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Fort Collins resident travels with Disney on Ice show |
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Written by Skylar Rick for NEXTnc
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Friday, 02 March 2007 |
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After high school graduation, most students are preparing for the new experiences that will come from entering their college of choice.
But 20-year-old Fort Collins resident Clarissa Freemeyer wanted to see the world and continue her love of ice skating after her graduation from Fort Collins High School in 2005. So she applied to Disney on Ice.
"My oldest sister joined Disney on Ice after high school and had the time of her life, so I tried," she said. "I sent in a video of me ice skating at the end of April, and I didn't find out I had made it until three weeks before I left."
Freemeyer was assigned to the Disney/Pixar Monsters Inc. cast, which plays out the story of two monsters' interaction with a young child. At the time she was hired, the show was playing in Japan, where she spent the first four months of her performing career.
"Living in Japan was difficult because the whole culture was so different," Freemeyer said. "Luckily, I was with a pretty large group of people from the show who spoke English."
In addition to Japan and the United States, she has performed in Canada, Puerto Rico, Panama City and Venezuela in her two years with the show.
"In Venezuela, there was so much security, and we weren't allowed to go anywhere," she said. "I think the country's not very happy with us, so they were just being careful."
During the show, Freemeyer gets to play a variety of characters: A Child Detection Agency agent, a cheerleader and an icicle. She said the costume changing can sometimes be challenging.
"Every show is different, sometimes I have seconds to change, and other times I have time to sit down and go to the makeup room," Freemeyer said.
The fast changes never bother this skater, who gave up competing in ice skating because of her love of performing.
"I started skating pretty much when I started walking," she said. "Performing is what I found to be the funnest part of skating. I wanted to be performing when I was on the ice."
Freemeyer said "Monsters" is especially fun because she gets to perform for little children, which she considers the best part.
"The way the city of Monstropolis is energized is by getting kids to scream, so the first half of the show we're trying to get the kids to scream and have fun," she said. "Then, at the end of the show, we try to get them to laugh when we realized that's more powerful, and that's what I love."
Despite the fun she has while performing, she said the heavy amount of traveling required with the show can sometimes be hard.
"It was hard to go from living out of my closet in my room to living out of a suitcase and not having a fridge or kitchen and having to go out looking for food," Freemeyer said. "I gotten more use to it, but living out of a suitcase gets really hard because you can't unpack."
Freemeyer's traveling with the show puts her in a new city regularly, giving her a chance to see the world, which was one of the main reasons she wanted to join Disney on Ice.
"Depending on how busy we are, we get a day to sometimes three days off to do as much sight-seeing as we can," she said. "I wanted to have fun and see the world."
With Monsters Inc. in its last year of performance, Freemeyer hopes to join another Disney cast so she can spend a few more years seeing the world before she goes to college.
"I want to do it a little longer and see more of the world, then I want to go to college and do something else with my life," she said. "I figured it was a good time to travel when I'm young."
INFORMATION
What: Disney/Pixar's Presents Monster's Inc.
Where: Budweiser Event Center, 5290 Arena Circle, Loveland
When: 7 p.m., Thursday, March 8; 7 p.m., Friday, March 9; 11 a.m., 3 p.m., and 7 p.m., Saturday, March 10; and 1 p.m., Sunday, March 11.
Cost: Ranges from $14 to $40
For more information, or to purchase tickets, contact 877.544.TIXX. | Only registered users can write comments.
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