Themed entertainment masters program showcases ‘out of this world’ presentations
Written by Eve Katz, Photos by Mallory Chain
SCAD students and staff poured into the student center for a look into the themed entertainment graduate program, Wednesday, Nov. 13, from 6 to 9 p.m. Their debut event allowed students to show off their current works. The Associate Dean for Entertainment Arts at SCAD, Karl Rouse, made the event possible after Professor Greg Andrade had the idea to showcase his student’s work.
Upon walking in, attendees were dazzled by elaborately designed presentation boards around the room. They displayed concept art, descriptions of the story behind the experience and a little information on the student creator.
“This was an idea that started last year. We were going to put this together on our own, but Karl Rouse had the idea to make it a more formal event,” Andrade said. “Everyone got behind it, the students worked really hard, and I’m really happy.”
Graduate student Lindsey Ellis helped coordinate the event and even had her own project on display. “We want to show everyone what themed entertainment design is. When people have heard of us, they tend to think that we just design theme parks, but it’s so much more than that,” Ellis said. In keeping with her statement, projects ranged from detailing rides to concepts for hotels, restaurants, tours and other experiences that far exceeded the bounds of theme parks.
Ellis had help from fellow graduate student Lorie Wheeler in putting together the event. Wheeler oversaw the layout and decided to separate projects into different sections. Upon entering the student center, the first projects on display were a part of the “dream it” phase of themed entertainment, which is all about big concepts, creativity and a strong narrative.
The “dream it” projects were then followed by more detailed ones that described how to build the projects. “There are two halves of what we do,” Wheeler said. “People know about the ‘dream it’ half, but we need to show how to actually build and make these concepts.”
Projects on display followed the idea of how themed entertain would look if humans frequently traveled and vacationed in space. Professor Andrade noticed that the plans drawn up for the hotel rooms in outer space were “just boring,” and he wanted to challenge his students to fix that.
This led to a burst of futuristic creativity seeping from space-themed projects like Lindsey Ellis’ “Terminoid,” described as “your initial step from Earth before embarking on your breathtaking intergalactic cruise.” While, Jasmine Rayne Currey’s project “Serenity, ” was a hotel that included a fly-in movie theater and a restaurant with a view of flying comets.
Some students had three-dimensional models accompanying their presentation boards, showing a more comprehensive way how their project would be set up. Lia Rudd was one of these students who had a front desk design on display for her project “Regalis.”
“This project combines my love for hospitality and themed entertainment. As each guest approaches the front desk, they are shown a unique display of dancing lights that connects with them,” Rudd said. Guests at Rudd’s conceptualized hotel receive an amulet as their room key. These amulets also unlock “exclusively customized experiences,” according to Rudd’s display. Rudd’s project revealed how important human connection is, which is something all of the students have to consider. Most commonly, they take into account who they’re interacting with and how they want to make them feel.
The event provided an opportunity for students to shape their networking skills, as most had their business cards, portfolios and resumes with them. Outside opinions helped students in further developing and shaping their ideas.
“I’m really glad that we’re doing this because even though it is nice to get feedback from your peers, there is nothing quite like getting raw reactions from the public, that’s why I worked so hard to be here,” said graduate student Rachel Fugate. Fugate created a project entitled “Astra Palace,” a recreational space station with features such as a gravity-defying holodeck, theaters, casinos, restaurants and more.
“We want to reach more people; we want to talk to the people who maybe didn’t know this is a job avenue. It’s all about sharing our love of themed entertainment with other people,” Ellis said. With more events like these, give the themed entertainment program an opportunity to grow and flourish with more attention to its student’s work and possibly even have more students ready to join.
