Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience

Most scholars and critics deny agency to the tourist in their engagement with the Disney theme park experience. The vast body of research and journalism on the Disney “Imagineers”—the designers and storytellers who construct the park experience—leads to the misconception that these exceptional artists puppeteer every aspect of the guest’s experience. This anthology, now in its second edition, re-centers the park experience around its protagonist: the tourist, and addresses the Disney Parks using performance theory, an approach few to no scholars had used prior to the first edition. The authors of the individual essays, as well as the Introduction by Kokai and Robson, and an Afterword by world renowned tourism and performance expert Susan Bennett, recognize the inherently complicated nature of Disney. Many of the contributors consider themselves Disney fans, but also recognize the potentially problematic aspects of Disney parks. This collection permits both perspectives to exist side by side, informing rather than contradicting each other.

Jennifer A. Kokai is the co-author, with Tom Robson, of Disney Parks and the Construction of American Identity: Tourism, Performance, Anxiety, and the solo author of Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles and the Performance of Race, Gender, and Nature, as well as numerous essays. She is Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of South Florida, USA.

Tom Robson is the co-author of Disney Parks and the Construction of American Identity: Tourism, Performance, Anxiety, with Jennifer A. Kokai. He is the author or co-author of several additional essays and chapters. He is currently a Clinical Assistant Teaching Professor in Purdue University’s Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program.

Part One: Introduction.- Chapter 1:“You’re In The Parade!” Disney As Immersive Theatre And The Tourist As Actor, Jennifer A. Kokai And Tom Robson.- Part Two: Chronologies– Historic And Fantastic.- Chapter 2:“The Future Is Truly In The Past”: The Regressive Nostalgia Of Tomorrowland, Tom Robson.- Chapter 3:“Some Of Our Closest, Unnamed Friends: First Nation Culture And Indexical Absence At Walt Disney World”, Victoria Pettersen Lantz.- Chapter 4: Taming The Fairy Tale: Performing Affective Medievalism In Fantasyland, Christina Gutierrez-Dennehy.- Chapter 5:Still Searching For A Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow: Performing Utopia With Non-Human Bodies In The Hall Of Presidents, Joseph D’ambrosi.- Chapter 6: The Royal Theatre Presents: Echoes Of Melodrama In The Magic Kingdom, Patrice Amon.- Part Three: Environments As Ideologies.- Chapter 7: The Nemofication Of Nature: Animals, Artificiality, And Affect At Disney World, Jennifer A. Kokai.- Chapter 8: Disney-Fying Dixie: Queering The“Laughing Place” At Splash Mountain, Chase Bringardner.- Chapter 9: Rising In The East: Disney Rehearses Chinese Consumers At A Glocalized Shanghai Disneyland, Laura Macdonald.- Chapter 10: Don’t Feel The Magic, Be The Magic: The Challenges Of Language Hybridity In Disneyland Paris, Alia Tyner-Mullings.- Part Four: Counter Identities.- Chapter 11: It’s Good To Be Bad: Resistance, Rebellion, And Disney Villain Merchandise, Christen Mandracchia.- Chapter 12: The Park As Stage: Radical Re-Casting In Disneyland’s Social Clubs, Elizabeth Mcqueen .- Chapter 13: Bulldozing The Fourth Wall: Distok And The Construction Of Community, Dori Koehler.- Chapter 14:“Ruff” Rides And Loose Leashes: Reimagining Non-Human Agency At Disney Theme Parks, Karli Brittz.- Part Five: Conclusion.- Chapter 15:Exemplary Disney: An Afterword, Susan Bennett.