Green Room

Can someone please tell me why the green room is called the green room and what the purpose of the green room is?

As far as I know, it is called the Green Room because it was originally painted green, which is the most restful colour for the eyes to look at, the idea being to allow the actor down time before-during-after a performance.

The green room has a lot of functions, those stated above most notably. Also, it is a handy place to keep actors while they wait to go on, so the director/stage manager doesn't have a fit.

This is from http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gre2.htm and is a typical reply - "no one knows for sure"
Originally, the term referred to an off-stage room in a theatre where actors could rest while they were waiting for their cues. A lot of theatres now don't have green rooms, often through lack of space. These days, the term applies as much - if not more often - to the reception room in a television studio where guests wait before appearing.
Why it should be called a green room is a minor mystery. The first recorded use is in a play by Thomas Shadwell called The True Widow, first performed at Dorset Garden Theatre in London in December 1678: "No, Madam: Selfish, this Evening, in a green Room, behind the Scenes, was before-hand with me". The use of a here might suggest it was just a green-painted room, but a slightly later example, in a book called Love Makes Man, written by the actor and dramatist Colley Cibber and published in 1701 makes the usage clear: "I do know London pretty well, and the Side-box, Sir, and behind the Scenes; ay, and the Green-Room, and all the Girls and Women Actresses there". Colley Cibber was closely associated with a different theatre, the Drury Lane.

It has been suggested that the room was painted green to rest the actors' eyes after exposure to bright stage lighting, but in the early 1700s, when lighting was by candles, that could hardly have been much of a problem.

In an article in De Proverbio, an online journal of proverb studies, George B Bryan points out that the colour green has long been associated with the theatre, perhaps originating in the liveries worn by members of acting companies in the time of Shakespeare. Mr Bryan also records that green baize was sometimes used to cover the stage at this period to protect the costumes of the actors.

This is a possible origin of an associated usage, the green, for the stage itself, which is still sometimes to be heard. The direct connection seems to be twentieth century rhyming slang: greengage = stage, but there may be a subconscious - or even a direct - link back to the colour of the stage covering.

What is clear from the early citations is that the usage was not limited to a single theatre (and so was not an accident of paint colour or wall covering) , but otherwise, its origins are obscure.

Marianne wrote:
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>>Can someone please tell me why the green room is called the green room and what the purpose of the green room is?



Michelle's & Don's replies explain the theatrical origins of the phrase "Green Room" pretty well (a nick-name for the common-room area in a theatre), but perhaps we can't assume that Marianne is asking about that.

It occurs to me she may have arrived at this website as a newbie and was asking why THIS PAGE is named "The Green Room", and what it's purpose here is?


Of course (if that was the case), she can now put two and two together as to why we call it this - a common area for actors to gather and gossip about whatever we need to gossip about.

As to its purpose...? Well, from reading these posts, that answer is often rather more vague...


Cheers,
Craig

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I will now leave you to your gossip-like humour!

All the answers are plausable -even the one where actors used to take off all green clothing prior to going on stage - because green flags were used for cueing?????? well that's a bit far fetched - the one I believe that is more likely is;- as most performances orginaly were not in a theastre but on the village green's - As the temp staging would have been the backs of wagons and/or quickly setup staging of timber. Along side was erected a an area made of canvas, bed sheets or what ever - if they could aford it a tent, so the troupe and players could have some privacy. However in most cases they did not go to the level of installing a floor - this was the green grass - hence the green room came into being.Take it for what it is worth, so long as we know what we are taking about?- as for a painted room. it would have more likely have been Whitewashed, because of the availabily and costs at that time.

Joe

I have actually been told there are two reasons for the GreenRoom being so called.
1. Extras and minor actors didn't have their own dressing room, hence green with jealousy at the stars for having their privacy

2. Extras and minor characters were new (hence green) to theatre.

Whaddya think??