“Story Time With Belle” - Equity Walt Disney World
I received this equity role prior to given a full time contract. I auditioned for 2 years before they gave me this role, but was considered for it off and on throughout the auditioning term. I guess timing has a lot to do with it.
This show is about Belle interacting with the guests while she retells the story of Beauty and The Beast, cleverly getting audience participation (namely children) to get on stage and help act out the story. The children were adorable, mostly, and the Dad’s who played The Beast were great sports! This was a very popular show and we usually had to turn people away because the seating area was so small.
The show was run in between the castle show (Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration) so we had to be quick. This venue included a show and a follow up meet and greet. The script was lengthy, which really only allowed a very short time to see all of the guests that stayed for the show. The capacity for this area was about 100 - 150 people, so if your show ran long, you’d end up with only about 10 - 12 minutes to see each guest. That means, talking while signing an autograph and then taking a picture with the guest/s. That comes out to be about a tenth of a minute, or 6 seconds per person, to get through the line before the castle show started.
I shortened my show by abbreviating the introduction - everyone knew who Belle was and what she liked to do most of all - and got right to the meat of the show which was acting out the story with the kids. That was the fun part! Then it gave me 15 minutes to spend quality time with the guests afterwards. It’s really hard to push people away when you’re thinking 6 seconds per person, 6 seconds per person. That’s not quality time. Plus, what do you do when the mother comes up to you with her son in tow, the boy puts his arms around your neck and says “I love you Belle” and the mother starts bawling as she confides in you that this is the first time he’s talked in months since his father died. I mean, 6 seconds for this??? No way - I’ll spend as much time as I can with this child and even ask for him to come back and spend my lunch time with him (if we could work it out with the managers.) I thought I gave a great show - more time with the guests in a more intimate setting. I was offered a part time equity contract after my full time contract expired in 2004.
