We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Kahn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

It all started well before I had any idea I’d be running an accessories company. I was a professional Stage Manager regionally and on Broadway for 17 years, and for four years ran a blog on giveback and eco-friendly style. These were the two halves of my heart that I never thought would have anything to do with one another. Until I came up with the idea for Scenery Bags.

I believe the theatre and stories we tell are vital, but sadly where we are missing the boat is what we are doing to the environment on the back end. It always broke my heart to watch our sets get thrown away once our shows closed. Those sets were not only hours and hours of hard work by amazing artists in the scene shop, they also held our memories of what we had created together.

In 2015 something clicked and I had the idea for SCENERY Bags. I started by collecting backdrops for shows that had closed, that would have otherwise been thrown away, and making them into bags. I officially launched the company in the Summer of 2017 as my maternity leave project, and it was such a huge success I never went back to stage management. This has been my full time job ever since and I’m so grateful. I accidentally found my dream job.

SCENERY Bags take discarded theatrical materials and upcycles them into bags and accessories, and a portion of every purchase is donated to The Theatre Development Fund to take students to see theatre. Now we are five years into Scenery Bags and have collected over 30,000 pounds of theatrical waste, and sponsored over 1500 students to see a Broadway show. This company marries so many things I care about in a celebration and love letter to theatre. I’m so grateful to everyone out there who has helped us decrease waste, save art, and foster a new generation of theatergoers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a former Broadway Stage Manager, Mother of two sweet boys (Hudson 6, and Judah 4), and newly turned small business owner trying to make a difference in the theatre industry by helping reduce their waste footprint, and introduce a new generation to theatre.

I’m so proud of every aspect of what we do. From the art we have been able to rescue, to the memories we are getting to give back to fans and professionals alike, to the eco-friendly way we upcycle products, and the way the company gives back. It’s 360, and it’s very special to me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When you try to do something big, the universe will test you. I mentioned before that SCENERY took off very quickly. It did, and I’m forever grateful, but there is more to that story.

One month into launching SCENERY Bags, Upworthy and BroadwayWorld picked up our story and both articles went viral. Leading to selling 4,000 preorders over night. (My brain still explodes when I relive this.) The next day our manufacturer bowed out. They could not keep up with demands for the product. At the time this was terrible news. We had 4,000+ orders to fulfill, but I was thankful for their honesty and I got to work on finding a new manufacturer.

We were very lucky and I found a new manufacturer quickly, and we started sample making, when they got hit by hurricane Irene and had to close for 2 weeks. Setting us back even farther.

Through it all I kept in constant contact with our new customers to let them know exactly what was going on and what our new timeline would be. By the end of the month we had 5,000+ orders, and only 5 wanted a refund and didn’t want to wait. It took us until December of that year to fulfill all the orders and have been current on our website since January 2016.

All of this to say, life happens. Be honest with your customers and communicate. Because of the way we handled this first big test, we still have incredibly loyal customers that continue to purchase from us.

Have you ever had to pivot?

To run a company or brand you have to be nimble. We pivot all the time, whether it’s in marketing strategies or manufacturing, you have to keep listening and keep innovating.

My biggest personal pivot was in 2020, when one of my two manufacturers closed down, and the second scaled way back, but the demand for our product went up. The only way to scale at that time was to do it myself.

In the three years since I started my company I had never made any of our products. But in 2020 we launched our first ornament, which I made by hand in my living room. They were so popular that I ended up making 2,000 of them and it got us through that year. I was even able to outsource some of them to furloughed costumers in my area.

I didn’t sleep much, but we found a way to keep going. It’s ok to get scrappy. Even three years in, or ten years in. You can still go get your hands dirty and make it work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://scenerybags.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scenerybags/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scenerybags
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scenerybags