Here Is The Report!!!
Audition Report –
“Playhouse Disney – Live Onstage!” at Disneyland
AT LONG LAST! For the two or three of you out there who care (
), here is a summary of what the audition process was like at Disneyland. I should say a couple of things right off the bat: Firstly, any opinions expressed herein are my own, and are not those of The Walt Disney Company. Secondly, this is simply a record of my audition experience and I can’t guarantee that the following data will be accurate for future auditions. So don’t get peeved at me if they totally change the way they do things. Thirdly, I must thank Buck Beaver, Jeremy Actor and Fishbone for their posts. Their information was incredibly helpful, and I felt more prepared for this audition than I have for most acting auditions I’ve gone out for.
Enough already! Here’s the hot poop:
Part I – H.R. PAPERWORK ‘N STUFF
In the lobby of the Cast Member (Human Resources) Building, about 35-40 puppeteers line up for a clipboards holding tidy little stacks of papers to fill out. Roughly half of the people there to audition are current Cast Members, most of them from the character department. We turn in our paperwork, are given a number, have our height measurement taken (for Bear, the performer must be between 5’ 11” and 6’ 2”,) and our picture taken.
We wait for a spell. Enter the HR lady who is in charge of the Character Department. She introduces the director of “Playhouse Disney – Live Onstage,” the Stage/Production Manager, and Jeff Conover. Jeff is the Disney Puppet Master and a one-time Muppeteer. He oversees all of the puppetry at Walt Disney World (I believe there are 5 or 6 live shows at WDW which utilize puppets) and is just a swell guy. More about him later.
The director of the show, Jon, gives us a brief run-down of what the show is like. Earlier the HR lady said it was “Fleetwood Mac for kids.” I’ve seen the show twice, and I have to agree. It’s a high-energy spectacle, and the kids absolutely love it. Jon turns things back over to the HR lady, who tells us what Disney looks for in Cast Members, what the physical demands will be, and what the pay and work schedule will be. Finished with the formalities, we are now escorted to the rehearsal building for …
Part II – SYNCH OR SWIM
When we enter the rehearsal hall, we see Bear laid out on a plastic drop and about five hand and rod puppets resting on a crate. Upon closer inspection, I see the Henson Creature Shop tag on the inside of the Bear puppet. So yes, these are the “real deal.” The hand puppets look like “drug education” type-puppets – definite characters built for a definite script – and remind a couple of my puppeteer peers of the “Puzzle Place” puppets.
Someone tells us to warm up our arms while we wait for the rest of our entourage to enter. A few minutes pass, and we are turned over to Jeff and the Disneyland Puppet Trainers. They run us through some simple lip sync exercises (“Alright, let’s count one to twenty! Everyone together! 1, 2, 3 ….”) We are then split into three groups of twelve for what will be the first of three elimination rounds. The first group stays in the hall, and the rest of us go across the hall to a smaller studio. This will be our “holding area” for the day.
My group is called, we reenter the rehearsal hall, and are given . . . drum roll please . . . ping-pong ball eyes. Two ping-pong balls with black felt pupils connected by a small elastic loop. Immediately I feel a surge of confidence. You see, Fishbone posted in this forum about a month ago that this was exactly what he experienced at his Disney audition. So I have been preparing by throwing on my cheap plastic “knuckle eyes” and lip-syncing to “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast. As Fishbone predicted, this is the exact piece of music we’re given to lip-synch to. We’re divided into two staggered lines, go through the song once, the back line comes to the front and we do it again.
We shuffle back to the small studio. About eighteen people are cut, and we move onto round two of the eliminations, and Part III of this write-up.
Part III – KEEPING IT ON THE LEVEL or FOCUS, PEEPERS, FOCUS!
A couple of Cast Members have joined the hopefuls. Sure, they’re late arrivals, but only because they had shifts to complete. Besides, I overhear that the new arrivals made the first cut earlier this morning, in a specially scheduled audition. Contrary to a prior audition report I read the audition process does not seem to favor Cast Members over newbies. In fact, by the end of the audition process, there are more newbies left than Cast Members (by my estimation, it’s about 2 to 1.)
All of us are brought into the main rehearsal hall, and Jeff runs us through the paces on eye focus. He has us drill eye focus (“Just let your hand float. The movement is all in the wrist.”) and we are split into two groups.
I’m in the last group again. When I get in to the space, we are given our ping-pong balls, and are told that they know we can lip-sync, so don’t worry too much about that this time ‘round. This is for eye focus, so go nuts and really perform it this time. We’re in two lines once more. “Be Our Guest” plays once, the lines switch out, and “Be Our Guest” plays again. This time, I notice our auditors laughing at our antics.
We return to the studio, awaiting the next round of cuts. About six people total are cut this time. I overhear a bit of what they are told out in the hallway – “You’ve got lip-sync down. Work on your technique, work on eye focus, and come back in the spring.” (So they are planning more puppeteer auditions in the spring!)
PART IV – ELBOW DEEP IN FELT AND FOAM
FINALLY! Real puppets. We’re split in to three small groups, and are brought to the rehearsal hall in turns for the final elimination round. I’m in the last group – again – but it’s all good. I find out from the first group which puppets to avoid taking (which one is the heaviest, which one is the tightest fit) and what to expect. We’ll be using those hand and rod puppets we saw when we first entered the rehearsal hall. “Be Our Guest” has been retired, and this time we’ll be lip-syncing to “Candyman” as performed by Sammy Davis, Jr.
My group is called in. Jeff talks to us about handling the arm rods, shows us a trick or two, and away we go!
Halfway through the song, Jeff says “stop the music.” He looks right at me and says “Is your arm cramping up?” Indeed, it is. “Don’t worry,” he reassures me. “This happens all the time in auditions. Once the arm cramps up, the mouth stops moving. Let’s all just relax our arms for a moment.” We do. We joke around a bit, and then go back in on “Candyman.” I sail through it just fine, concentrating on breathing life into the inanimate pile of fluff at the end of my right arm. The whole song plays, and we are excused to the studio. I kind of groan internally, thinking that I’ll be cut this time for sure.
Well, I made the cut. I didn’t believe it until a couple of HR ladies came in to start us on some paperwork. But I made the cut.
Another nugget of data I overheard when the last batch of puppeteer hopefuls was cut: “Jeff recommends you check out Fraggle Rock. That’s the style of puppet work he’s looking for on this.”
PART V – BEAR KNUCKLE TIME!
At this point, the group of newly hired puppeteers are pretty evenly split between current Cast Members and newbies. Two of us are called out to “try on Bear,” A Cast Member from the character department and myself. (The first Cast Member actually tried on Bear earlier – he was walking around in the legs while I was wincing and trying to keep up with Sammy Davis, Jr. in the final elimination round.) A choreographer teaches us the steps to “The Bear Cha Cha Cha.” We change into t-shirts, shorts and ‘do rags provided by the costuming department. My fellow puppeteer puts on Bear first, and runs through the choreography. And now, it’s my turn . . .
I think I may post the Bear experience later. Probably most of the people who post here have a good enough idea how the big guy works.
I find out some days later that I will be performing Pop (cool! I love Pip and Pop!) They are not casting Bear right at the moment, but they wanted to know what resources they had available when the time comes.
Rehearsals start next week, and I will be under the stage in a week and a half.
I hope that this data will be useful to any other hopefuls out there who plan on attending the next round of auditions. The only advice I can give you is to really “be” there – pay attention, be alert, alive, and quick to follow instructions. These things I had in common with the others who made the cut.
Any questions?
--Scraps Flippy.
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Back to the Rock Season 2
Sesame Street Season 54
The Muppets Mayhem premieres
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
