UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When passengers aboard Disney’s Treasure cruise ship take time to enjoy the new theatrical production of the musical “Disney: The Tale of Moana” inspired by the hit film, they will be treated to a stunning stage set designed by Milagros Ponce de León, head of the bachelor of fine arts in theatre design and technology program in the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture.
Ponce de León has been at Penn State for almost 15 years and during that time she has designed sets for marque shows at theaters around the country. “Disney: The Tale of Moana” was her first stage design for Disney Live Entertainment and Disney Cruise Line.
“This has been an incredible and very rewarding process,” Ponce de León said. “Collaborating to create this show with Connor Gallagher (director) and an amazing team of designers, with the support of Disney’s outstanding technical team, has been a remarkable experience.”
The collaboration began in 2022 when Ponce de León was hired as the scenic designer for the production. After a significant amount of visual research, supported by Disney’s cultural consultants, she began sketching concepts. The sketches turned into technical drawings and 3D models, which eventually ended up with Studio Hamburg located in Hamburg, Germany, the company in charge of the scenic construction for the production.
“This was a very different process than anything else I have worked on,” Ponce de Léon said. “Working with so many resources and having so much support throughout a long pre-production and production process with state-of-the-art technology, and people from all over the world, made this experience very special.”
Throughout the process, she was aided by associate scenic designer Ryan Douglas, a theater scenic design faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, a 2021 Penn State School of Theatre graduate and a former student of Ponce de León.
The duo has worked together on 15 productions since 2021 and soon after Ponce de León officially joined the creative and design team with Disney, they were back to work.
“Ryan is my right hand, and I couldn’t do all the work that I do without his support,” Ponce de León said.
As the Disney Treasure was being constructed by ship builder Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany, construction for the set in the 2,000-seat Walt Disney Theatre on board the ship was happening about 150 miles away in Hamburg.
Alongside an international team of theater professionals and engineers, Ponce de León was integral in the process, which included construction of the set using lightweight and fireproof materials such as fiberglass and aluminum. The team created more than two miles of faux bamboo for the production.
“Watching the scenic renderings come to life was amazing,” Ponce de León said. “The support from the entire team was crucial because things needed to be engineered with great care and precision in preparation for the show opening.”
Over the course of about a year, Ponce de León and Douglas took multiple trips to Hamburg as the set was constructed to inspect and approve colors and textures for every scenic element.
With work on the set and the ship completed in 2024, and after several on-board technical rehearsals, the Treasure traveled from the Netherlands to New York City for its first trans-Atlantic crossing. While docked in New York, previews for the production started in November 2024 and culminated with a soft opening at the end of the month.
After the production opened, Ponce de León was able to share in more detail her process and experience with both the graduate and undergraduate scenic design students in the School of Theatre. For them, she explained, to be able to learn about the experience was invaluable and unique to Penn State.
In December, Ponce de León and Douglass, as well as their family members, were onboard for a seven-night preview cruise from Port Canaveral in Florida to multiple Caribbean destinations, which she said offered a celebratory ending to the process.
With the Treasure ready to welcome passengers, Ponce de León's thoughts quickly shifted to her next project, designing the set for the musical “Hercules” on Disney’s cruise ship Destiny, set to embark in November 2025.
“The first showing of ‘Disney: The Tale of Moana’ concluded a years-long process, which was both overwhelming at times and also so very exciting,” Ponce De Léon said, “now, we get to do it all over again.”