ABSTRACT
“Two Worlds” underscores the opening sequence of Disney’s Tarzan: after a terrible shipwreck, Lord and Lady Greystoke wash up on the shore of western Africa with their newborn son and face survival in frightening, uncharted territory. Phil Collins’s omniscient and somewhat abstract lyrics reflect the ontological and ecological ethos of Disney’s retelling of the famous tale of the upper-class English orphan who, raised by apes, must discover his identity under highly unusual circumstances. My own engagement with Tarzan began in 2003, when I was hired as a dramaturg (a developmental editor for plays and productions) for Disney’s theatrical division, based in New York’s Times Square. With an academic background in theatre history and theory as well as artistic experience in small, not-for-profit plays, I was suddenly immersed in the heart of the commercial theatre industry to work on big-budget musicals, thus having my own “two worlds” experience. Reinterpreting my provenance for a more resonant narrative—as one does when circumstances change unexpectedly—I felt the pull of destiny to work on this project: born across the street from the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California (in the same hospital where Walt died in 1966), I was raised in a Los Angeles neighborhood adjacent to Tarzana. A stranger to the Great White Way, I would find my place in a new context with Tarzan/Tarzan as guide and companion on my journey.
