The Green Room
Posted by Adam Immerwahr on October 17th, 2007 |
This is a picture of one of the two “green rooms” in the Matthews Theater (there is also one in the Berlind). The green room is where actors can chill out, relax, and prepare before they go onstage. Each actor gets dressed in his or her dressing room, and can always go back there between scenes, but they can also use the green room as a more communal environment. During A Christmas Carol, one of the two green rooms in the Matthews is for everyone, and the other one is off-limits to the young ensemble (so you can have some rest without being poked in the eyeball by an eight-year-old - not that any of our eight-year-olds would do that).
The green room has a audio monitor that provides the sound from the stage and acts as a loudspeaker for any of the stage manager’s announcements (as in: “places for act II”). Because we are very spiffy, our green room also has a video monitor of the stage, so you can watch the action. The green rooms also have soda machines, tea and coffee, and occasionally food from our volunteers!
Nobody quite knows how green rooms got their name. There are many theories, including types of makeups actors used to use, the color of limelight, specific historical backstage rooms, or the presence of shrubbery and plants backstage in Renaissance theaters. If you know of another theory, post it as a comment!
See also:
Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.
