are... Read More
Topics: Movies , Universal Studios , festivals

SnagFilms puts documentaries in millions of virtual screening rooms

October 23, 7:37 PM
 Entrepreneurs Ted Leonsis and Steve Case, formerly of AOL, and other investors, launched the Web company SnagFilms.com earlier this year to distribute documentaries for free.The site says it is committed to finding the world‘s most compelling... Read More
Topics: Movies , Internet