By Frederick Stroppel
Directed by Joe Brancato
With Stephen D’Ambrose & Mark Shanahan
When Walt Disney hears “The Rite of Spring,” he envisions the creation of the earth, volcanoes and, of course, dinosaurs! But composer Igor Stravinsky has another vision altogether. In this “friendly and provocative comedy” (The New York Times), we go behind the scenes of Disney’s classic “Fantasia,” where the dinosaurs aren’t the only ones doing battle.

It’s a guarantee you will learn something new when talking with actor Mark Shanahan, currently playing Walt Disney in Frederick Stroppel’s play Small World: a fantasia at 59E59 Theaters.  A scintillating conversationalist, Mr. Shanahan’s fertile mind effortlessly segues from Hollywood to world history to Orson Welles, making me wish we had more than a half an hour to chat.  With warmth, humor and passion, he speaks about playing the iconic historical figure of Walt Disney, the tenacity of the theater in our digital age and a career where he juggles being an actor, a director and a playwright. What steps did you take as an actor to play the role of Walt Disney, a person that practically everyone in world knows? Well, yeah, that’s true. It’s Uncle Walt, he’s everyone’s Uncle Walt.  He’s left this beautiful legacy that’s part of our, if not collective consciousness, our commercial culture, right?  Disney still has its hands in every facet of our lives. I read a couple of Disney biographies and then of course YouTube is filled with clips of him hosting the Wonderful World of Disney or introductions to Disneyland as a theme park, so there is plenty to see of his public persona which was …Read more