Bonjour!!

Today was my first day as a character and parade performer (in training!)

We all (meaning my formation) got the 8am bus from just down the road from us. We arrived at the Park at 8:45 and went over to the "Imagination Building" to our meeting point. We were met by a trainer called Veronique and she took us up to the identification office to get our Employee ID's that we use in the canteen, to swipe to get into the backstage area and also to hang around our neck so security can see that we work there.

After that, we went on another tour of the "Simba" building which is the Character and Parade Department Building. We were shown where we get out costumes from, where the rotas are, where changing rooms and toilets are and anything else like the break room and dance studios etc.

Post tour, we went to a training room and had to sit through a small talk about working in the character parade department and the 19 rules of being a character. Then we watched a video about disney featuring lots of the characters that we will be during our contract. We were given our locker combinations and shown where they were and when we opened our lockers, there were "kits" inside with a tracksuit, t-shirt and boxer-type shorts in that we have to wear while we train. We also wear the shorts, t-shirt and either black or white socks underneath our costume when we perform

After the talks, we were given two hours for lunch and we all went to the canteen to eat. They offer lots of things like salads, roast chicken, pizzas, pasta and drinks etc. We can use our ID's to put money on which gets swiped at the kiosk/desk and pays for our meal.

At 1:15 after lunch we met back at the training room to try on heads. For the next few days I will be training as Tigger/Tigrou so I tried on a Tigger head. We have a balaclava thing to put on our head to protect the costume and then an adjustable head brace the goes round the top and clips into the character head. We then have a chin strap that secures the whole piece on.

After a quick play a physiotherapist came in and gave us a lecture about how to safely wear the costumes. This seemed to go on forever and seemed like it would never end. We had to put on the heads again (after a quick warm-up) and moved around in them to illustrate her point!

Finally, at 5 Veronique came back and gave us info packs on the various characters we can play depending on our height range. I can play Tigger, The Sheriff of Nottingham and Gepetto and we have specific autographs to learn, so when I got back to my flat, I spent about 40 minutes practicing! Although in 2 weeks time I have a "face fitting" which is hopefully when they give me the Evil Queen role. But apparently this might change and I may not get the part which would be really disappointing, so I hope they still want me to do that part.

Tomorrow we are back in at 9 to be ready to continue training at 9:10. We're having a morning of theory and then after lunch trying on the rest of our costumes. I'm really excited to complete my outfit and feel like more of the character.

It's now 11:47pm and I've got a fairly early start tomorrow so I'll love you and leave you 'til next time. Hope you've enjoyed this installment!

xxxxx