UNIVERSAL STUDIOS FLORIDA / ROB URBAN
A PARK
WITH A PULSE.
The rhythm. The rehearsal.
The people who bring it to life.
Richard Cravens went to a hardware store and listened.
As Universal tells the origin story of Beat Builders, he spent about two days trying the sounds of ordinary objects, choosing what could become the instruments in a street percussion show.
I find that a wonderful creative image: a person hearing possibilities in things made for another purpose.
Universal Studios Florida gives that kind of invention a public stage. Its movie worlds have music, movement and people at work inside them. The park’s personality comes partly from the moments when someone steps forward and performs.
Those are the moments I want to pay attention to here, and the people whose work helps make them possible.
Listen to
the wrench.
Cravens had the idea for Beat Builders while looking at construction in the park’s New York area. Tools and equipment could become the basis of a musical performance, with construction workers as its characters.
The workshop cast helped develop the show’s movement, jokes and pacing. Cravens and the performers also made an instrument from wrenches, called a rockinspiel.
That name makes me smile. So does the willingness to find a musical life in such practical objects.
The work asks for several talents at once. The drumming has to be good, and the players need to connect with people who may simply be passing by. Rhythm gives those strangers a reason to stop together.
I admire a piece of entertainment that can change the use of a street for a few minutes. People heading in different directions become an audience.
An invitation to move.
¡Vamos! – Báilalo makes another invitation in the New York area: come into the dance.
Universal’s 2023 account describes director Michael Lee Ponton bringing in five Latin dance teachers for workshops. Cuban dancer and choreographer Dianelys Jo Dominguez then developed the choreography.
Dominguez had trained in classical dance in Cuba and performed in Universal’s Superstar Parade. The opportunity to choreograph the new show gave her another way to contribute.
That is the part of the story I especially appreciate. Someone’s experience, cultural knowledge and artistic judgment become central to what the audience receives.
The account also introduces performer Katie Choate, who worked to learn a dance style that was new to her. There is generosity on both sides of that exchange: bringing knowledge to the room and making the effort to learn from it.
A performance can carry all of that preparation into an invitation that feels immediate. The music starts, people move and the crowd has a way to join.
Everybody has
a part in the moment.
The Bourne Stuntacular asks for a different kind of timing. Live stunt actors, moving scenery and a large digital environment have to become one sequence of action.
In Universal’s 2020 profile of producer Natalie Lopez, she describes coordinating the teams that brought the show into being. Its development included a proof of concept in California, where screens, scenery, vehicles and performers were tested together.
Rehearsal gave the technicians and stunt actors a shared understanding of a complicated production.
I admire the trust involved in that work. A person visible onstage depends on people the audience may never see. Each has a part in the same moment.
There is a lovely personal detail in Lopez’s story too. In 2009, she posed beside Bourne film vehicles during a visit to Universal Studios Hollywood. Years later, she helped arrange for those vehicles to come to the Florida show’s queue.
A photograph from a day out became connected to something she helped make.
A goodbye
with your
name in it.
Then there is the smaller, warmly personal gesture at the end of E.T. Adventure: E.T. says goodbye using the names collected for the ride’s Adventure Passports.
The story sends riders to help him save the Green Planet. The farewell gives that grand fictional journey a personal ending.
I like the feeling behind the choice. You have helped, and the character acknowledges you. A few words make the visitor part of the story’s gratitude.
The forest setting and bicycle flight offer their own pleasures of imagination. The goodbye gives the adventure an affectionate last note.
It also reminds me how much meaning a small moment can hold. An attraction can travel across worlds and still choose to finish with something as familiar as thanking a friend.
Something worth
stopping for.
Universal’s music guide connects these experiences with a larger soundscape, from The Blues Brothers and the Ragtime Gals to Celestina Warbeck and the Banshees in Diagon Alley.
I appreciate how many forms of performance can belong to a movie park. A drumbeat, a dance, a carefully coordinated stunt and a character’s farewell ask for different kinds of attention.
Together, they make room for the pleasures of watching, listening and participating.
That is why Universal Studios Florida interests me. People bring their skill to an imagined world, and other people get to share in the result. Sometimes the invitation begins with a film you love. Sometimes it begins with somebody making a very good sound with a wrench.
Read about the character in Islands of Adventure’s craft or Universal Orlando as a whole. If the people behind your experience deserve a closer look, I would enjoy hearing their story.
Rob Urban
The park and the performances.
Which park is this article about?
Universal Studios Florida, a theme park at Universal Orlando Resort. It is separate from Universal Islands of Adventure and Universal Epic Universe.
Where can I find showtimes?
Check Universal Orlando’s official app for the entertainment schedule on your visit date. Shows, times and availability can change.
Are the backstage accounts current staffing lists?
No. They describe the people and development work featured in Universal’s original published interviews. This article does not claim those historical team descriptions are current staffing lists.