The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA), a non-profit representing compelling places and experiences worldwide, has announced this year’s TEA Masters honourees. The 2022 TEA Masters, who have been selected as masters of their craft in the attractions industry, will be celebrated at the association’s upcoming SATE event in Las Vegas.
Presenting this year’s TEA Masters
The 2022 TEA Masters will take part in a pane at SATE Las Vegas, moderated by Adam Bezark of The Bezark Company, an international creator of experiences.
Philip Bloom
The first of the 2022 Masters is Philip Bloom of Amercia Scenic Design, Inc., in the discipline of ride layout and design. With 35 years of experience in the industry, former Imagineer Bloom has a reputation as an expert in the development and implementation of technically sophisticated theme park rides.
During his career, Bloom has worked for a number of well-known clients including Disney, Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. He is the co-creator of rides such as Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Transformers, the Ride, Ratatouille the Ride, and Rise of the Resistance.
Bloom founded American Scenic Design Inc. in order to provide design and consulting services for theme parks, museums, guest experience venues and location-based entertainment developments.
Alfredo Ayala
Next, Alfredo Ayala of Walt Disney Imagineering has also been honoured, in the discipline of theme park technology and animation. Having worked as an Imagineer for 29 years, his impact has ranged across multiple fields, including creative design; computer-based media and animatronic animation; special effects; new projection techniques; and AI.
Amongst his numerous achievements, Ayala developed longer-lasting and more realistic synthetic skin materials for Disney’s Audio-Animatronics characters and introduced breakthrough methods to program animatronic characters. He has worked on the animation pipeline for Cars Land at Disney California Adventure and delivered the animation for the complex Shaman animatronic in Na’vi River Journey, at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Ayala has also pioneered new imaging and special effects technologies around the parks, such as the optical imaging system for “Mission: SPACE” at EPCOT. He pioneered the use of advanced projection effects to create the launch environments for Space Mountain, and to bring the Ghost Bride at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion to life. He holds 17 patents and his reputation is well known both inside and outside of Disney.
Desireé Soto-Vaughn
Desireé Soto-Vaughn, an independent consultant with 35 years of industry experience, has been honoured in the discipline of art direction. She began her career as a figure finisher and field art director at Walt Disney Imagineering in the 1980s and 90s, bringing well-known animated characters to life in the physical world. She then moved to Universal Creative in the late 90s and 2000s, where she was art director of animated figures and props for Men In Black: Alien Attack.
Soto-Vaughn also worked as art director on the Universal Studios Singapore project, as well as working on a number of independent projects in Asia, for example, Imagica in Mumbai, India, and as art director for Chimelong Ocean Kingdom projects.
She returned to Disney in 2017, where she was art director for the Hong Kong Disneyland Iron Man Experience. Soto-Vaughn has also provided art direction, production, installation and integration of show elements for Frozen Ever After and Oaken’s Sliding Sleigh Ride.
David Willrich
Meanwhile, David Willrich has been named as a TEA Master in the discipline of technical systems/audio-visual and multimedia specialist. The founder of DJ Willrich LTD (DJW), he has 36 years of experience in the industry and has worked with clients to design and develop audio-visual multimedia integrated systems that result in memorable, immersive, and engaging guest experiences around the globe, for venues such as hotels, museums, theme parks, visitor centres and more.
Willrich was the TEA’s international president from 2017 to 2018 and also served as president of the EMEA division from 2015 to 2016. He has previously been on the TEA International Board and the TEA EMEA Board, as well as co-charing both SATE Europe and SATE Asia.
He has worked on a number of celebrated projects, including The National Motor Museum, Beaulieu and The Shard in the UK; RingWerk, Nürburgring in Germany; the Arch of St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri and The British Music Experience. Several of his projects have been recognised with THEA awards, such as the Titanic Belfast Experience Center in Belfast, Ski-Dubai, and the Indigenous Peoples Experience, For Edmonton.
Takayasu Fujita Kimura
Finally, Takayasu Fujita Kimura, an Imagineer with 22 years of experience in the industry, has been honoured in the discipline of rockwork sculpting/design. A renowned artist and wood sculptor from Japan, he began his themed environment career on Mt. Prometheus at Tokyo DisneySea as a rockwork field art director.
In addition to his skills as a sculptor, He also helped to develop the talent base for the Shanghai Disney Resort rockwork scope. He has trained and led artisans around the world for over 20 years.
He has created monumental figures from steel and sculpted cement for Dubai Land in the UAE, treehouses at Hong Kong and Tokyo Disneyland, and floating mountains at Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. He has also worked on Cars Land at Disney California Adventure; Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland; and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Japan.
Currently, he is the rockwork field art director for the Never Land attraction within the Fantasy Springs expansion at Tokyo Disney Resort. He is one of a team of figurative sculptors who will be creating dozens of sculptural interpretations of Disney characters incorporated into the landscape.
Representing the breadth of talent in the industry
“What an astonishing gathering of experts!” says Bezark, who is the 2021-2022 TEA Masters Chair. “The TEA Masters represent the breadth and depth of talent in our amazing industry. They also represent the TEA’s ongoing commitment to mentorship and growth.
“In addition to the honor that comes with being selected as a Master by your peers, our TEA Masters programs are all about sharing knowledge with students and NextGen talent, as well as professional TEA Members who may be changing careers and learning new skills. We’re incredibly proud to welcome these new TEA Masters, who embody incredible diversity in professional disciplines, companies and geographies.”
The TEA’s SATE event in Las Vegas takes place from 12 – 15 October 2022. SATE stands for Storytelling + Architecture + Technology = Experience, the pillars of Themed Entertainment. The event is TEA’s design conference and will explore these elements and how they are used to create meaningful places, experiences and events.
