Word: hersheypark
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Theme parks may be better known for flume rides and cruise ships for bingo, but from Disney to Opryland to Hersheypark, they are becoming the summer theaters of the '90s: the places where growing numbers of tyro thespians, crooners and tap dancers get their first experience performing before live audiences...
...dance without tripping over a microphone cord, how to improvise when a prop disappears or scenery just won't move, how to entice an audience distracted by weather or a crying child or a plateful of food. Says Steven Fox, 24, a singer and pianist at Pennsylvania's Hersheypark: "Our show takes place in a restaurant. We call it performing at McDonald's. For every person who came to see us, another wanted spare ribs...
Theme-park actors do not, to be sure, make much use of training in Shakespeare or Method-style character analysis. But they say acting study helps nonetheless. Kevin Kraft, 22, is a University of Southern California junior in his second summer as a clown and juggler at Hersheypark; he has also toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Says Kraft: "If I pretend in slow motion to grab for a nonexistent ball, I'd better have a real intention to catch it, which is acting technique, or the comedy falls flat...
...work to please them because they are used to just turning on the TV, not seeing entertainment live." Third, it is almost impossible to get agents and casting directors to come, even to Opryland, nine miles from the country-music-industry center in Nashville. Admits Kelly Wilmoth, 26, a Hersheypark performer who has appeared on the Bermuda Star Line and in dinner theaters: "From the viewpoint of getting your next job, this work almost might not have happened...
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