Approximately 1,150 miles separate Georgetown, Texas, from Orlando, Florida. Yet in an apartment building not far from the Walt Disney World® Resort reside four recent alumni of Southwestern University’s Theatre Department: Rae Land ’22, Connor Bate ’23, Jaime Hotaling ’23, and Maisie Jones ’23.

College best friends rarely end up living together and working at the same employer after graduation. And, as Hotaling confirms, “finding a full-time job with benefits in theatre and entertainment is not really a thing”—especially so quickly after graduation. But this troupe is proof of not only the hands-on career preparation students receive at Southwestern but also the deep personal connections they build through coursework and campus life.

The Inspiring Imagineer

A lifelong Disneyphile thanks to family vacations that made her appreciate the company’s “attention to detail and the idea of storytelling through art,” Rae Land has long coveted the role her supervisors currently enjoy: the Imagineer, who conjures, designs, and builds Disney’s theme parks and multimedia experiences.

(Photo courtesy Rae Land)In pursuit of that ambition, she began participating in her high school’s drama program as a sophomore and was soon working in community theatre. She chose Southwestern primarily because she knew she could double-major in theatre and business—a mix that mirrors Disney’s status as both a $90-billion-a-year global corporation and an industry leader in entertainment.

Starting as a costume hostess just two months after graduating, she is now a creative costume assistant as part of the Magic Kingdom. Her work involves a lot of project management, and she’s moved into training and team leadership since joining the company in July 2022. Her job also entails fabrication, such as making brooches, airbrushing and dyeing fabrics, and painstakingly applying rhinestones to shoes, hats, and dresses. The work can be tedious, and a single garment can take weeks to build, she reveals. But the reward is getting to see her team’s craftmanship when it appears in parades or on television. Her dream job is “phenomenal,” Land says enthusiastically, because “everyone wants to create magic, to build great experiences, to tell great stories. Everyone is incredibly passionate about the work.”

Playing with Fire(works)

Similarly, Jaime Hotaling’s family went to Disney parks every three years and even participated in runDisney’s marathons. But regardless of her lifelong love for Disney, Hotaling never assumed she’d end up working for the House of Mouse after graduation. A self-professed “nerd” who “love[s] obsessing over everything,” she wanted to attend Southwestern because she was an outdoorsy theatre kid who was fascinated by geology and wanted to double-major in theatre and environmental studies. While specializing in stage management and lighting design, she even picked up a religious studies minor because of a course she took as part of SU’s interdisciplinary curriculum.

(Photo courtesy Jaime Hotaling)But Hotaling soon proved to be “one of the most extraordinary lighting designers we’ve had,” whose work at SU “was really quite professional for a student,” remarks Associate Professor of Theatre Kerry Bechtel. Hotaling also developed a special passion for pyrotechnics, earning the nickname “Sparky” by then-Professor of Theatre John Ore. While researching her career options, she was drawn in by Land’s glowing description of working for Disney and realized that her stars were about to align.

She now works as an entertainment stage technician primarily out of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where she spends much of her time at Fantasmic! setting up the fireworks and CO2 and fog effects. “The work that I do—as hard as it can be, as long as it can take—in the end, it’s making someone happy and feel emotions that they don’t normally feel on a day-to-day basis,” Hotaling remarks. “That makes me tear up every time.”

SU’s Close-Knit Theatre Community

While the allure of Disney and pyrotechnics drew Land and Hotaling, respectively, the interpersonal relationships that are so often built at Southwestern were a significant factor motivating Connor Bate and Maisie Jones to move to Orlando and pursue positions at the world-renowned park.

Bate double-majored in theatre and physics. Focusing on stage management and scenic design at SU, Bate was, as Bechtel recalls, “really interested in engineering and was a really great crafter.” Bechtel connected Bate with a friend in Florida who works for a company that builds sets for Disney. The friend hired Bate after graduation and was impressed with his skills, familiarity with the materials, and ability to solve problems without asking for help. That creativity and independence earned him a spot at Disney as an entertainment stage technician seven months later.

(Photo courtesy Rae Land)For Bate, the destination was always Disney, but largely because he and Land have been Southwestern Sweethearts since they began dating in 2019. They are engaged to be married—and Hotaling is a bridesmaid.

The most recent addition to the Southwestern–Disney party is Maisie Jones. Jones originally came to Southwestern planning to major in both computer science and theatre, focusing on performance, but she ended up realizing that computer science was not the right fit. Instead, thanks to the mentorship and encouragement of Ore and Southwestern’s then–master electrician Patrick Anthony, she discovered her niche in sound design and lighting.

After graduation, Jones found plenty of theatre-related gigs, including a stint in Austin at ZACH, the oldest continuously active theatre company in Texas. But once Land, Bate, and Hotaling all moved to Orlando and began working for the House of Mouse, she had to follow. “I wanted to be close to my friends,” she says. She now works backstage on Finding Nemo, moving scenic elements, preparing props, and handling puppets. She also operates the projection system for the Tree of Life. “I love the work I’m doing because it is always something new,” she shares. “Disney keeps me on my toes, and I enjoy that because it keeps my brain going and going.”

Professor of Theatre and Dean of the Faculty Sergio Costola is not surprised that Land, Bate, Jones, and Hotaling are still close; college theatre denizens tend to build strong bonds that endure. “They work so much together, and they have to support and rely on each other, so they all had a strong sense of community,” he explains. Bechtel agrees. “They spend so much time in the theatre either building things or in productions together, so they become close,” she explains. “That intensity is pretty normal.”

Such interpersonal closeness extends to building a mutually supportive professional network, with faculty, alumni, and students recommending and hiring one another for jobs even decades after students graduate. But Bechtel adds that Southwestern’s Theatre Department is especially tight-knit; SU alumni from different graduating classes connect each other to jobs and even sometimes celebrate holidays together like family. “Something really unique and beautiful happens here,” she describes. “It’s like lightning in a bottle.”

All Hands on Deck

The alums credit SU’s Theatre Department and their faculty and staff mentors for providing the wide range of experiences that gave them the edge while interviewing for their highly competitive positions at Disney. Southwestern theatre majors do “a little bit of everything,” says Land—from acting, costuming, and scenic design to stage management, lighting, and audio work.

(Photo credit: murdocksimages - stock.adobe.com)Bechtel explains that this is the benefit of the Southwestern’s intimate size. “It’s a small program, so it’s all hands on deck,” she shares. “They know so much about so many things, and they have such an appreciation for the entire process. The breadth of work that you get to do at Southwestern is so much greater than you would at a large institution.”

Costola adds that because SU “applies the idea of a liberal arts education to the theatre degree,” students gain multifaceted skill sets that make them more marketable. So graduates have started off in costuming but moved into stage management, or they have landed a first job in marketing but eventually transitioned into performing on stage.

Such variety and versatility are crucial for students like Jones, who has “always been someone who enjoys doing everything.” But they’re also the ideal preparation for those seeking jobs in the entertainment industry and with specific employers such as Disney, where agility is paramount when parades can feature 200 performers and behind-the-scenes staff are working on three to four shows at a time. “You have to be able to adapt quickly,” Land explains, “and still produce the best work you can.” Flexibility is also necessary when, as Hotaling describes, you have to shift to contingency plans because a mechanical failure occurs but the live show must still go on.

Innovation and Experience

Theatre majors at Southwestern also get to engage in research and experiment with innovations in production—opportunities Hotaling found difficult to believe until she actually began collaborating with faculty mentors such as Costola. Both Jones and Hotaling, for example, contributed to Ghost Unit: The Live Event, a project that earned national recognition and was later performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. “That was a huge undertaking,” Hotaling recalls proudly. “The way we built Ghost Unit hadn’t really been done before, so it involved lots of problem-solving. That really challenged me, but it was super beneficial for me postgraduation.”

Costola recalls that Land, Bate, Hotaling, and Jones “were extremely proactive and always trying to innovate in some way.” By engaging in so many high-impact learning experiences, he adds, they were always “trying to find ways to immediately apply what they were learning in the classroom.”

Hotaling says that getting to work with Costola on such opportunities only made her appreciate SU more: “I knew I chose a good school because [the faculty] actually care about your education and being able to have those experiences you need for postgraduation.”

Cultivating Curiosity

The characteristics Bechtel most associates with Land, Bate, Hotaling, and Jones are “their positivity and willingness to try anything”; Costola similarly remarks on their “curiosity—these four students were eager to learn about everything! And it was the learning itself that interested them.” So it’s no surprise that the alums echo one another in spotlighting the mindsets required for fellow students interested in pursuing theatre as a major or career (although their advice rings true for those in any field).

“It matters how active you are in trying to learn, so be open to new things, and keep trying things, regardless of whether you think you’ve found your niche,” Jones suggests. “You have to come in with the attitude that I’m here to make other people’s lives brighter, to make the world a better place, to be a good part of a team and work cohesively with colleagues.”

Hotaling could not agree more. “In technical theatre, things are always changing, so you’re never going to know everything, and there are so many ways to do one thing,” she explains. “So having the willingness to learn and grow is super important. Just be curious!”

(Photo credit: JHVEPhoto - stock.adobe.com)

Pride and Purpose

As with any company, working for Disney is not without its challenges: Jones has navigated shifting schedules and getting used to never working with the same team of people, for instance. Land says that in theatre, the stressful final days of rehearsals before opening night are referred to as Tech Week, but in her role, she says with a laugh, “almost every day is Tech Week.” Hotaling adds that maintaining boundaries between work and life is difficult but crucial because when you have a fun, fulfilling job like hers, it can easily begin taking over your personal time, with burnout often the result.

Regardless of such challenges, these Southwestern alums are all connected by a shared sense of pride and purpose. Hearing audiences chant for Mickey Mouse and children calling out to the Disney princesses, Land says, reminds them, “This is why I do this. This is what I aspired to be. This is why I’m here.”

Land loves working at her dream employer, and she cherishes getting to work in the sunshine and explore the parks for free on days off—a significant benefit Jones and Hotaling also appreciate. But when she and Bate marry in December 2025, their plan is not to wed or honeymoon at a Disney resort; rather, the ceremony will take place in Texas, and they look forward to visiting Georgetown and their old haunts on campus after the wedding. “We just miss it!” she says.