Word: opryland
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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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...
...Cinderella's castle. The giant Disney parks in Florida and California consider everyone who greets the public to be a performer; the ranks of honest-to-Goofy singers, dancers and actors reach into the hundreds and arguably thousands, even if ) some sport Mickey Mouse heads. Nashville's much smaller Opryland, which relies more on entertainment to sell itself than any other park, employs 400-plus performers -- comparable with the combined casts of all the musicals currently on Broadway -- in a dozen shows with a cumulative annual audience of nearly 5 million. Most of these actors, and the bulk of their...
...Gardens park in Williamsburg, Va.: "This is the first taste of the performer's real world. College shows run two or three weekends. Where else, as a young person, can you do a long run like this?" Michael Myers, 22, a Texas Tech marketing graduate turned singer-songwriter, likes Opryland because "you're out there in the full light of day, playing to no tellin' who. They come from all over, and you have to relate right away...
...general entry fee, some spectators are just looking for a place to sit down, especially if the wait for a roller coaster is long, the day is hot and the theater is indoors and air-conditioned. As a result, their tastes may be unsophisticated. Says David Felty, 25, an Opryland singer who will appear on Star Search, a syndicated TV series featuring aspiring performers: "The audiences like songs they already know. Also, many of them don't appreciate how hard we work to please them because they are used to just turning on the TV, not seeing entertainment live." Third...