When it comes to props, she’s the master

Andrew Edwards

Brenda Abshear works in a world full of tribal masks, old liquor

bottles and ice skates. When someone needs to find the strange and

unusual, or at least a reasonable substitute, Abshear is the person

to call.

“She’s my favorite property mistress when I’m directing a show,”

said Terri Miller Schmidt, artistic director for the Newport Theater

Arts Center. “She knows all the dark, shadowy places to go.”

For 12 years, Abshear has volunteered at the Newport Theater Arts

Center, a community theater that sits on the cliffs above Newport

Harbor. Abshear, a 62-year-old Newport Beach resident, started

volunteering with the theater after she retired from a 30-year career

as a hairdresser. She began her stint with the group as a newcomer to

the dramatic arts.

“I had never been involved in theater, and I love it,” Abshear

said. “I’m here to stay; they can’t get rid of me.”

But no one at the theater appears intent on telling Abshear to

make a dramatic exit.

“We have a great time; that’s what we enjoy about this,” theater

President Rae Cohen said. “We just enjoy each other, play off of each

other’s jokes.”

As properties mistress, Abshear is the go-to person when the

director needs items like masks, bottles, ice skates or even a piece

of sculpture with a nose built to break off when the script calls for

a bit of extreme rhinoplasty. The theater keeps rooms full of props

from past productions, but even with an array of curiosities in

stock, Abshear still has to drive to some of Orange County’s

out-of-the-way realms to find what her director needs.

“I end up in liquor stores, pawn shops, garage sales,” Abshear

said. “My granddaughter won’t go prop hunting with me anymore because

I go to some strange places.”

Abshear and the theater’s other volunteers are busy preparing for

the Nov. 19 premiere of “Redwood Curtain,” the story of a Vietnam

veteran living in the woods and a Vietnamese American girl searching

for her father. As set decorators build trees on the stage, Abshear

has been sent on a mission to find needed props.

She has already located Zig-Zag rolling papers, but one item on

her list, a temporary eagle tattoo, remains elusive.

When the theater has needed very rare items, Abshear has rigged

substitutes out of commonplace materials. In one production, she

created a mock-up Victrola phonograph using an oil funnel and paper

tubes.

In the theater, there is a “30-foot rule” for props, Miller said.

Since the audience is sitting back from the action, props don’t have

to be 100% authentic.

Whatever props are needed, Abshear loves being sent on scavenger

hunts.

“This is every woman’s dream; I get to shop with other people’s

money,” she said.