Four women use junk to create a magical experience for a frum audience

Ahush ripples through the crowd.

The warm halo of a spotlight gleams on the stage. At Rachel’s Place Productions, “The Eccentrics” is beginning.

The curtains rise… and the audience gasps.

On stage there’s an elaborate and authentic set, every inch of the set’s wall space covered, or as the props team puts it, “schmeckerated,” with props. There’s a banana duct-taped to the wall (a nod to the overpriced “masterpiece” of 2024), a blown-up childhood photo of one prop-team member’s husband, sconces that would make an antique dealer weep with longing, and a taxidermized sheep’s head wearing glasses.

The props are the handiwork of four women who, year after year, bring the famous Rachel’s Place plays to life with a realistic landscape that transports viewers into another world.

Dream Team

Rewind a few months to after Succos, and the props team — Isa Wassner, Chanie Mandel, Bracha Ribowsky, and Mirie Lazar, and their backup support Gitty Schwartz, Freda Levy, Lisa Tietelbaum, and Judy Fruchthendler — gather in director Miriam Handler’s living room for a meeting. Miriam had already given them the script, though, “We don’t actually read the script,” Mirie admits.

Miriam knows that, and she tells them everything they need while the fabulous four take notes.

“We have a lot of experience,” says Bracha, who’s been doing this for 15 years and has dubbed herself the “thrift shop princess.” “And we know the list keeps morphing. More things are added. And a lot of times, we kill ourselves to get something, and then they don’t end up using it. For every prop you see, there were probably two or three more that don’t make it on stage.”