Ahwatukee Children’s Theatre was burglarized and damaged Sunday night, with a sound system, microphones and computers stolen just days from their upcoming show  called ”Mary Poppins Jr.”

ACT, a local non-profit theater, was established in 1998 and provides children and young adults with the opportunity to participate in the performing arts. Its facility is located near 48th Street and Elliot Road.

During the break in, an unknown number of intruders stole an estimated $12,000 worth of items including two main sound systems, laptops, iPads, keyboard pianos, microphones, a fog machine and a snow machine, theater officials said Tuesday. 

Rooms trashed, rehearsal scheduled

Theater director Bailey Isenberg first noticed a table out of place when she arrived Monday morning.

“The first thought that I had was confused, because [the lobby] looked OK. So I unlocked the door, we came in and the weird thing was I noticed that this desk was in the wrong place,” Isenberg said, pointing to a black desk next to the elevator. 

Isenberg opened another door and saw more damage.

“I opened the door for something and it was a disaster in there. There was stuff all over the floor, everything was knocked off the desk,” Isenberg said.

At first she thought co-owner and co-founder Michele Rubino was looking for something and tore the room apart in the search, but when she got to the main rehearsal room she started to panic.

“That room was trashed because they pulled all the ceiling tiles down to get the wires out so there was stuff all over the floor. All of our speakers are gone, all of our sound systems are gone,” she said.

Isenberg began calling her coworkers, including Rubino, who arrived and saw the mess.

“Every cabinet, every drawer was dumped out and we originally didn’t know what was taken and we started freaking out because we were opening Mary Poppins in four days,” Rubino said.

A door apparently was forced open with a crowbar. Ceiling tiles were broken and wires were hanging from a ceiling.

The damage was discovered a short time about 40 young children and teens were scheduled to arrive for the show’s rehearsal, they said.

“It sounds crazy, but my first reaction was, ‘OK, show opens in five days, how are we going to rehearse with these kids?'” Isenberg said. “Because I knew we would figure this out, but what do we do about rehearsing?”

Employees first closed all of the office doors that had been trashed, and started directing kids into the dance room, which was the cleanest. 

Co-founder and co-owner Melissa Snow came downstairs five minutes before the cast came. Parents were asked to stay in the dance room to watch the kids as employees assessed the situation.

Initially, the kids thought that there was a surprise, such as the set being set up in the main room. But Snow decided to tell them what happened. 

“We just went in and told them this is what happened, you’re safe, nothing is going to happen while you’re here, and we’re going to start rehearsal,” Snow said. “That is what helped the healing right away.”

According to Rebecca DeCero, who plays Mary Poppins, the cast was very emotional when they heard the news.

“It was definitely an emotional day when we all walked in and just to see all of our stuff gone,” DeCero said. “Kind of like you walked into your house and somebody took everything, somebody robbed your house … This is our home away from home.”

Jack Walton, who plays Bert, was left wondering who would break into a children’s theater.

“People who would break into a children’s theater that’s a not for profit organization and steal that kind of stuff? That is heartless to me,” Walton said.

However, once the main space was cleaned up, rehearsals continued as normal.

The show will go on

Props and costumes for the show were mainly untouched, meaning the show still will be performed as planned on June 28 and 29 at The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Center in Phoenix as planned.

“Thank goodness the costumes and props and stuff [were not taken], which doesn’t really have street value, but if they wanted to be mean about burglarizing they could’ve trashed it,” Rubino said. “So I’m kind of thankful to them oddly enough that they didn’t do those things because that would’ve killed these kids.”

According to Rubino, the alarm system in an upstairs office was tripped when they tried to rip an alarm off the wall, which caused burglars to flee. 

The theater does have insurance, but it must meet a $2,000 deductible and do not know if everything will be covered or how long the claim process will take. Theater officials said they filed a police report with the Phoenix Police Department. Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Megan Snow, daughter of co-owner Melissa Snow, started a GoFundMe to meet the deductible and to cover the cost of immediate replacements needed to continue their summer camps.

The GoFundMe raised $4,055 in less than 18 hours, breaking the $4,000 goal. Money raised over the goal will be placed in an account for anything not covered by the insurance. Once things have been paid for, the remaining money will go into a scholarship fund. 

“As sad as we were, as dejected as we were, it’s so cool to see all the support and see all the phone calls and emails,” Rubino said. 

People also donated speakers and keyboard pianos to use while the theater waits to purchase replacements. 

“In a perfect world I would like to have everything replaced before we open our doors mid-August because it’s kind of hard to do what you’re supposed to do without keyboards or without sound systems,” Rubino said.

During the school year, ACT runs show choirs, a studio series, an open house and does community outreach. 

ACT is also looking into adding more security, locks and cameras to make the space safer.

“More or less I just want to be made whole and have the show go on and have the kids feel safe and have our staff feel safe,” Rubino said. “That’s the important thing. Stuff is stuff.”

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