Exchange lets theaters share their stuff

Need a pay phone for "Julius Caesar?" This is one of the properties available through New Jersey Stage Stuff.

Keep it, or toss it?

That's a dilemma regularly faced by community theater organizations when a show's run comes to an end. The show may have run only for three weeks, but the artist who painted the forest backdrop may have created a thing of lasting beauty. There may be no space to store it, but simply painting over it may feel like an act of sacrilege.

Many theaters have bits of scenery, pieces of furniture or dressing, or properties that are unique, or expensive, or hard to find or build, and that deserve to be used again.

Guy Suabedissen, master carpenter and scenic designer for Villagers Theatre in Somerset, and a member of the NJACT Hall of Fame, has started a new web site: the NJ Stage Stuff Theater Exchange.

The site maintains a catalog of available items, and allows easy requests and offers for materials, The exchange aims to connect the people who have with those who need.

Send information about what you have or need, and it will be posted. Others will peruse the site, contact you and make arrangements to transfer the item. Terms of the transfer, gift, sale, loan or rental, are left to those involved.