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[0:25] Amber Brzezinski: Holy Monday, Batman.

[0:28] Heather Bedor: Holy Monday.

[0:30] Amber Brzezinski: Every Monday after like a holiday weekend always just feels like an extra extra something else.

[0:39] Heather Bedor: It's been like really rainy here, so I've just been not wanting to do anything.

[0:44] Amber Brzezinski: It's been frustrating.

[0:46] Heather Bedor: Cause you know, I don't like to just sit around and do nothing, but that's all my body wants to do.

[0:51] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[0:52] Heather Bedor: Also, apologies.

[0:54] Amber Brzezinski: I do have a very loud cat.

[0:56] Heather Bedor: Yes, your foster cat.

[0:57] Amber Brzezinski: So there's fur tax. We got fur tax last week when Hannah was on the show, and all the time.

[1:01] Heather Bedor: There's fur tax.

[1:03] Amber Brzezinski: And she's very loud.

[1:05] Heather Bedor: She has a lot of opinions.

[1:07] Amber Brzezinski: Her name is Carla.

[1:10] Heather Bedor: Okay.

[1:11] Amber Brzezinski: So like Carl from Scrubs, very loud and opinion.

[1:14] Heather Bedor: Eight years old.

[1:16] Amber Brzezinski: She had all of her teeth removed except the one canine.

[1:22] Heather Bedor: So I kind of call her like a jack-o'-lantern.

[1:25] Amber Brzezinski: She's not just like the one.

[1:27] Heather Bedor: Yeah.

[1:28] Amber Brzezinski: You really do foster some of the most interesting animals.

[1:32] Heather Bedor: I do.

[1:32] Amber Brzezinski: They really like say I feel like they save the like the weird ones for me.

[1:42] Heather Bedor: We got a weird one. We gotta call her in for this one.

[1:47] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[1:47] Heather Bedor: Well, I hope that everybody had a nice and safe holiday weekend.

[1:50] Amber Brzezinski: Um, and now we're back for a regularly scheduled Monday episode of the Broadway Fan Club podcast.

[1:56] Heather Bedor: I'm Heather, the Tired, and Amber is right there, the foster.

[2:00] Amber Brzezinski: So there you go.

[2:01] Heather Bedor: Somewhere.

[2:02] Amber Brzezinski: I never know which direction I'm in.

[2:04] Heather Bedor: Like on the like, I don't know if it's like mirrored.

[2:07] Amber Brzezinski: I don't know how things work.

[2:08] Heather Bedor: So this is my left.

[2:09] Amber Brzezinski: You're on my left right now.

[2:11] Heather Bedor: Yeah, but does it flip for the other people?

[2:14] Amber Brzezinski: It shouldn't point.

[2:16] Heather Bedor: That's the wrong direction.

[2:18] Amber Brzezinski: That's your direction.

[2:23] Heather Bedor: It's fine.

[2:24] Amber Brzezinski: It's gonna be one of those Mondays.

[2:25] Heather Bedor: It's rainy, it's gross, it's icky.

[2:27] Amber Brzezinski: But we're gonna have a hell of a lot of fun today.

[2:30] Heather Bedor: Um, Amber, we kind of have a little obsession with this company that we're bringing up.

[2:34] Amber Brzezinski: We do.

[2:36] Heather Bedor: Um fashion and I can prove it.

[2:39] Amber Brzezinski: You can prove it.

[2:40] Heather Bedor: Sustainable, um, giving back to the community um some really unique and creative stuff and a way to keep your favorite shows going.

[2:49] Amber Brzezinski: Um, and we are very fortunate and like a way to become part of your favorite shows.

[2:55] Heather Bedor: Yeah, or your favorite shows to become part of your everyday life.

[2:58] Amber Brzezinski: But um, super excited to bring founder, the entrepreneur herself, the one and only Jennifer Kahn to the stage.

[3:05] Jennifer Kahn: Hello, Jen.

[3:06] Heather Bedor: How are you?

[3:06] Jennifer Kahn: Hello, I am so well. Thank you so much for having me.

[3:10] Heather Bedor: Oh, of course. We're excited.

[3:11] Amber Brzezinski: I mean, we are a little bit fangirls of SCENERY, like it's incredible.

[3:18] Jennifer Kahn: Thank you so so much.

[3:20] Amber Brzezinski: Uh you're so so I'm fangirling right back.

[3:22] Jennifer Kahn: So I'm very glad to um we love it.

[3:25] Heather Bedor: So, I mean, I know about your history. We were just talking before the show.

[3:29] Jennifer Kahn: Um, so you have a history of being in the theater, stage management.

[3:33] Heather Bedor: You've worked on some really incredible shows.

[3:36] Jennifer Kahn: Um, and even your husband's in the industry, so it's fun.

[3:40] Heather Bedor: It is, yes.

[3:41] Jennifer Kahn: We keep it all in the family.

[3:42] Heather Bedor: I have I'm in my office. I've I have my Spring Awakening here, and this is Hunchback here, signed by Stephen Torres and Alan Menken.

[3:50] Jennifer Kahn: So a little bit of like the stage management history and then all of the SCENERY mods in the middle of it.

[3:57] Heather Bedor: But yeah, I was a professional.

[4:00] Jennifer Kahn: Yeah, yeah.

[4:01] Heather Bedor: You talk, you feel me?

[4:03] Jennifer Kahn: I was a professional stage manager for 17 years, and I got to work on Broadway, off Broadway, national tours regionally, and it was amazing.

[4:12] Heather Bedor: And my husband was a stage manager on Broadway as well, and uh then went to grad school for producing and is now the managing director of the Alliance here in Atlanta.

[4:21] Jennifer Kahn: So we talk shop a lot, which is great.

[4:24] Heather Bedor: And that's good.

[4:25] Jennifer Kahn: You guys get to like decompress after a little bit, but you can still talk shop, which is nice.

[4:29] Heather Bedor: Yes, I love it because I he comes home from work and I actually really want to hear about his day because everything he's working on is fascinating.

[4:35] Jennifer Kahn: I'm like, this is great. Tell me everything.

[4:36] Heather Bedor: Sure, go on, tell me.

[4:38] Jennifer Kahn: You actually care.

[4:39] Heather Bedor: Yeah, it really helps when the your husband is doing something.

[4:42] Jennifer Kahn: You're like, yes, this is awesome. Thank you.

[4:44] Heather Bedor: Yeah, and the Alliance might sound familiar to you guys because it um was the home of the original productions of some famous shows like oh, Water for Elephants and maybe Maybe Happy Ending.

[4:59] Jennifer Kahn: It was their uh US premiere, like their world premiere here.

[5:05] Heather Bedor: Um, and then they blew up over here in the States.

[5:10] Jennifer Kahn: Now they're touring, they're just like living on.

[5:13] Heather Bedor: So yes, some great shows have gone through there.

[5:17] Jennifer Kahn: Amazing shows and amazing shows coming too.

[5:19] Heather Bedor: So keep it on your radar, a little plug for for the Alliance.

[5:23] Jennifer Kahn: But we had Water for Elephants before Brandon started working here.

[5:28] Heather Bedor: And so a bunch of people from the staff were like buying SCENERY bags because we have Water for Elephants stuff, which was like a really cool first full circle moment.

[5:36] Jennifer Kahn: And also, fun fact, I stage managed one of the first readings of Maybe Happy Ending in New York when I was pregnant with Hudson.

[5:45] Heather Bedor: Yes.

[5:46] Jennifer Kahn: And so I was pregnant with Hudson and I stage managed a bunch of readings that year because I was so too sick to stage manage a full show.

[5:53] Heather Bedor: So I joked that I was like stage managing every reading in New York because it kind of felt like I was.

[5:57] Jennifer Kahn: And then one of them, oh, it was awesome.

[5:57] Heather Bedor: It was awesome.

[6:01] Jennifer Kahn: I loved it.

[6:01] Heather Bedor: And one of them was Maybe Happy Ending.

[6:04] Jennifer Kahn: And then um Michael Arden asked me to do the next reading, and I was like, he had some on the outside now.

[6:10] Heather Bedor: And so that's not gonna work.

[6:12] Jennifer Kahn: Um, but I loved watching its trajectory, and then like kind of like coming in now and it being such a huge part of the Alliance history is very fun.

[6:21] Heather Bedor: Oh, it's very cool.

[6:22] Jennifer Kahn: Yes, uh, the one and only Michael Arden, who's also now directing Lost Boys, yes, which I hear is amazing.

[6:30] Heather Bedor: Uh yeah, yes.

[6:31] Jennifer Kahn: Um, I have not had the opportunity to see it yet.

[6:33] Heather Bedor: Amber and I have tickets for the 30th.

[6:35] Jennifer Kahn: Um but we are heavily involved with that show between running the fan group and knowing pretty much everybody.

[6:43] Heather Bedor: But my goodness, I saw it and um the rescue set of performance of Red Joe's NYC and Michael actually sang with them for a little while, and it's like you kind of like now that he's transitioned into this like director extraordinary, like oh yeah, you've you sing and you've sang professionally, and like you've still maintained your voice.

[7:03] Jennifer Kahn: No, I miss I miss his voice because I worked with Michael, he was our Quasimodo in Hunchback Notre Dame that I did at La Jolla Playhouse and Paper Mill.

[7:12] Heather Bedor: So we did two back-to-back shows together, and it was while he saw something in me doing that show, and then asked me to do the Deaf West Revival of Spring Awakening when it moved to Broadway.

[7:22] Jennifer Kahn: So it's thanks to Michael that I got my to do my Broadway debut with him on that show.

[7:28] Heather Bedor: So I owe Michael a lot and I adore him and I love him on stage and behind stage.

[7:33] Jennifer Kahn: I'm gonna say a lot of people owe you a lot because they could take some of their favorite parts of theater home with them.

[7:39] Heather Bedor: Like, how do you go from stage manager short and air and doing like all these crazy table reads and Broadway and regional and everything else?

[7:47] Jennifer Kahn: Like, what was this light bulb moment or this aha moment of like I could do this and do the thing and bring and somebody can carry a part of the stage with them?

[7:56] Heather Bedor: Like I thought that's phenomenal.

[7:58] Jennifer Kahn: Yes, and it was uh on accident, really.

[8:02] Jennifer Kahn: Um, my last four years of stage management.

[8:05] Jennifer Kahn: I also ran a blog with my sister.

[8:07] Jennifer Kahn: It was like back in like 2011 blogging days, and it was on give back and ethical style, and it was this other half of my heart that I never thought would have anything to do with theater.

[8:18] Jennifer Kahn: Like I had my stage management side and I dressed in all black and I hid it in the backstage, and then I had like and I I loved that.

[8:27] Jennifer Kahn: I didn't want it to be anything but that, and but then I had this other outlet that was more of like a creative outlet style outlet, but I was championing brands that were being ethical and sustainable and giving back with what they were doing, and um, it was in 20 summer of 2015.

[8:43] Jennifer Kahn: I drove to a road trip with one of my friends up the coast from New York to Maine.

[8:48] Amber Brzezinski: Nice.

[8:48] Jennifer Kahn: We happened upon this cute shop called Sea Bags, where they upcycled old sailboat sails into bags, and I was like, this is amazing.

[8:59] Heather Bedor: I bought a bag.

[9:00] Jennifer Kahn: I talked to every single person who works there.

[9:02] Jennifer Kahn: I was like, tell I need to know everything about this company.

[9:05] Jennifer Kahn: This is like so in my wheelhouse.

[9:07] Jennifer Kahn: And then we went out to lunch right afterwards and we were just brainstorming.

[9:11] Jennifer Kahn: We're like, where's our idea?

[9:12] Jennifer Kahn: Like we can do something like this.

[9:14] Jennifer Kahn: Like, what can we upcycle?

[9:16] Jennifer Kahn: And I immediately thought about drops.

[9:18] Jennifer Kahn: Cause I'm like, it's just a giant piece of fabric.

[9:20] Jennifer Kahn: It could easily be made into a bag.

[9:23] Jennifer Kahn: And so many times they're just thrown away.

[9:26] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah.

[9:26] Jennifer Kahn: And it's hours and hours of my scenic artist friends in the shop painting these gorgeous giant paintings.

[9:34] Jennifer Kahn: And then they're like, you know, if there's not a way to reuse them, they're gone.

[9:38] Heather Bedor: And um, and so that night I called my friend who um rents theater sets.

[9:44] Jennifer Kahn: So he would acquire like Broadway and touring sets and then rent them regionally.

[9:49] Jennifer Kahn: And I'm like, Do you have any trash that I can have?

[9:52] Jennifer Kahn: And he's like, Yeah, I don't throw anything away.

[9:55] Jennifer Kahn: And uh oftentimes when a show is done with its tour and sells the set to be rented regionally, the first thing they do is pare down soft goods because there's you know, line sets are like the pipes that they hang for like any non-techie people.

[10:11] Heather Bedor: And the there's a lot more line sets usually in a touring house or a Broadway house than in a regional house.

[10:17] Jennifer Kahn: So they cut what's in the air, like they cut the soft goods first, and so he's like, I have 600 pounds of drops for you from Broadway and Broadway.

[10:26] Heather Bedor: And I was like, fabricator by play, and I'm like, 600 pounds.

[10:31] Jennifer Kahn: Holy crap.

[10:33] Heather Bedor: I know.

[10:33] Jennifer Kahn: And so I flew out to San Diego and like drove my mom's U-Haul to his uh warehouse and loaded up the trunk.

[10:42] Jennifer Kahn: And I was pregnant with Hudson.

[10:45] Jennifer Kahn: Or I had just had Hudson.

[10:46] Jennifer Kahn: No, I was pregnant with Hudson still.

[10:48] Heather Bedor: And um then I went and put it in my parents' storage unit where it sat.

[10:53] Jennifer Kahn: Oh no, I wasn't pregnant yet.

[10:54] Jennifer Kahn: This was still 2016.

[10:56] Heather Bedor: It's all blur.

[10:57] Jennifer Kahn: Um die for the storage unit, yeah.

[11:00] Jennifer Kahn: Thanks, Mom and Dive with the Storage Unit, and they thought they would never see the light of day because I was a serial entrepreneur.

[11:05] Jennifer Kahn: Like every every time I had time in between shows, I would start a new company, and then I would get back to I worked at the Old Globe for eight years as a stage manager.

[11:12] Jennifer Kahn: And so like all we had this kind of like bullpen, we call it of stage managers that everyone like that's where everyone would go because they'd show me different stages, and so like all of we all would write our reports together post-show, and it was like a very fun stage manager community.

[11:26] Heather Bedor: And so, like when I would make it back to the bullpen after like to work on my next show there, they're like, What did you do?

[11:31] Jennifer Kahn: Like, what new company did Jen start while she had like two months off, and um, so it was very this is a very Jen thing, but I'm grateful that this one like made saw the light of day and continued on.

[11:45] Heather Bedor: I just like picture your dad like seeing how much fabric there was and like being like the guy from Jaws being like we're gonna need a bigger boat, like you're not wrong, you're not wrong, but I always my parents are huge, huge theater supporters because my sister and I both did theater.

[12:05] Jennifer Kahn: We've we performed growing up, and so they they are not theater people by nature, but they like jumped in really hard, which is great.

[12:13] Heather Bedor: They're very supportive.

[12:13] Jennifer Kahn: But I would say, like, my mom is Lucille Bluth from uh Arrested Development, and my dad is Ned Flanders from The Simpsons, and like that.

[12:21] Heather Bedor: If you know those references, like that's like pretty spot on.

[12:24] Jennifer Kahn: My parents.

[12:25] Heather Bedor: No, I love that.

[12:26] Jennifer Kahn: Here's a personal question because I too could be a serial entrepreneur.

[12:30] Jennifer Kahn: I was always looking for something at the business, you know, level because I'm like, damn the man, like corporate world is not a thing.

[12:37] Heather Bedor: I want to give back to the community. I want to do that. And that's how Amber and I really created the Broadway Fan Club. But my parents, too, saying I guarantee my dad'll pop up in the comments somewhere. Supportive, but also go, yeah, but you need like a real job. And I'm like, but this is a real job. Like this is something, it's not a nine to five behind the desk. It's, uh, I'm working at seven o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the morning, or doing something crazy to try to like build the brand.

[13:05] Amber Brzezinski: Did you have to convince your parents?

[13:08] Jennifer Kahn: I mean, you said that they were used to the theater thing, but did you have to say, hey, like, no, this is actually what I want to do. It's not just a fly by the seat of my pants, like overnight sensation. It's just gonna be something I want to do. That's a great question. And thankfully, I was really fortunate as a stage manager. Like, I was never unemployed unless I chose to be unemployed from the day that I graduated college. I have my BFA in stage management from USC, and I just worked. And so I don't think that, you know, then when I started Scenery Bags, it wasn't so much of like, is she gonna be okay? Because I had done really well as a stage manager. And my plan when I started Scenery Bags was to go back to stage management.

[13:54] Jennifer Kahn: Yeah, it was gonna be like the maternity leave project. Yeah, I was like, this is gonna be a cute little maternity project, and then I'll go back to stage management. And you know, like I had things lined up, and then it went super viral, and I was like, oh, okay, maybe this is like a real thing now.

[14:10] Amber Brzezinski: Were you surprised by the virality of it though? Like when it went viral for the first time, you're like, oh, we actually did the thing.

[14:17] Jennifer Kahn: Yeah. Oh, yeah. It was not at all my plan. And I'm forever grateful that it happened the way it did. So in 2017, I had Hudson. And then six weeks after having Hudson, we moved out to Williamstown Theater Festival because for the summer with a six-week-old. Do not recommend. Um, and so, but my husband was producing for Williamstown. I had stage managed there for years, so had he. Um, and not that I was bored, but I had time at home for the first time ever. And so I was like sitting in our little rented apartment at Williamstown with this brand new baby, and I was like, now let's like try this Scenery Bags idea thing that I had thought of. And I had found manufacturers and they made us like our first little round of 25 bags. And I started an Instagram account, which was only followed by my friends because I hadn't told anybody, like we hadn't advertised anything.

[15:15] Jennifer Kahn: And so I put those up, and the first round of bags sold out in 24 hours with just my friends. It was Desert Song, which was an operetta that no one's ever heard of, but or no, I shouldn't say no one's ever heard of, but not a lot of people have heard of. But this drop was gorgeous. It was all these beautiful colors. It's still one of my favorite drops we've ever cut, and it was the very first one. And um, one of the people who got one of the first bags was Krista Rodriguez, who I had done Spring Awakening with, was a huge proponent in like the beginning of Scenery Bags. Like I remember her coming off stage during Spring Awakening being like, how's it going? What are you doing? Do you need my help? I sew. Like she would just every time she saw me, she wanted to check in, and she really like kind of kept me accountable in those early stages. I'm like, I have to have something to report to Krista. She's gonna ask me, like, what are we doing?

[16:08] Jennifer Kahn: Right. And as soon as I launched that first round, she's like, I need one immediately, immediately I need a bag. And so she posted about it. We got like a thousand new followers right away, one of whom being Rachel Bloom, who wrote and started in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. And she personally emailed me and said, I have to have a bag. What you're doing is so cool. And so I sent her one and she posted about it. We got 4,000 new followers in like hours. And then I went to and started a landing page of a website. And I was like, I was a blogger to figure this out. So I like in an afternoon created a landing page and they could sign up for a wait list. So we had like 200 people on the wait list. Someone who, and then someone who found me through Rachel Bloom's post was a reporter for Upworthy. They did a feature on us, and this was we launched in July, and August 1st, her feature went live.

[17:03] Jennifer Kahn: Oh wow, that's, this is um, less than a month after I like soft launch only on the internet to like a hundred friends. So like not overwhelm the senses and to not, yeah, wow, and then like wildfire. And then I from the, and I didn't know it had gone live. She was supposed to tell me and never did. And my phone starts like exploding, and I don't know what's going on. And I, so from the time it took me to figure out that the article had gone live to get to my computer to change the wait list to a pre-order, so people can pre-order like our next drop. We had 800 people on the wait list. Then once I flipped it over to pre-order, we sold 4,000 pre-orders in 24 hours.

[17:47] Amber Brzezinski: Wow.

[17:48] Jennifer Kahn: And that was, I know, like that was the moment where I was like, there's never been a moment more validating because like this, I really kind of put everything I care about into this company where it's like we're gonna make Broadway more sustainable, we're gonna save theatrical art, we're gonna save it from a landfill, we're gonna give it a new life. And then we also our Gimp back component because we partner with TDF and we support their intro to theater program. So they take students and give them classes and bring them to what is many times their first live performance. And then we also the memberships to graduating seniors, yeah. They're incredible. And then we also um sponsor all of their accessibility programs. So all of the ASL interpreted, closed caption, autism-friendly, and audio described performances. We also sponsor because we believe that access to theater should be access for everyone.

[18:41] Jennifer Kahn: So it was really, I'm just gonna form too. We believe like making theater accessible is so key. It's so unfair to us. Yes. And I was worried that we're like, we're losing it. We're like, we're losing this next generation. It's not taught in schools the way it used to be. Like the access is kind of, the access point is breaking down. And so I wanted to do whatever I could to kind of like re-extend the invitation to come learn about theater, come see theater, come get bit by the bug, tell your stories, all of those things. Because I believe so much in this art form, and so I really kind of like married everything I cared about into this one company, thinking that it'll be a cute little whatever, and I'll feel like I did something that I really care about.

Little did little did I know, but then like, oh my gosh, so many people actually really care about the same things and it was this really beautiful moment of validation and that was equal parts terrifying so I'm like now I need to figure out how to fulfill 4,000 pre-orders.

[19:42] Jennifer Kahn: He had 600 pounds of fabric that went real fast. That went real fast. And so we, and then also I, my manufacturers were in LA and they once I called them and was like, hey so funny story, um, they're like absolutely not we're out there's no way we're gonna be able to keep up with that, no. Yeah, and so I always make sure I tell like the breath of August because it starts August 1st with like this viral, so Upworthy went viral and then Broadway World and Playbill also picked up the story and all three articles went viral. So by the end of like that week we had 5,000 orders that we of pre-orders and I found a new manufacturer in Florida because everything's made in America which was really important to us. We're in Florida in Hialeah.

[20:31] Jennifer Kahn: Okay. So not too bad, not in my, in Miami it's not bad. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we so we found manufacturers there and then they got hit by Hurricane Irene and closed for two weeks. And so all of these things, this is all in August and so I used all my stage manager skills and I emailed everyone I let them know what was going on I thought like said my little stage manager report saying like this is what's going on I will make sure you get your bag we're they're closed, they're gonna come back, we'll get we'll let you choose. And they got to choose what drop they wanted, and I would do like 500 orders a week processing through these 5,000 orders we had, and it took until December.

[21:16] Amber Brzezinski: What people are patient though.

[21:18] Jennifer Kahn: Oh my word. We, so out of 5,000 plus, because we kept orders kept coming in. Um, I think we had five people want to refund because they didn't want to wait. And everyone else, everyone else 5,000 plus is like, yeah, yeah. I mean, I will take it. It was really a beautiful the whole genesis of Scenery Bags and how it like really kind of turned into a real company overnight. Yeah, was like such a lovely picture of the Broadway and theater community. There's like, yes, we want to champion what you're doing so hard that like it almost like sets everything on fire. And then, and then we're gonna be patient and we're gonna wait with you and we're gonna cheer you on and send you nice emails. Like people are like, I'm so proud of you. This is so cool. We love what you're doing. Keep it up. When I thought people were gonna yell at me, instead, they sent me like gorgeous, gorgeous emails of encouragement. I'm like, I love this community.

[22:14] Amber Brzezinski: Those are your people. That's the thing. Sometimes you get the haters, and you're like, you know what? It's okay that you don't get it, but I have all of these people that do, so I'm not gonna put any more energy into this. I'm gonna focus my energy over here.

[22:28] Jennifer Kahn: Like take that step back and do it. It's kind of incredible, you know. Something came up in our chat. Um, Jeffrey Cohen, a lot of quote scenery are becoming projections, which kind of trigger a question for me. Um, when you're going through, and obviously, like you've got drops, you've got legs, and you've got everything else, but when you're coming to these shows that uh Gatsby, for example, really incredible set design, but very little fabric to work with. A lot of it's, you know, digital screening or whatever. Are you finding that people are wanting stuff from shows that don't really have a lot of things to utilize to repurpose? Like, how do you manage that?

[23:10] Jennifer Kahn: Great question. And yes, that is true. And um, people want something from every show, you know, like anything that you feel a connection with, if you own to all of us who either work professionally pairs of phantom leggings, yes, exactly like that. But if like you choose a life in theater or you choose to like be a fan of theater, it's very ephemeral. There's no two shows that are exactly the same, even if it's the same cast, even if it's matinee and evening, they're gonna be different. And to be able to hold a tangible piece of that show is really meaningful. So people ask for everything, you know, and um there's a lot of waste to be had, sadly. And even shows that are projection heavy, we end up with marketing materials because we take banners now and we take like their um like barricade covers that they put out for people to sign at the stage door, and we have billboards now. We also um their stage floors are cycle because I'm just modeling one right now. This is not from DC, right?

[24:20] Jennifer Kahn: This is from DC, yes. This is from the BLD stage floor, which so about like five years ago, I got a call from someone, they're like, we have all the stage floor, we're just gonna throw it away. Do you want to like make coasters or something? And I was like, hold that thought, because no one's ever asked me this before. Yeah, but it's a very, very thick laminate that doesn't decompose. Yeah, and um I said yes. And what we now a lot of the like new and in and inventive things that we're making are is just because of my inability to say no. And so I'm like, yeah, sure. I will ship out all of your stage floor and we'll run it through the CNC and we'll make jewelry. And so now we have, we have rings.

[25:02] Jennifer Kahn: I was gonna say you have like talking rings from Beetle just here. I remember seeing this is Jagged Little Pill. I love that set in a ring, and then we have this is beautiful the Carol King musical set in Sterling Silver Earrings.

[25:19] Jennifer Kahn: I know it is really funnier. Um, and so that I really love because every stage has a floor except for Spring Awakening, which actually used the actual Brooks Atkinson at the time, now Lena Horn stage, which almost never happens. I mean, I'd say like 99% of the shows have their own stage deck because they need it for automation, so they can build automation underneath to bring on tests, but it was a unit set, and we actually did use the stage floor of the Brooks at the time, but Gazby for sure has a deck and would have like a stage floor that we could upcycle should that be offered to us, and um so you know what's what works for us is that there's always something to there's always waste. I I wish there weren't. I mean, the projections thing it feels sad because it's feels like the end of an era in on some forms, but it also like it is less weight, less wasted, especially if they can reuse the projections, like all of their projection curtains and screens.

Um, we ended up with Shrek projection screens at some point. That we I still have an upstairs, so I'm like, I don't know what to make out of this. Because if the screens get thrown away, it's like a little counter counterintuitive as far as like the angle. Um but we try, we really reach out to every show and say, like anything you be throwing away, please. Like if it can live on stage, let it live on stage. If it can go to someone who can use it, go to someone who can use it. Material for the arts. Anyone, if it's going to a dumpster, call me. Like we are the last ones on the line to take anything that's headed to the landfill. Like we don't want it there. We'll figure out how to use it.

[27:03] Heather Bedor: Yeah. Well, speaking of the sustainability, like range of it, you had mentioned earlier, like how it kind of brings a new life onto like theater and like a new way up for like theater lovers to kind of have a new experience. But I feel like this generation also hasn't been taught the same levels of sustainability that kind of we all grew up on. There's so much emphasis on like you know, fast fashion and fast things like that. So, like to see, like you were saying, like these pieces, these opportunities, the chance to get a second life, it might, you know, give someone a chance to say, like, wow, like this was something before. What else could be something? Yes, from another time. And it could be opening up like someone's eyes just to a whole new world of recycling. Like, I remember like reduce, reuse, recycling.

[28:04] Amber Brzezinski: I was just gonna say that it's rained in my brain.

[28:08] Heather Bedor: Yeah, it rained into our heads when we were little, but like I feel like that's just not a thing as much these days. Like everything just like there's just so much waste so like any little thing that can make people change habits is just yes a wonderful think twice about yeah the way they're consuming what they're consuming you know if you have a choice between fashion fashion and something that's upcycled and something that has a story and a meaning you know like I want everything I wear just to tell a story that's just me like I always have gravitated in that direction but it's and it's so interesting because we do live in this like overconsumption fast fashion world like and it's it's so tragic what it's doing to our earth and to our brains like that we all like I need something new I need something new all the time all the time all the time all the time and this like dupe culture where we all feel like we deserve access to everything all the time immediately and it's entirely so bad for ourselves.

[29:09] Jennifer Kahn: It's that instant gratification entitlement and you're just like how did this happen? How did we let ourselves get to this point?

[29:17] Amber Brzezinski: Yeah I mean social media is a lot to blame for it sadly. But I will say if I can like a little like glimmer of hope is like my boys are seven and nine and they I'm just joined the PTA and in charge of like environmental and we do like we won all these awards for recycling and they they learn a lot about it I'm trying to introduce composting to their school this next year, potentially. Um, but I will say, like they're they are taught it in school, but there's I I think that there is a disconnect between like reduce, reuse, recycle, and I want. And yeah, those are the two that need to be taught in tandem a little bit more. Is like, okay, well, I'm gonna recycle my water bottle, but then I'm gonna buy this thing from Timu, and you're like, no, no, no, like that's that Timu one's way worse.

Like, yes, but like the but the goal is the goal is all of it, you know. It's like every we need everyone doing it imperfectly rather than people not trying. So I think that's the conversation is the I want conversation, and and to keep continue to cultivate the reduce reuse recycle that's already being taught. But it is it's they are still learning about it, right? So at least that's like these baby steps, like these opportunities to feel like you're a part of something bigger and be a part of your favorite show in a way you just like feel you're keeping it living on, right?

[30:50] Jennifer Kahn: Exactly. It like it gives you a bigger feeling while also helping you engage in better habits, yeah.

[31:00] Heather Bedor: It's a great way. And you know, Jen, we had a couple of months ago we had Final Strike Collaborative on the show.

[31:07] Jennifer Kahn: Yes, we love those girls because they're also like pulling stuff, and I'm sure it's like okay, who gets what? Okay, so scenery bags needs to get this final strike can like make the coasters or make the planters, so it's it's so fascinating. But like in my brain, and Amber, I'm sure it's in yours too. You guys are so drastically different, but there's only two of you guys, like brand-wise that are looking at sustainability, reusability, upcycling of theater.

[31:37] Heather Bedor: Yeah, me, I feel like that just makes sense. Like, everyone's always recycling and upcycling and getting rid of set designs, even locally and you're like well can't you do this and this with it so how how is that but I mean just having I I I think it takes a certain person to come in and be like I can do something with that and then do it because I think a lot of people look and they're like I can but it's the do part and like and we when we started we were the only ones because we were we started back in 2017 and I was when I had this idea I was shocked that no one else has ever had and I don't know that no one else has ever had it but no one else has had that I knew of had ever done it. And because even as a stage manager I would upcycle props in the show that um were dead and I'm like great and I would give them as closing night gifts to people I would upcycle the programs into like little Christmas ornaments and give those as presents.

So like this was something I was doing well before I had the idea for scenery bags. It was just kind of my nature as like a kind of crafty person and wanting to save things that I thought were meaningful to me.

[32:44] Jennifer Kahn: But it is kind of wild that um that there are are only two of us right now and and and maybe there will be more and I hope that there will I remember when Final Strike came on the scene and people were like in our circle or like getting competitive about it or like mad about it and I was like absolutely not absolutely not I'm thrilled by what they're doing. Right there's more waste than even we can take like there's plenty of ways to go around I could not be more thrilled that they are taking whatever they can take and it and I don't even think that it's like a parsing out of things. Like if it's a show that they're working on and they take the whole thing, take the whole thing. I don't know. You with my blessing, not that they need my blessing, but like I'm I'm thrilled that this is disrupting the industry. I'm thrilled that it's like that is catching on and more people are doing it. It makes me very happy.

[33:35] Amber Brzezinski: And I just saw one of your social uh videos that you guys just got something that you were wanting to get for a while.

[33:42] Jennifer Kahn: Yes, with that was amazing. And that was one of the ones where we're when I started Scenery Bags, like many people were asking, Do you have Wicked? Do you have Hamilton? And I was like, you guys, that'll never happen. Like we'll never have witnessed it. We'll never have Hamilton. Like, please stop. And now we have like a partnership with Wicked, like ongoing partnership with Wicked. So cool. And and we have stuff from Hamilton. And one of my favorite curtains I've seen in the last like decade on Broadway was the pie curtain, the show curtain waitress. And so getting to upcycle that was also really, really special. See if I can try to find it on the website so I can pull it up because I know I had one behind me, but then I had I sent it back for them to use. Um here it is. Hold on one second. Let me share the screen, everybody.

[34:29] Jennifer Kahn: Some of my personal favorites outside of cabaret were subs, the stuffs collection. Gorgeous. And it has a little, like, can you see the eye votes for the minute? I love that. I love that. And the white, of course, for yes, it's it's from like those. Yes, and these are they have like many different ombre colors of this one because it was um the black and white photos, knocking out um can you guys know that's what the the drop is. But this is our new SUFS one. Uh-oh, do we find it? This is cabaret. I have my like cabaret wing over here. I love our cabaret bags. I'll keep modeling bags.

[35:18] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, you look for the pie one.

[35:20] Jennifer Kahn: Because they're all my little children. Let's see. What's her share now in? Let's see if I can get it. Oh, are you looking for the pie bag still? I know. I wish I had it. What else do we have? I think she's having connection issues. Let's see if I can.

[35:55] Amber Brzezinski: As we all leave you alone, because I know I'm like, hi. I'm like, welcome. This is the Jen show.

[36:04] Jennifer Kahn: Look at it. So let me. Hi. This is from Wicked. I'll just keep modeling bags like it's like a little infomercial. This is an Emerald City bag from Wicked. This is from Chicken and Biscuits. And it has a playbill pocket in the front.

[36:22] Amber Brzezinski: Okay. Let me see. Share screen.

[36:27] Jennifer Kahn: Okay. Allow. Scenery bags.

[36:31] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, wow. Come back.

[36:33] Jennifer Kahn: There we go. I'm just gonna keep modeling things. Chicken and biscuits. Hi, you're on our website. It has this is the playbook pocket in the front. It says break a leg. It's made out of theater legs. Get it? Like wings.

[36:45] Amber Brzezinski: Oh, I love that.

[36:48] Jennifer Kahn: I cracked it. So we have this great chicken and biscuits bag.

[36:52] Amber Brzezinski: Yes, that's our chicken and biscuit bag.

[36:54] Jennifer Kahn: Now I can't hear you.

[36:55] Amber Brzezinski: Oh and I'm muted.

[37:00] Jennifer Kahn: No, I'm not muted. It just must be.