Growing up in Santa Ana, Calif., Sara Ward discovered that she liked theater but realized that acting was not her thing. She felt the same about music; she enjoyed playing several instruments but didn’t enjoy performing with the school orchestra. When she discovered the administrative side of theater — everything other than performing — she found her niche.
Ward was married when she came to Hawaii in 1989. The marriage didn’t work out, but Ward decided to stay in Hawaii and raise her daughters. Her oldest, Alaura, showed a desire for the stage at an early age.
Like many parents of talented child actors, Ward helped out backstage at shows Alaura performed in and became known within the local theater community. In 2002, she was hired to help decorate the set of Manoa Valley Theatre’s production of “Song of Singapore.” It was the start of 19 years on staff working as a props designer, box office manager, administrative manager and assistant executive director.
Ward’s skill and imagination designing props earned her four Po‘okela Awards from the Hawaii State Theatre Council; in 2019, she received the HSTC Pierre Bowman Lifetime Achievement Award.
In June, Ward (who describes herself as “over 50”), became the office manager of Kumu Kahua Theatre on Merchant Street.
Audiences know you best for your work as a props designer. What are you doing as an office manager?
I deal with all the customer issues, selling tickets, helping people with any questions they have, pay the taxes, pay the bills, order anything needed from lights to pens and paper, arrange for (opening night) receptions, and here, something new I’m doing that I never did at Manoa is doing some of the marketing aspects — press releases, email blasts. It’s been really fun learning something new like this, and I’m working shorter hours.
What are some of the more unusual or memorable props you’ve designed?
One time I made a “pot-smoking apparatus” out of an apple, and every single night the actor onstage had to carve it out and put (in) tobacco and smoke it — back when actors could smoke onstage. In “Princess and the Iso Peanut,” I made a shark fin out of papier-mache and glued it to an RC (remote control) car to create the shark that chased Stephanie Sanchez onstage. For “Harold and Maude” (in 2016), I had to build a small little catapult that sat on Maude’s desk, but props can be almost anything. For the “Daddy Long Legs” show that we just did at Manoa Valley Theatre, the props were just paper and envelopes and pens.
After more than two decades designing props, do you sometimes buy things because they look like something you might be able to use someday?
Yes. One time I was on a vacation in California, and I saw a town newspaper that they had made to look like a newspaper from the 1900s. I bought a stack, and for years at Manoa whenever I needed an old-fashioned newspaper, I’d pull one of them out. One of the letter openers I used in “Daddy Long Legs,” I saw in a thrift store and I bought it, and I finally got my opportunity to use it.
Are you going to be designing props here?
Not right away. I want to get really acclimated with what my office job is before I take on extra work, and I’m also still doing (props for) “Cambodian Rock Band” and “Joy Luck Club” at Manoa, so maybe for the 2022-2023 season next year.
You mentioned that you’ll be working shorter hours. What do you plan to do with that extra free time?
I like watching movies, but that’s kind of work because I like to watch them for the props and the costumes.
———
Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.
