From Pittsburgh to a Magical Place...

[brangell]

Hiya folks,

I've been a follower of the SM Network for a while, but haven't been very active on it (shame... bad SM).  That changes today!

I'm a stage manager and production manager fresh out of Carnegie Mellon who jumped right over to a happy place after graduation... one might say one of the happiest places on Earth, if you catch my drift   I'm a Production Assistant here and loving it, having just completed an internship and joining the ranks as a full Cast Member.  I'm an aspiring professional stage manager, whether here in the parks or across the country on tour, but am currently responsible for putting some of our most recognizable characters out on the side of the road during the Marathon season. 

My fun fact, though, is if you watch the Christmas Day Parade this year, you'll see over a thousand dancers out on Main Street.  In order to rehearse, we had to use a full expo hall in a convention center - and even then, we could only fit half the street!

[PSMKay]

Thanks for joining us, Brangell, and thanks for posting your trivia tidbit! CMU had an excellent and highly competitive program when I was in HS 20 years ago, glad to see they're still turning out good folks.

One of my former partners used to be a cast member too - he portrayed a certain out-of-this-world toy action hero at the now defunct Chicago outpost, if you get my drift. The thing that makes me wonder is what costume storage for a place like that must look like. I mean, is it hundreds of character costumes all in a row? What kind of cleaning is required? Are there size ranges that are acceptable to play particular characters?

I know we've got some other big WDW fans around here and amusement park techs. Always happy to have another.

[brangell]

I sent you a few PMs, PSMKay, to share a little without ruining the magic

I really enjoyed DQ Chicago - I went as a kid.  I just worked on Halloween at the flagship down here at Downtown.

[Maribeth]

Hi and welcome to the boards, brangell! Love the trivia.

[KMC]

Welcome to SMNetwork!

If you are open to exploring other avenues in effort of reaching your goal you may consider DCL.  Cruise ships are often a road less traveled and your current employer happens to own a cruise line.  Of course it's a totally different experience than a park or other land-based SM work but more than a few of us on the boards here either got our start or gained significant experience and contacts in the cruise industry - worth checking out.

Good luck to you and happy posting.