Sara Thacher

Last updated
Sara Thacher
Occupation(s)Experience designer, Disney Imagineer
Notable work Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, The Jejune Institute, Haunted Mansion: Ghost Post, The Optimist

Sara Thacher is an American game and experience designer. She is one of the founders of the San Francisco-based immersive experience The Jejune Institute and works as a creative director and senior R&D Imagineer at Walt Disney Imagineering, including creative leadership on the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser two-day immersive Disney experience. [1]

Contents

Education

Thacher studied glass at the Rhode Island School of Design and earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Social Practice at the California College of the Arts. [2] [3]

Career

Thacher was one of the creators of the multi-chapter interactive experience The Jejune Institute [4] in San Francisco, with Jeff Hull and Uriah Findley. She served as a lead producer and experience designer for Nonchalance after answering a Craigslist recruiting ad. [3] [5] She is featured in the 2013 documentary about The Jejune Institute, The Institute .

She later worked for The Go Game [3] and was a producer and designer on FutureCoast, a future forecasting game by World Without Oil's Ken Eklund that ran in February 2014. [6] FutureCoast was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Columbia University's Polar Partnership. [7]

The game explored climate change, its effect on polar ice, and rising sea levels through a series of voicemails from the future. [8] The game also used in-person experiences, geocached items, and social media to engage audiences. [7] [9]

Thacher works as a senior creative director and research and development Imagineer at Walt Disney Imagineering. Her work includes creative leadership on the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser two-day immersive Disney experience, [10] the Themed Entertainment Association Award-winning Haunted Mansion: Ghost Post, [11] [12] [13] and alternate reality game The Optimist, [14] a game set around Anaheim, California and inside Disneyland that served as a promotional tie-in to the 2015 film Tomorrowland . [15]

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References

  1. ↑ Gartenberg, Chaim (25 February 2022). "A look aboard Disney's $6,000 per stay, immersive Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel". The Verge . Archived from the original on 4 September 2024. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  2. ↑ Purves, Ted; Thacher, Sara; Barnhart, Bridget (2007). Revelry and Risk: Approaches to Social Practice, Or Something Like That. California College of the Arts. p. 9. ISBN   978-1430321286. OCLC   297448251 . Retrieved 26 November 2024– via Google Books.
  3. 1 2 3 Paulas, Rick (11 March 2011). "Last Chance: The Mysteries of San Francisco's Creepy Jejune Institute". The Awl . Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  4. ↑ Lagorio, Christine (1 April 2010). "Jejune Institute and Elsewhere". Bomb . Archived from the original on 26 November 2024. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  5. ↑ Rogers, Sol (6 March 2020). "Five Inspiring Creators Working In The Immersive Industry". Forbes . Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Paulas, Rick (14 April 2014). "Voicemails From The Terrifying Future". The Awl . Archived from the original on 26 November 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  7. 1 2 Pyper, Julia (1 May 2014). "New Climate-Fiction (Cli-Fi) Game Sends Players Clues from the Future". Scientific American . Archived from the original on 25 June 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  8. ↑ Minchew, Brandie (4 February 2014). "Voicemails from the Future Explore the Impact of Climate Change". Wired . Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  9. ↑ Pfirman, S.L.; Eklund, K.; Thacher, S.; Orlove, B.S.; Diane Stovall-Soto, G.; Brunacini, J.; Hernandez, T. (December 2014). "FutureCoast: 'Listen to your futures'" . AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts. 2014. Bibcode:2014AGUFMED52A..04P.
  10. ↑ Marino, Valerie (7 October 2021). "A Stay at the New Star Wars Hotel Comes With Lightsaber Training and a Visit to Batuu". Condé Nast Traveler . Archived from the original on 24 June 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  11. ↑ Doctorow, Cory (23 April 2017). "The Haunted Mansion Ghost Post wins a Themed Entertainment Award!". Boing Boing . Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  12. ↑ "Institute Board". The Immersive Experience Institute. Archived from the original on 21 December 2023. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  13. ↑ "The Haunted Mansion Ghost Post: Designing Immersion Beyond Location". Women Talk Design. 2017. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  14. ↑ "RISD Alumni in VR, AR and Immersive Worlds Industry Conversation". RISD Alumni. 18 August 2020. Archived from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  15. ↑ Bishop, Bryan (23 May 2015). "How Disney Imagineering revealed the secrets of Tomorrowland two years ago". The Verge . Archived from the original on 4 August 2024. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
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