With performances put on hold, Arizona Broadway Theatre sought to find ways to attract its audiences in other ways.
In response, it recently launched a crafting series led by the theater’s prop master, Mary Rooney.
Each virtual class, hosted on ABT’s Facebook page every Monday at 3 p.m., features a fun and easy project that can be produced with simple items from around the house.
The class, dubbed Makers Mondays, is part of a larger initiative to engage the theater’s community through online activities.
“We’re all at home now and we’re trying to figure out how to keep the theater in people’s minds, and the first thing that ABT started was the Quarantine Cabaret every Friday night,” Rooney says. “Things were developing, ‘Hey, let’s do Story Time Saturdays, let’s do tap dancing on Tuesday.’”
Rooney suggested the idea for a craft class to include a peek into the backstage element of the theater. She says she was already in “craft mode,” making masks and selling homemade yarn on Etsy.
For Makers Mondays, she started by making a magic wand out of everyday items such as skewers and chopsticks. The second week featured containers repurposed from plastic bottles. The following week focused on a faux feather wall hanging constructed out of magazine pages and fabric.
“I think everybody is missing the arts in all different ways and it’s just so important for everyone to see that the arts are still out there, just in a different form, and to get people participating,” she says.
Rooney has been a pivotal part of Arizona Broadway Theatre for more than a decade. Her favorite part of her job is the creativity and problem-solving it requires.
“The props and the scenery really get the actors into their characters even more,” she says. “I love seeing the actors just light up with a prop that feels so real to them and portraying that on stage and have an audience just light up as well.”
Transferring those traits to an online audience has been both rewarding and challenging, according to Rooney. Operating without professional equipment and getting the right lighting for her videos was a struggle at first, she says
“I am now totally ready to be the next YouTube star,” she jokes.
She hopes her classes provide an escape for those stuck at home and allows people to understand how easy it is to make art. Rooney’s crafts are for people of all ages, though she says she has kept each project “sophisticated.”
“Rather than get out the old markers and construction paper, I try to step up the craft and let people find out how easy it is to make something really quality out of nothing,” she says.
While Makers Mondays is free, donations can be made to the ABT Relief Fund.
