Margaret Kerrison, an immersive storyteller and writer, served as the Walt Disney Imagineering managing story editor for projects within the Star Wars and Marvel portfolios, most notably for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge which opened in 2019. She has also worked as a story lead, story consultant, and writer for multiple projects around the world prior to her time at Imagineering.
In addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, her credits include Star Wars: Launch Bay, Hyperspace Mountain, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (pictured, top), Avengers Campus, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, National Geographic HQ, NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Journey to Mars: Explorers Wanted, Heineken Experience, StoryGarden by AMOREPACIFIC, and the Information and Communications Pavilion (Expo 2010 Shanghai).
Kerrison was born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Her career spans television, film, digital media, games, brand storytelling, location-based entertainment, and immersive experiences.
She is currently working for Airbnb in the role of experiential creative lead, story development.
A respected storyteller
The writer for five projects that won Themed Entertainment Association Thea Awards, she has appeared in the Disney+ series Behind the Attraction, the Freeform television special Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – Adventure Awaits, and the online educational program Imagineering in a Box.
She has also been invited to speak at prestigious conferences and universities. This includes SXSW, Star Wars Celebration, D23, IAAPA Expo, the FMX Conference, the University of Southern California, and Johns Hopkins University.
Margaret Kerrison’s projects have been featured in The New York Times, Good Morning America, The Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, Wired magazine, and the official site for Star Wars.
A Disney Imagineer from 2014 to 2021, she has now written a book. Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds: A Writer’s Guide is due to come out in August. Ahead of its release, she spoke to blooloop.
Multi-cultural influences
“I realised a book like this doesn’t exist yet, especially for themed entertainment writers and storytellers,” Kerrison begins. “This was my pandemic project. It was something that I wanted to get out there, to inspire the next generation of storytellers.”
Storytelling is something she always wanted to do.
I was surrounded by people of different cultures, with different voices and different perspectives. That has shaped who I am, and it shaped me, growing up, as a storyteller.
“I was born in Indonesia and grew up in Singapore. I was immersed in all kinds of storytelling. Everything from American movies and TV shows to local soap operas and dramas from Singapore, Chinese soap operas, Bollywood films, and international films.
“I was influenced by this melting pot of cultures. I attended an international school in Singapore. During that time, I was surrounded by people of different cultures, with different voices and different perspectives. That has shaped who I am, and it shaped me, growing up, as a storyteller.”
Margaret Kerrison and a passion for storytelling
Kerrison then moved to the US to attend Tufts University. Her major was international relations.
“I was pre-law,” she explains. “But I’ve written most of my life, since I was a little kid. I was a natural storyteller. I loved making things, I loved performing for my family and my friends, I made my own little plays and video skits and also recorded my own radio shows. Since I was very little, I’ve always wanted to write and draw.”
“I looked through a box from my childhood days recently. I found this little handmade book that I wrote in fourth grade. In the ‘author biography’ section, I had written that one day I would live in Los Angeles, be a designer, and be married with two children.
“All those things are true, except for the fact that I only have one child! I’m living in Los Angeles, and I’m working as a designer. I was a very determined kid.”
Entering the themed entertainment world
She went to the University of Southern California to do her MFA in screenwriting:
“At the time I was in that program, we studied mostly film and TV writing. My thesis professor talked to us right before we were about to graduate. She said, ‘You know, you should all be thinking about different careers rather than just film and TV. They also need writers for gaming companies, for advertising, for roller coasters.’”
For Kerrison:
“Everything stopped. I wondered, “Roller coasters?”
“I wasn’t familiar with the themed entertainment industry until she planted that seed in my head. Then, that evening, I searched, ‘What is writing for roller coasters? What does that mean?’ I discovered this whole world of themed entertainment and I found the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA). I saw their members directory, and started cold emailing a bunch of companies that interested me.”
The BRC days
One of the companies that replied was BRC Imagination Arts in Burbank.
“I was a grad student from USC with no experience in themed entertainment, but I had a couple of sample feature and TV scripts. I enquired whether they’d be interested in hiring someone like me. And they gave me an interview.”
“I met with Bob Rogers; they brought me in, and I worked with them for four to five years as a consultant.”
Margaret Kerrison worked on a diverse range of projects with BRC. This included the Heineken Experience, the Information and Communications Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai, the Louisiana Old State Capitol, NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Explorers Wanted exhibit, and the AMOREPACIFIC Story Garden.
“I worked on a bunch of projects with BRC, had a fabulous time, and fell in love with this industry,” she says.
“I was so glad that I could use this very deep passion and affinity for storytelling in different mediums. Telling stories on the screen wasn’t so interesting to me, because that’s not how I thought about stories. I thought about them in a multidimensional way, using different senses, immersing the audience member with the tools and techniques available.”
Margaret Kerrison on the future of storytelling
Considering the potential for storytelling in the future, she says:
“The possibilities are endless. Ultimately, you have to ask yourself, what is the story you want to tell? Why do you want to tell it – and in what way? Because how you tell a story is just as important as the story itself.
“Choosing the right medium is as integral to the storytelling process as the story you’re going to tell. Some of the more successful stories, I find, are the ones that find a unique medium.
“That’s why experiences like Sleep No More are so exciting. It’s a reinterpretation of Macbeth that isn’t linear. It’s expressive and creative in a way that also involves us, as the audience. We’re not passive observers, but can explore and discover and follow certain characters.
“Sleep No More is a choose-your-own-adventure in an immersive theatre setting. To me, as a storyteller, putting the audience into a setting that surprises and delights them in ways that they’ve never experienced before, that’s where storytelling should be going.”
Pushing the boundaries
Another example that Margaret Kerrison cites is a local production in Los Angeles called The Nest:
“It all takes place in a storage unit. A woman’s life is uncovered through her objects, and through her voice, which is heard through audiotapes. As a storyteller, I feel that the productions that surprise me are the ones that I celebrate. Those are the ones that push the boundaries, presenting a story or character, a life, a voice, in a way that defies expectations.”
When we get trapped into telling one kind of story in one voice and in one medium, that’s not the type of storytelling that’s going to be a game-changer.
“When people talk about the future of storytelling, and this idea of a metaverse, everyone has such a different interpretation of what that could be. And that’s the way it should be.
“When we get trapped into telling one kind of story in one voice and in one medium, that’s not the type of storytelling that’s going to be a game-changer. It has to feel like it’s unique; it has to bring in a different perspective.”
When gaming meets themed entertainment
Growing up, Margaret Kerrison was a gamer:
“I played Nintendo, Sega, Atari. The gaming industry has put players at the heart of the story for decades. It gives them agency to move around, choose their direction, and choose the character they want to be. They can express themselves in the way that they want to express themselves.”
Themed entertainment is rapidly moving into this space.
“We see this with Disney’s Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, which I had the privilege to work on. You, as a guest, are placed in your hero’s journey.”
“The way the gaming industry thinks about storytelling is through narrative design. When you think about a story it’s usually very linear. There’s a beginning, middle, and end. However, a narrative has flexibility and freedom for you, as a player with agency, to choose your direction, who you want to interact with first, and the activity that you want to do.
“When you consider that format in a themed entertainment setting, it’s very similar. You walk into a themed land or attraction, and it’s up to you to curate and direct your own experience. It’s fascinating how we’re just touching the surface of what that could mean.”
Shared experience
Additionally:
“In video games – Minecraft, for example – you’re able to change environments. I’m very curious to see how, in this industry, we’re able to influence more than just ourselves and our actions – how we can influence the characters around us, the environments that we find ourselves in, and yet have that shared experience with other guests, and that very compelling theme and narrative throughout the experience.”
“It’s exciting to think about having a meaningful, shared experience, and to be connected on a deeper level.”
Margaret Kerrison says the ’why’ is key
When she approaches a new project, Margaret Kerrison begins with questions. She explains:
“My number one question is, why tell this story? Why is it important to tell this story in this world? The ‘why’ is something that many designers overlook. They don’t spend enough time asking ‘why’. Instead, they jump into what does this place look like, and how are we going to do it?”
The ‘why’ is important: why are we building this? Why is this the story we want to tell, and why is this the story we have to tell?
“The ‘why’ is important: why are we building this? Why is this the story we want to tell, and why is this the story we have to tell? Why are we the best people to tell it? That is also extremely important. In any story that you tell or design, you have to understand the perspective and the unique point of view that you’re bringing into that story. Because otherwise, why bother at all?”
Transformational experiences
“There are so many wonderful stories out there. So, how are you going to stand out from the crowd? How are you going to bring a unique perspective to a story that you think you know?
“Is it something that’s going to reveal some universal human truth that was invisible to you before, and that now you’re enlightened by? How do you think about that story in terms of your guests coming into that experience, and then walking away with this change inside of them, feeling, having gone through that experience, inspired, empowered to take action in their own life?”
That transformation is, she says, crucial:
“We tell stories for so many reasons; to educate, to inspire, to empower: all those things. Answering that question, ‘Why tell this story? What is the change I want to make in the guest?’ – is key as a storyteller. My process is asking that all-important question of ‘why?’: why should this even exist? What is the reason for its existence?”
Storytelling as a platform for underrepresented voices
In terms of empowerment, how can storytelling be used to give a platform to underrepresented voices, and under-served communities?
“There is no mission greater than this,” Margaret Kerrison says. “Storytelling is an extremely powerful medium to shine a light on voices that are typically, or traditionally, underrepresented, or not represented at all.”
We’ve been hearing, reading, watching stories from a particular, very homogenous point of view. This is something that needs to change.
“I find that we’ve been hearing, reading, watching stories from a particular, very homogenous point of view. This is something that needs to change. We need to have different perspectives from varying people around the world. For us to build empathy for each other, we need to hear and read and be immersed in each other’s stories. This enables us to walk in each other’s shoes. It helps us to understand and immerse ourselves in a life that we do not live.
“Hearing from these voices, and understanding their perspective is not just nice. It is also vital to our society, and humanity. As James Joyce famously said, ‘In the particular is contained the universal.’”
Celebrating unique perspectives
Many storytellers, she says, try to create stories that appeal to a general audience:
“However, in that process, they dilute the soul of a story. Only now as a storyteller and as a writer am I beginning to understand what it means to have a story come from a personal experience or from a personal situation, where you can talk deeply about something that you know. The more nuanced and particular it is, the more hearts it can then touch. If it comes from the heart, it will reach more hearts.”
As human beings of this world, we need, she contends, to embrace diverse voices:
“Not just in terms of race, but in terms of gender, upbringing, socioeconomic status, all that makes us human, because all of us are so complex. We can’t just tick a box of who we are. We tick many, many boxes, and those boxes will also continue to evolve as we grow older.
“Every time I start a project, I bring all of myself into it. As a mother, as an immigrant, as an American, as someone who is Chinese by race, but was born in a different country; as a sister, as a daughter.
“I tend to gravitate towards stories that are empowering for women, for young girls, for people of multicultural backgrounds; people who have never found their home, their place, or who have had a long, complicated journey, and who have different homes.”
Margaret Kerrison’s career highlights
Over the years, there have been many projects she has loved for many reasons.
“It’s impossible to identify a favourite. I revisit many of the stories that I’ve worked on, either physically or mentally. I like to come back to what it was about that story that excited me in the first place. None of the projects I’ve worked on would have been possible if it hadn’t been for the teams I worked with.”
“Every single project that I have loved working on, so that means most of them, have been characterised by the people who bring in the various voices and perspectives that helped me and the team to shape the story. Something extremely important for me as a storyteller is to make sure that I don’t tell a story only from my point of view.”
With this in mind, she encourages feedback from team members:
“I like to chat with them, to get their impressions. I ask – is this compelling to you? Is this something that would entice you to come to such an experience? Would you feel moved and inspired and empowered to make a change in your own life?
“That’s a question that I take very seriously in every project that I work on.”
Family inspiration
Kerrison’s grandmother was the person who inspired her storytelling.
She explains:
“The career I chose and the calling that I’m fulfilling was inspired by the first storyteller in my life. That was my maternal grandmother, who continues to inspire me today. I’ve recently been thinking a lot about her; she passed away during COVID.
“I remember, as a child, listening to her stories and being enthralled by them. She would tell a story for hours. My brother, my sister, and I would just sit and listen to her stories from the old days of growing up in a village in Indonesia, of her childhood, of how she met her husband.”
“I ask myself, how would Emak tell this story? Which points would she emphasise? She was one of the greatest storytellers in my life – a storyteller in the oral tradition. She was a voracious reader. But when she told stories to us, again and again, it was as if she were reading from a book of her own memory, her own mind. Her voice immersed us in the stories and the dialogue.
“We miss it, every day. Ever since we were little, before we knew how to read and write, she was already inspiring us through her stories. Even now, as an adult, when I think about what I should do in particular situations or moments, those stories flood back to me.”
The power of storytelling
This, she points out, highlights the power of storytelling:
“When you’re able to draw on the beautiful patterns and lessons and morals and themes of all the stories that you’ve heard and experienced in your life and bring them back to your own life to influence it in ways that are inspiring to you, and that influence you in a way that makes you want to change your life for the better and to change other lives for the better.
“Something very important in storytelling is the question, ‘How does this make a positive impact in the world? How does it better humanity, and our understanding of each other?’”
Authentic stories
It is good, she feels, to have these conversations:
“It’s important to think about where you’ve come from, and the path that you’ve taken to get to where you are.”
We want unique, authentic stories in order to immerse other people in a new world, to be able to connect people in ways that they’ve never been connected before.
“I have worked on so many amazing projects, but I always feel like my best story is yet to come. People say to me, ‘Oh, you worked on this project and that project, so how are you ever going to top that?’
“I say, ‘I feel like there are endless stories inside of me, and inside of everyone. Our best stories are yet to come.’ And I believe that more now than I’ve ever felt before.
“I always go back to that James Joyce quote, ‘In the particular is contained the universal.’ We want those unique, authentic stories in order to immerse other people in a new world, to be able to connect people in ways that they’ve never been connected before.”
Exploring different mediums
Margaret Kerrison challenges herself continually to tell different kinds of stories through different mediums via different voices and perspectives.
She says:
“When I joined BRC, I had zero experience in themed entertainment. When I joined Imagineering, I had zero experience in theme parks. I remember in my interview with Imagineering the interviewer asked, ‘What’s your affinity to Disney theme parks?’ I told her, honestly, that I’d probably been a total of seven times to a Disney theme park at that point in my life.”
However:
“I always approach any project with a great sense of curiosity and a deep desire to learn. It’s almost a scholarly approach.
“When I came in for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge I was a casual fan. As an eighties kid, I knew what Star Wars was, I watched the films, and I had the toys.
“Working on that project was like getting a PhD, working with Lucasfilm, who are the perfect partners, and also working closely with the designers and the story team to understand Star Wars, and why it has stood the test of time; why it is a cultural phenomenon.
“The honour of carrying the torch of Star Wars storytelling was a huge privilege for us. It was something we did not take lightly at all. When I tackle any kind of project, it is with that same sense of curiosity and desire to learn as much as possible.”
Margaret Kerrison’s guide to immersive storytelling
Margaret Kerrison’s book, Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds: A Writer’s Guide, comes out on 23 August 2022
She says:
“It’s not a step-by-step ‘how to’ book. It’s a guide; it’s my learnings, some insights, some collective wisdom that I’ve learned from my mentors and my colleagues that I share in the book, as well as certain methods or techniques that have been helpful for me. As I write at the start of the book, I’m not writing it to give you the answers, but to help you ask the right questions.”
