I met Arlene Binzon when I was teaching at School of Dance and Music.
Sam, her daughter, her only daughter, was 10, I believe, and she was in my ballet class.
When I started POPs, we did a summer camp, and then our very first show was The Wiz.
And being on a very small-skill budget, I mean, I had my baby Jonah, who was nine months strapped to me
in one of those, like, beorns, and I was painting sets.
And Arlene and her family said, how can we help?
So it was that moment I said, well, we can help in many ways.
I honestly can't remember how I became in charge of props. I don't remember.
I wasn't really in charge of making props, but I was in charge of getting them.
So I would just call different parents and say, hey, we need an oil can.
Doesn't anybody have an oil can? And I would label it and make sure that, okay,
when we were done, the oil can we get back to whoever donated it.
It was really just a way of contributing. I mean, that's, you know, all of us have.
I'm sure there are many people with other talents, probably more technical than mine,
but I had the time, and it was fun.
I loved having my mom as a part of the team.
My brothers got involved, and my dad got involved with, like, building set and painting,
so it kind of, like, Sunday was already family day. But then when I got involved with props,
like, nothing changed. My family just grew, and the location was different.
In my eyes, she was always super significant and incredibly important.
But that's, you know, she's my mom.
But then hearing from other people that they also found she was so significant
within our little big theater family makes me feel so good to know that her work
made that much of an impact on other people. Like, that's all she ever wants.
So, Arlene.
Yes.
Please tell me about this fantastic prop.
So how this came about was you guys needed a vintage mic, and they were very expensive.
So not in the budget.
People are.
Yes.
Yes, yes.
I love.
So this is, I, this was cool because this is kind of shows how my process of thinking.
So you tell me what you want, or I see the script.
And then I go through the dollar store.
If it's not something that's really obvious, like, oh, you need a stuffed pig.
We can't just order a stuffed pig.
Can't make a stuffed pig.
There are limits.
But this, I walked through the dollar store knowing what I needed to get.
So this would, for example, you can see, you know, I'm taking the part, is masking tape.
This is just a garden steak that I cut.
Oh, I'm like, why is that a garden steak?
Yes.
And these are paper clips.
I was just a piece of cardboard that already had the grooves because it was corrugated.
This was just a plastic bowl that I liked the cool designs.
It had to be heavy.
That's brilliant.
Yeah, it had to be heavy.
So with this inside, I think it's marbles.
I can't remember what I stuffed.
Right.
To weight it.
And then cardboard.
Yeah.
And then we just, I love scraping.
And it's, it's legit.
Ta-da.
Ta-da.
Ta-da.
All of us want the best for our kids.
I mean, that's, for me, if you ask me what my first job is, it's to parent my kids.
And if it's something that they're involved in, and I can be involved in, and we're all
spending time here, why don't we just spend time here?
And if you can't, if you're going to spend your time someplace, why wouldn't you want
to spend your time someplace like that?
If you can, if it's already created, go to it.
If you can help create it, awesome.
But I will tell you that it takes a special person.
So I'm totally going to cry.
Oh gosh.
I'm trying to thank you.
Hi.
What happened to you?
You need some more pain.
Nothing.
