Subject: RE: PUPT: Disney Job
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 10:13:13 -0400


OK, I've never applied for a Disney job, so maybe I should just shut up.
All I know is what I've heard, but here it is.

It isn't just puppeteers Disney doesn't respect.  They use that "must walk
around in costume" to assure that all their park employees are the same size
and shape.  I saw something that was said to be the parks dress code, and it
even specified the kind of underwear you had to have.  From what I've been
told, a Disney park is not a pleasant place to work.

Brid
 

-----Original Message-----
From: DanB315-AT-aol.com
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Sent: 10/10/02 8:21 PM
Subject: PUPT: Disney Job

      I'd like to call to your attention a disturbing situation that
happened to me at Disney casting recently in Orlando. I read with
interest a “Call for Puppeteers” in the Summer ‘02 issue of the
Puppeteers of America publication The Puppetry Journal. In it Mr. Jeff
Conover of Disney Ent. was quoted as saying, “We are always looking for
puppeteers. Even beginners can apply. We’re looking for people who have
a basic ability and who want to become world-class puppeteers over
time.”
     I decided to travel to Florida, at great expense and investigate
the situation. It was a surprise to me that I was interviewed by a clerk
(not a puppeteer). After checking into the audition schedule for the
day, she stated that it is Disney policy that ALL puppeteers must also
agree to walk around in costume as Mickey Mouse and other characters as
needed.
Being disabled, with cerebral palsy from the waist down, this was
impossible for me to do.
     In my twenty five year experience as a puppeteer, I’ve never heard
of such a policy, or lack of respect for puppetry. This is not what a
“world-class puppeteer” should be. I know I’m not the only qualified
puppeteer who has been refused a job at Disney, and hope this doesn’t
happen to other puppeteers. 
     Has anyone else heard of this policy?


Danny Burge







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