Green Room: The meaning behind the term

A green room is a room in a theater, television show set, or public venue used by actors, speakers or other performers when they are not onstage. They can simple or lavish.



While most green rooms today aren’t literally painted green, the origin of the name is unclear and varies in explanation from the usage of green paint in the rooms to green plants kept to provide humidity, which was assumed to be good for the voice. One theatre explains that “In olden times the players performed on a platform or stage referred to as “The Green” and adjacent to this was a room for relaxing, going over lines and other things that players did.”


Today, green rooms might have TVs for actors and actresses who, while waiting for their cue to go onstage, can watch what’s going on onstage currently. On television show sets, celebrity guests and TV show hosts might meet each other in the green room before appearing together in front of an audience. Fans, often with a backstage pass or for a fee, may meet the actors or musical performers in the green room after the performance.

- by Khanh-Anh

Birthday of the Week

English actress Audrey Hepburn was born this week on May 4th, in 1929. She was born in Brussels, Belgium and was the only child of Joseph Rusten and her mother, Ella Van Heemstra. As a child she took ballet lessons at the Arnhem Conservatory and after World War II ended, Audrey and her mother moved to Amsterdam where she continued to study ballet under Sonia Gaskell. Eventually, she moved to London where she studied ballet under influential British dancer Marie Rambert, while occasionally working as a model to support herself.

She had her first role in the British movie One Wild Oat and then had minor roles in Young Wives’ Tale, Laughter in Paradise, The Lavender Hill Mob, and Secret People. While working on the English and French film Monte Carlo Baby, French writer known as Colette choose Audrey to play the title role in the Broadway adaptation of her novel Gigi. Hepburn won a Tony award for this performance. In 1953, she received her first starring role in the film Roman Holiday, for which she won an academy award for best actress. In 1954, she starred in the play Ondine with Mel Ferrer, whom she would marry later that year. They would have one child together. She went on to star in numerous films, including Sabrina, War and Peace, Funny Face, Paris When It Sizzles, Love in the Afternoon, Green Mansions, The Unforgiven, The Children’s Hour, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade, and My Fair Lady.

After her divorce from Ferrer, she married her second husband Andrea Dotti on January 18th, 1969. They would also have one child together. In 1988, Audrey Hepburn became UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador – a role that had a great impact on the organization and on Hepburn herself. She passed away on January 20th, 1993.

-by Mike Endres

Happy Brithday Andrew Lloyd Webber

English Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber was born today, March 22, in 1948 in London, England. His father William Lloyd Webber was an organist and composer. His younger brother Julian Lloyd Webber is world-renowned cellist.
   
He has worked with lyricist Tim Rice on several occasions. Their first major collaboration was the musical The Likes of Us. He also worked with Rice in 1968 on the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat and in 1970 on Jesus Christ Superstar. He worked with Alan Ayckbourn on the musical comedy Jeeves and Wooster. In 1976, he teamed again with Tim Rice for the musical Evita. In 1981, he composed his musical Cats, which ran for 18 years on Broadway. In 1986, he composed the musical The Phantom of the Opera which is the longest running show on Broadway.

He married his first wife Sarah Hugill on July 24, 1972. They had two children together and were divorced November 14, 1983. He married his second wife and the star of Phantom, Sarah Brightman, on March 22, 1984. They divorced on January 3, 1990. He married his third wife Madeleine Gurdon on February 9, 1991. They have three children together.
   

He has received a number of awards for his work. They include: six Tony awards, three Grammy awards, an Academy award, seven Olivier awards, and a Golden Globe. He was knighted in 1992. In 2006 he received the Kennedy Center Honors along with Zubin Mehta, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg, and Smokey Robinson.

-by Mike Endres

Happy Birthday Norman Rockwell

Artist and illustrator Norman Rockwell was born on today’s date, February 3rd, in 1894. He began his career as an illustrator young. In 1913, he became art director of and painted several covers for the Boy Scout magazine, Boy’s Life. In 1916, he painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post, titled “Mother’s Day Off.” This cover began Rockwell’s long career with The Saturday Evening Post that would last until 1963. During that time, he would create 321 original covers published by the Post. In 1916, Rockwell married his first wife, Irene O’Connor. They divorced in 1930. Afterwards, he married his second wife Mary Bartow with whom he had three children.















 


In 1943 Rockwell painted one of his most famous works, “The Four Freedoms.” “The Four Freedoms” consist of four paintings, titled “Freedom of Speech,” “Freedom to Worship,” “Freedom from Want,” and “Freedom from Fear.” They were inspired by a speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and were published in The Saturday Evening Post along with accompanying essays. Later, the U.S. Treasury Department took the paintings on tour to promote war bonds. Unfortunately, 1943 was also the year that a fire destroyed Rockwell’s studio along with many original paintings.

After the death of his second wife, Rockwell married Molly Punderson in 1961. They would set up what would later become the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In 1977, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor a civilian can receive. Norman Rockwell died November 8, 1978 at the age of 84.

-by Michael Endres