By Jane McDowell

Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) is home to not one but two student groups dedicated to the design and enjoyment of roller coasters and theme parks: TMU Thrill and the recently established Themed Entertainment Group (TEG).

These student groups are trying to create a sense of community through their shared love of one thing: theme parks.

The two entertainment design-focused clubs cater to all lovers of theme parks. Whether you focus on engineering elements or on creative theming, both clubs welcome anyone passionate about theme parks. 

Third-year chemical engineering student Gavin Baker is the vice president of TMU Thrill, and says the design-focused club is one of the only engineering clubs on campus that is multidisciplinary.

“One where if you have no experience with any sort of engineering, you can still walk in and we can still absolutely use your help.”

Andre Marques, a third-year performance production student and the president of TEG shares similar views to Baker, aiming to integrate more creative aspects and minds into entertainment design. 

“You can develop a dark ride, you can have the systems, you can have the mechanical aspects, but you need the creativity to build the theming,” he said.

“You can still walk in and we can still absolutely use your help”

Marques started the TEG this September, after years of being involved in the theme park community.

TMU Thrill hosts many events including escape room building, weekly game nights and their upcoming participation in the Thrill Design Competition. Presented by Universal Creative and hosted at the Universal Orlando Resort, the competition involves “dozens of American universities, as well as two Canadian universities: TMU and Queens,” Baker said.

Kathryn Woodcock, the producer and director of the Thrill Design Competition, described the process on her blog. 

“Teams receive their challenge(s) on arrival at the competition, and begin a time-pressured creative process that could see them presenting their ideas in as little as 24 hours, and no more than 72 hours,” she wrote.

The TEG has potential upcoming projects such as enthusiast nights at Canada’s Wonderland, workshops for motion vehicles and ride systems, guest speakers—specifically those speaking on virtual reality-based technology within theme parks—and backstage tours of theatre spaces, all in an attempt to emphasize the importance of creative minds in theme park design. 

“I see themed entertainment and theme parks as an art form”

“When a theatre show is bad a lot of people say, ‘oh, it’s a theme park show. It feels like it should be in a theme park,’” Marques said. “And I’m like, ‘what do you mean by that?’ It just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t compute with me. I see themed entertainment and theme parks as an art form. And I can’t stop.”