Disney Photo 1992

I’m pictured here with my assistant director at Disney, Mike Korkis. Today he is the Head of Casting for Disneyworld® in Florida.  Mike was my secret weapon.  Disney’s blood courses through this man’s veins to the point that people often mistook him for Michael Eisner, who was Disney’s CEO at the time.  Without Mike I could not have navigated the corporate bureaucratic labyrinth.

Over the course of the Disney Entertainment Arts Festival, Mike and I became truly good friends.  Before working with me he was a cast member in the Streetmosphere® Program at Disney’s MGM Studios.  I like to think that working on this project was my friend’s big break. He had such a love for Disney’s brand of magic that it became infectious.

In show business there is a tension between what is entertainment, and what is truly art. My greatest challenge as a director for The Disney Entertainment Arts Festival was holding true to the spirit of the word “Arts” in the title of the project.  I knew I had an ally in Mike Korkis, who always had my back in my Don Quixote quest.

*<[:o)