As a third-grader, Kelly Lennon gave up her dream of becoming the first female president after realizing it was too difficult of a life choice.
In its place, she formed a two-step program: Get into UCLA, then find a way to work for the Walt Disney Company.
The graduating fourth-year theater student and new member of the Tokyo Disneyland Fantasyland team did just that.
“She grew up with me out on my various job sites as I traveled around the world to do installations,” said Kelly’s father, Ken Lennon, who works as a manager of show lighting design at Disney. “It was clear to her, and clear to us, that one of her master plans was to work at the Disney company.”
It was a different story for Noah Holliday, a graduating fourth-year theater student who landed a spot in the Disney show lighting department. He said his career path seemed chartered into the field of medicine – that is, until he was administered a dose of theater.
“I was going to do the pre-med thing – biochemistry – these classes are great, they’re kind of hard, but they’re fun,” Holliday said. “But then they got really hard and theater got a lot more fun.”
The theater students first heard about the opportunity to intern at Disney through the Theater 146: “Art and Process of Entertainment Design” series. The class offers students a chance to listen to guest lecturers who work for Walt Disney Imagineering.
But they said it was their time at HOOLIGAN Theatre Company that provided an opportunity to get valuable theater experience that would translate to their new internships at Disney.
Kelly Lennon and Holliday both auditioned for their first HOOLIGAN production as first-year students in 2011 for positions in the design and lighting departments, respectively, of “Spring Awakening.” Since then, they continued working in various capacities with HOOLIGAN for 14 and 12 more productions, respectively.
“Honestly, it wasn’t until UCLA and ‘Spring Awakening’ that I realized that lighting design was a major component of theater,” Holliday said. “I just took it for granted that magical sets appeared and the lights turned on and off.”
Lennon will be working with the Tokyo Disneyland Fantasyland team, helping the team incorporate new elements from the “Beauty and the Beast” and “Alice in Wonderland” franchises into the park. Her internship will also include a chance to work with the designs of another Tokyo-based theme park, Tokyo DisneySea, which intends to open a Scandinavian-themed port based on the movie “Frozen.”
“Some of the other internships were thinking about where other parks in the Disney circuit could go in the next 10 years, and brainstorming for them,” Lennon said. “I’m working on something that’s concrete – it’s going to happen. It’s still years and years and years away, but it’s getting into real design and drawings.”
Holliday’s internship with the show lighting department will include Disney malls, restaurants and attractions. He will also be working with the Tokyo Disneyland portfolio, specifically on the redevelopment of the “Fantasyland” portion of the park, as well as some projects with Tokyo DisneySea.
“It’s been a great to be able to share my experiences and my philosophies of design with him,” Ken Lennon said. “I’ve been mentoring these last four years at UCLA. I look forward to mentoring him now as he moves to Imagineering himself.”
The Imagineering interns will be starting work on their projects at the Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale on July 6, though there is the possibility of them traveling to Tokyo in the future if they continue to work for the project.
But if they ever need a break, there are also perks to helping build “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
“We get to go to Disneyland whenever we want now,” Lennon said. “That’s so magical too.”