Beginning with an analysis of the famous 2018 fire on the Maleficent dragon parade float, this introduction to Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience: The Tourist as Actor lays out the theoretical framework of the book. Jennifer A. Kokai and Tom Robson challenge the traditional notion that Disney Imagineers control every aspect of a guest’s in-park experience, instead arguing that tourists exert much more influence on their story than previous scholars have accepted. Their chapter points to multiple examples of Disney guests reading/performing against the “intended” text laid out by the company, with tourists transgressing boundaries laid out by designers. Finally, Kokai and Robson examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Disney Parks to illuminate what happens when the reciprocal relationship breaks down. Kokai and Robson argue that, as the included chapters will demonstrate, a Disney theme park experience aligns most neatly with the theory and experience of immersive theater, cementing the collaboration between Imagineer and guest and solidifying the notion of the Tourist as Actor.