Disney Presents the Lion King

To many, staging The Lion King seemed impossible. The epic conflict between lions worked beautifully in animated film - but on stage? But Walt Disney Chairman Michael Eisner and Disney Theatricals Producers Peter Schneider and Thomas Schumacher believed in the power of The Lion King's story. They turned to Julie Taymor, a director and designer well known for mythical staging inspired by international theatrical forms. Taymor was excited by the challenge. "When I looked at the film ... I said to myself, what is working in this film for me? What's the most daunting challenge? That's what I like to do -- the sheer fact that it's very hard to do is a great challenge to me."

COSTUMES, MASKS AND PUPPETS
The Lion King is unique in that we see how the magic works on stage. There's no attempt to cover up the wheels and cogs that make it all happen. The human beings that control the puppets and wear the animal masks are fully seen. As an audience member at The Lion King you have an important job: With your imagination, you are invited to mix the "animal" with the human into a magical whole. As Julie Taymor says, "When the human spirit visibly animates an object, we experience a special, almost life-giving connection. We become engaged by both the method of storytelling as well as the story itself."

"Disney animated characters are so expressive -- they're animals, but they're very human animals," Taymor continues. "I had to play with keeping some of the 'character' of the Disney characters, so that they're recognizable. But then, I was also very inspired by African masks, which are much more abstract, much more stylized, much more essential, less soft and round. Because we're doing three-dimensional theater, I didn't want the faces to look flat, I wanted them to have a kind of depth, like wood has. So I used texture and organic materials, fibers, wood -- things that would make it less cartoonlike."

"In contrast to the continually changing facial expressions in the animated film, a mask can project a single, fixed attitude," she says. "The sculptor has only one opportunity to incorporate the anger, humor, and passion of a character, to tell his or her whole story."

"I thought, what if I create these giant masks that really are clearly Scar and Mufasa, but then the human face is revealed below, so that you're not losing the human facial expression, you're not hiding the actor?"

To create the masks and puppets in The Lion King Taymor worked with Michael Curry, one of the country's leading puppet experts. Curry had worked with Taymor on several of her films and operas. With background in engineering as well as puppetry, he would create the technical design of the characters.

Taymor and Curry's first step in creating the theatrical world of The Lion King was to craft the masks for Mufasa and Scar. Could a balance be found between the recognizable characters from the animated film and the human actors?

The lions' costumes also helped to create this duality. While the human qualities of the lions come out in the African-styled beadwork, corsets, armor, and cloth, the costumes use silk cloth to negate the human shape, breaking the shoulder line, enhancing the powerful joints and thighs.

Here are some of the theatrical forms that inspired Julie Taymor and Michael Curry in creating the theatrical world of The Lion King. By exploring the background of these techniques, The Lion King can be made a richer experience for young people. It's important to emphasize that Taymor and Curry studied these forms for years, and used the raw knowledge they had gained to create the new forms of The Lion King.

AFRICAN MASKS
In Africa, masks are functional works of art. They are meant to be used; they perform a social function. Seen on a wall or on a table, a mask may seem dull and static, but when used in storytelling or a ceremony, it takes on life. As in The Lion King many African masks are made to be worn over the head instead of over the face. They serve many ceremonial purposes: initiating a young man into manhood, exorcising evil spirits, capturing the invisible supernatural forces surrounding us. African masks are sometimes referred to as "spirit traps." From a purely theatrical point of view, how does a mask trap a spirit? Discuss this question in regard to Taymor's quote, "a mask can project a single, fixed attitude. The sculptor has only one opportunity to incorporate the anger, humor, and passion of a character, to tell his or her whole story."

BUNRAKU PUPPETRY
Named for its founder, Uemura Bunrakuken, this Japanese theater form started in the 16th century. In Bunraku, master puppeteers, visible to the audience, control large puppet dolls, while a narrator tells the story. The larger puppets, which can be as much as five feet tall, are operated by three-man teams. The most experienced man, the only puppeteer allowed to show his face to the audience, operates the head and right arm. The other two puppeteers are completely covered with black cloth -- one operates the puppet's right hand with a rod, the other manipulates the puppet's legs. Through movement and gestures (and, as always, the audience's imaginations), great expressiveness can be achieved. Because the puppeteers are visible, spectators can concentrate on the story, or on the skill of the puppeteers. Hopefully, these two perceptions eventually merge into a whole appreciation of the theatrical event -- this is what Taymor means by the "double event."

SHADOW PUPPETRY
We have always been fascinated by shadows. Shadows thrown by a campfire can appear to be monsters; fingers twisted in a specific way in front of a light beam can create intricate animal shapes. In shadow puppetry, the audience only sees the shadows of the puppets, thrown onto a screen by a light or a fire. Shadow puppetry seems to be thousands of years old; many think it originated in Greece, although Chinese records show forms of shadow puppetry being performed 2000 years ago. In Indonesian shadow puppetry, called the wayang kulit, intricate flat puppets made of wood and animal hide are shown before a muslin screen, usually telling stories from Hindu mythology. In Java, audience members sit on both sides of the screen -- either to watch the shadows, or to see the puppets and the manipulating puppeteers.

SETS AND LIGHTING
Working with Julie Taymor, set designer Richard Hudson used the essential concepts of The Lion King's story to create the scenic design for the show. Pride Rock and the Elephant Graveyard seem to be exact opposites, one full of life, the other radiating death and danger. But they are connected through their design. Just as Pride Rock is a stylized circular staircase that twists out of the stage as the show opens, the Elephant Graveyard is a twisting series of steps made of bones. We see Mufasa in his place of dignity on Pride Rock as the show opens; it's a shock to see Scar in the same position, but with very different feelings, straddling the bones in the Elephant Graveyard. Richard Hudson's model for the Elephant Graveyard gives the staircases a skeletal look.

Perhaps the most dramatic scene in The Lion King is the wildebeest stampede in which Mufasa is killed. The effect in the theater is electric, as thousands of wildebeests seem to be rushing straight at Simba -- and at the audience. The illusion of thousands of racing animals is achieved with a canvas scroll and a series of large rollers. Wildebeests are painted on the scroll, and each roller is equipped with sculptures of the animals. On each successive roller, the wildebeest sculptures are slightly larger, until, closest to the audience, dancers rhythmically move huge wildebeest masks. This design creates a false perspective of great distance. When the scroll and rollers are moving, the audience seems to see waves of wildebeests driving forward.

-disney.go.com/theatre/thelionking