Jennifer A. Kokai – författare

Zombie Thoughts addresses the topic of generalized anxiety disorder set in a video game world. Co-written with a then-nine‑year‑old Oliver Kokai‑Means, the play was first commissioned and developed by small professional company Plan‑B Theatre in Salt Lake City and toured to 10,232 elementary students at Title I institutions (high economic need) with the support of a grant from the NEA in 2018. The audience is introduced to the formal diagnosis and symptoms of anxiety disorders (which in kids looks like combativeness and is often misinterpreted by educators as willful disobedience), and therapeutic coping mechanisms. The play was vetted by a licensed therapist.Ballet for Aliens was co‑written with both Oliver Kokai‑Means and new playwright, a then-twelve‑year‑old Gerard Hernandez, about Gerard’s experience as a youth with Crohn’s disease. Gerard was a ballet dancer through his childhood, though his health often made this difficult, and the piece required formal ballet movement, so the production was co-created with highly regarded dance company Ballet West’s Peter Christie, their education director. A portion of this play was presented to the Utah Legislature in 2022 to argue for the importance of funding the arts in elementary schools.Zombie Thoughts and Ballet for Aliens have gone on to be produced across the United States and internationally by school groups, universities, and professional tours of varying theatre sizes. This volume offers both plays and an introduction by Kokai and the youth playwrights, which contextualizes efforts for theatrical interventions in youth mental health.

Writing in a time of heightened political anxiety–and when accusations of nationalism, authoritarianism, and proto-fascism have increasingly divided Americans into factions– the authors use their influential performance studies-based ‘tourist as actor’ framework to unpack the ways that Disney parks and their guests co-create performance of implicit Americanness in the 21st century. This book argues that the roles that guests choose to perform-- accepting, declining, negotiating, or overwriting scripts offered to them by the Disney theme park experience-- ultimately reveals much about the nature of the contemporary United States. Focusing primarily on Walt Disney World in Florida, and using case studies on music, geography and ecology, sports, families, and politics, these chapters illuminate the always complicated and often contradictory presentations and performances of America within Disney parks in the deeply contested twenty-first century.

This book addresses Disney parks using performance theory. Few to no scholars have done this to date—an enormous oversight given the Disney parks’ similarities to immersive theatre, interpolation of guests, and dramaturgical construction of attractions. Most scholars and critics deny agency to the tourist in their engagement with the Disney theme park experience. The vast body of research and journalism on the Disney “Imagineers”—the designers and storytellers who construct the park experience—leads to the misconception that these exceptional artists puppeteer every aspect of the guest’s experience. Contrary to this assumption, Disney park guests find a range of possible reading strategies when they enter the space. Certainly Disney presents a primary reading, but generations of critical theory have established the variety of reading strategies that interpreters can employ to read against the text. This volume of twelve essays re-centers the park experience around its protagonist: the tourist.

This book addresses Disney parks using performance theory. Few to no scholars have done this to date—an enormous oversight given the Disney parks’ similarities to immersive theatre, interpolation of guests, and dramaturgical construction of attractions. Most scholars and critics deny agency to the tourist in their engagement with the Disney theme park experience. The vast body of research and journalism on the Disney “Imagineers”—the designers and storytellers who construct the park experience—leads to the misconception that these exceptional artists puppeteer every aspect of the guest’s experience. Contrary to this assumption, Disney park guests find a range of possible reading strategies when they enter the space. Certainly Disney presents a primary reading, but generations of critical theory have established the variety of reading strategies that interpreters can employ to read against the text. This volume of twelve essays re-centers the park experience around its protagonist: the tourist.

This book addresses Disney parks using performance theory. Few to no scholars have done this to date—an enormous oversight given the Disney parks’ similarities to immersive theatre, interpolation of guests, and dramaturgical construction of attractions. Most scholars and critics deny agency to the tourist in their engagement with the Disney theme park experience. The vast body of research and journalism on the Disney “Imagineers”—the designers and storytellers who construct the park experience—leads to the misconception that these exceptional artists puppeteer every aspect of the guest’s experience. Contrary to this assumption, Disney park guests find a range of possible reading strategies when they enter the space. Certainly Disney presents a primary reading, but generations of critical theory have established the variety of reading strategies that interpreters can employ to read against the text. This volume of twelve essays re-centers the park experience around its protagonist: the tourist.

Most scholars and critics deny agency to the tourist in their engagement with the Disney theme park experience. The vast body of research and journalism on the Disney “Imagineers”—the designers and storytellers who construct the park experience—leads to the misconception that these exceptional artists puppeteer every aspect of the guest’s experience. This anthology, now in its second edition, re-centers the park experience around its protagonist: the tourist, and addresses the Disney Parks using performance theory, an approach few to no scholars had used prior to the first edition. The authors of the individual essays, as well as the Introduction by Kokai and Robson, and an Afterword by world renowned tourism and performance expert Susan Bennett, recognize the inherently complicated nature of Disney. Many of the contributors consider themselves Disney fans, but also recognize the potentially problematic aspects of Disney parks. This collection permits both perspectives to exist side by side, informing rather than contradicting each other.