Walt Disney Imagineering Orlando, Florida, United States of America
Inauguration : 1999
Area : 75,000 square feet
Cost : US$ 20 M
Type : Theatres & Concert Halls
Capacity : 1671 seats
The Cirque du Soleil Theatre lies in the heart of Walt Disney World’s West Side District, Disney’s night time entertainment capital. The theatre rises from a white big top, and transforms into a fairy tale castle, complete with stylized towers illuminated against the night sky. Within, however, the dark and sombre atmosphere evokes a medieval dungeon.
Outstanding features
First Cirque du Soleil theatre in an independent building.
With fixed tiered seating in a 180º semicircle around the stage, the auditorium has neither a proscenium arch nor an architectural ceiling.
A steel grid 78 feet off the ground covers the entire area of the theatre, providing a very flexible rigging system with numerous hanging points, a system of modular trapdoors and movable motors.
Five stage lifts integrated into the stage floor allow for a wide variety of set effects.
The interior architecture of the auditorium, its technical infrastructures and stage equipment systems form an exceptionally well-integrated whole, both visually and functionally.
Mandate
Definition of design criteria, architectural and theatre design in collaboration with Michel Crête, Cirque du Soleil’s scenographer
Planning and design of technical infrastructures and stage equipment systems
Follow up during construction: architecture, theatre design and stage equipment systems
