Flowers are the quintessential opening night gift—but what if you could make that gift permanent? Sasha Pensanti began crafting paper flowers made of Playbills as a greener kind of present while working backstage at Wicked on Broadway in 2014.
Soon, Pensanti found herself making flowers for the Broadway Flea Market and teamed up with the Broadway Green Alliance before eventually founding Broadway Crafts, which ships the souvenir florals around the country, in 2017. Still, her collaboration with the BGA continues to this day.
In fact, for every opening night on Broadway, Pensanti crafts a bouquet of flowers—upcycled from the Playbills of that show—for the production’s Green Captain on behalf of the BGA.
An industry-wide initiative to educate and encourage the theatre community (from creators to audiences) to adopt environmentally-friendly practices, the BGA has continued to promote green habits even while Broadway takes an intermission. Through #GreenQuarantine online programming such as a gardening workshop and Composting 101, BGA helps theatremakers and theatrelovers stay accountable and focused on preserving the environment.
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For our part, Playbill teamed up with Pensanti to get crafty in quarantine and teach you how to make your own Playbill flowers at home. Pensanti has four types flowers in her repertoire. In this first tutorial of our series with Pensanti, she teaches the simplest design: the pointy flower.
Be sure you have:
- Your choice of Playbill
- Scissors
- Glue (preferably hot glue, but regular glue will work)
- A stem or extra paper to make a stem
- Paperclips
Follow along with Pensanti in the step-by-step video above. Stay tuned to Playbill for additional flower designs to make an elaborate bouquet. Don’t forget to follow @BwayCrafts and @BroadwayGreenAlliance.
