Every so often, praise comes from someone whose opinion carries real weight. This week, it came from Joe Rohde.
Joe Rohde is an American designer and artist who spent over three decades at Walt Disney Imagineering, joining in 1980 after studying at the California Institute of the Arts. He was the creative lead behind Disney's Animal Kingdom, which opened in 1998, and later led projects including Expedition Everest, Aulani resort in Hawaii, and Pandora - The World of Avatar.
After visiting New York, he shared a thoughtful series of posts on Masquerade, the bold, immersive reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera, and we’re honoured by what he had to say.
Rohde’s first observation goes to the heart of what we set out to do. Revisiting a beloved IP, he notes, carries a temptation to lean on the emotions the original generated, so that audiences experience little more than a “guided memory.” Masquerade, in his view, does the opposite. It rebuilds the emotional experience from scratch, and because the setting is so different, with small groups moving through intimate spaces rather than sitting in a vast proscenium theatre, it makes those emotions feel new.
He also points out that you needn’t know anything about Phantom to be engaged by the show, which he says is how every theatrical experience should work. In his words, Masquerade is “not a trip down memory lane.”
In a second post, Rohde turned to the art direction, praising how effectively it directs attention to where the story is being told. Our home is a vast, emptied-out building, and rather than covering every surface in elaborate scenery, the design uses lighting and the positioning of the audience to focus the eye. A stack of candles, a leaning set piece or a drape of ropes, carefully placed and lit, gives an otherwise empty space specific meaning.
Rohde describes this as a metaphorical style of theatrical design that relies on the audience’s imagination. Because guests are constantly moving from one space to the next, there is “no time to pick apart the illusion.” He also notes that the real mastery lies in leaving audiences with a sense of lavishness rather than economy, despite working within the limits of any production’s means.
To our designers, performers, producers and technicians, and every member of the Masquerade team: this is a tribute to your craft. To Joe, thank you for the generosity and insight of your words, and for sharing them with the next generation of designers.
You can read Joe’s full posts here.
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