Katie Correll
DIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL DESIGN AND DRAFTING, CHICAGO SCENIC STUDIOS
KATIE CORRELL’S DREAM OF becoming an entertainment engineer manifested at just 10 years old. Seeing “The Lion King” on Broadway and being fascinated at the huge set rising from the stage, Correll knew: “I want to be the person who makes that. How do I get to be the person who makes that?”
Finding work in entertainment engineering was not easy, and the lack of jobs pushed Correll to attend grad school for entertainment design. Getting involved in the Themed Entertainment Association—something Correll recommends to any aspiring entertainment engineer—opened new doors to explore what companies were out there.
“I wound up working at a company that did sets for rock concert tours,” Correll said. “That really was the start of my entertainment engineering career.”
Correll later opened three exhibits with Meow Wolf, an arts production company in Santa Fe, N.M., that creates immersive guest experiences. “We work on exhibits for approximately two years, which is kind of insane in the entertainment industry—that’s a really fast turnaround time,” Correll said.
“Find that group that specializes in what you’re looking to go into. It will really open more doors.”
Katie Correll
A challenge when working with artists is that there can be a resistance to safety and approaching things in an engineered way, Correll said. “People are going to try and climb on things. We really needed to make it robust, to resist all that guest impact.” After completing a few projects following certain safety standards, the artists reportedly warmed up to the method. “The product still turned out as they had envisioned it, even though the process was slightly different,” Correll explained.
Correll believes the future of entertainment will continue moving in the immersive direction for years to come.
“In previous companies, I worked on animatronics and things that were definitely not going be touchable.” But in more recent years, there’s been an uptick in interactive elements. According to Correll, this could be a bit of a hurdle for more traditional theme parks, like Universal Studios and Disney World—although a good example of something headed in that direction is the Harry Potter World at Universal, given the discoverable elements, Correll said.
“Guests want to be in charge of their own exploration of a space, and not have things quite handed to them,” Correll said. “Companies need to adapt to that full immersion, full touch, full interaction type of experience.”
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