A Vancouver theatre company that produces plays for children and youth suffered a setback this week when more than $25,000 worth of equipment was stolen from its office in what appears to be a targeted hit.
Its a major disruption in that this week was the start of what we call high season for us, said Patrick McDonald, artistic director of the award-winning Green Thumb Theatre.
Rehearsals for the first show have begun, the general manager has been in her position fewer than three weeks and a touring manager and a capital campaign director just started. Everyones splitting time on computers or working from home because five laptops were stolen.
[We] didnt need this, this week, McDonald said. We had a lot going on already.
In the early hours Saturday or Sunday, thieves accessed the courtyard between another building and Green Thumb on Dunlevy and Alexander, climbed side stairs, shattered and entered a bathroom window, walked past four offices, including a high-end sound mixing studio, to Green Thumb, where they smashed glass and cut wire to gain entry.
They stole a black laptop that was partially covered by a script placed on a black chair in McDonalds office. Additional laptops and two expensive video projectors were taken from a back room thats full of identical-looking cases, some of which hold tables. None of these cases appeared to have been disturbed.
The robbers also made away with two digital cameras and a staff persons costly prescription drugs. They lifted what appeared to be a cash box that held keys to the companys two vans. Fortunately, the keys werent identified as such and the vehicles were parked elsewhere.
McDonald is not about to point fingers about who might have committed the theft.
The burglary wasnt the first in Green Thumbs 36 years.
Its former green home adjacent to The Cultch on Venables that it occupied for more than 20 years was hit two months in a row.
The only thing that was taken was the answering machines, each time, McDonald said. The joke was always that it was an actor who I didnt hire, who left a really vitriolic message and then went, I better get that answering machine.
The losses should be covered by insurance and a $1,000 deductible to be paid by the non-profit that is poised to rethink its security systems.
crossi@vancourier.com
Twitter: @Cheryl_Rossi
