Ask that stylish fashionista at the Alley Theatre who she’s wearing, and her reply might be “Broadway.”
That is, if she’s holding a “Break a leg” clutch or sporting chic earrings from Scenery Bags, the clever brainchild of Jennifer Wheeler Kahn, a resident of The Woodlands, who designs purses, baubles and other must-haves that are created with “retired” stage materials.
“I am my target audience,” says Jen, a former Broadway stage manager who is married to Brandon Kahn, the Alley’s general manager and a 2002 graduate of The Woodlands High School. Brandon hopes his wife will start a men’s line that includes pocket squares for him.
Jen says, “Each item is handmade and comes with a tag that tells you the show it is from and the number you have out of the limited collection.”
The concept for Scenery Bags came to Jen in 2015 when she took a road trip from the Big Apple to Maine and stopped at a store that sold handbags made from the discarded sails of sailboats.
“Immediately, I thought of doing something like this with (back)drops because they’re beautiful,” said Jen. “They’re usually hand-painted and often thrown out when the show closes. That always killed me, but they are too expensive to store. That night, I called my friend who rents sets and asked for his trash.”
He answered with 600 pounds of backdrop fabric that Jen’s parents kept in a storage unit in California while the idea for Scenery Bags percolated.
Jen grew up in San Diego and began dancing lessons when she was 2.
“I grew up on Danny Kaye and Gene Kelly movies,” she says. “Musical theater became all that my sister and I did, but I decided I wanted to produce theater.”
At the University of Southern California, Jen “learned a little about everything” regarding theater as she pursued a bachelor of fine arts in stage management. After graduating in 2004, she moved to New York City and landed work immediately.
Meanwhile Brandon had arrived in The Woodlands as a third grader in the early 90s. The native of Hollywood, Fla. was an all-around athlete who discovered his life’s calling when he enrolled in a theater class at The Woodlands High School, thinking it would be “an easy A.”
Next thing you know, Brandon was starring onstage in There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom and playing the title role in Peter Pan. “I flew and everything,” he says.
More fascinating, though, was the technical side of theater, and Brandon proudly recalls stage-managing an abridged version of The Miracle Worker all the way to the state finals in University Interscholastic League one-act play competition.
Next, he studied theater at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Jen says, “He was already a Broadway stage manager when we met in 2009,” at a party in NYC celebrating Brandon’s 26th birthday. “We had everything in common.”
In 2017, Jen was pregnant with the couple’s first child, when she finally found the time to devote to launching Scenery Bags.
“It became my maternity leave side hustle,” she says, delighted that Scenery Bags became an overnight success once photos hit theater websites and Instagram. Word spread like wildfire as Broadway fans craved a bag that preserved the magical memories they had of shows like Phantom of the Opera, Dear Evan Hansen and Hairspray.
Stage fans also cheered that at least 10 percent of the proceeds from each purchase benefit the Theatre Development Fund (TDF), a program that introduces stage magic to middle and high school students, including sending them to Broadway and off-Broadway performances.
In October 2018, the Kahns moved from New York to The Woodlands for Brandon to take the reins as general manager of the Alley Theatre. Along with their family, which now includes sons Hudson, 6, and Judah, 4, Jen’s company took up residence in their home in The Village of Alden Bridge.
“Everything is made in Houston,” says Jen.
Some current favorites include a $120 purse that features a pocket to place your playbill in, while a $75 tote comes in blue or pink with sparkling letters. In the bags line are mementos from Broadway shows that include Fiddler on the Roof, SpongeBob SquarePants and Ain’t Too Proud.
Accessories such as necklaces, keychains, earrings and bangles were assembled from the flooring of productions of The King and I, Mean Girls, Beetlejuice and other hits. The highest price is $110.
A new “home line” was launched with a 5-inch microphone design cut from the plexiglass back wall of a recent Broadway show, Freestyle Love Supreme.
“Jen always has new plans up her sleeve,” said Brandon.