A recent article about Green Room Etiquette on OnStage Blog took me back to all of the great times I’ve had in Green Rooms, and had me looking forward to all the great times I (hopefully) have ahead of me in them. I can picture the furniture, layout, and shade of green (or other color) of each Green Room in which I have spent a significant amount of time, as well as the faces of the people I shared them with (probably because they were made up in some distinctive way). When I first heard the term “Green Room,” it was in reference to a room the defining feature of which was that it was bright green. I didn’t know it had anything to do with theatre beyond my high school. Now I know better, and I know it was probably not green by accident, but because of theatrical tradition. I’ve also noticed that not all Green Rooms are green, and yet they all retain the color in their name. The name’s the thing, and so I went in search of the definitive origin of that name, and reader, I will tell you right now that there is none. If you keep reading, though, you will get to consider, as I did in my research, all of the wild reasons and theories that have been given based on centuries of theatre history.

Nothing brings people together like theatre. Student theatre is no exception to this and is a huge uniting force on campus. It is an opportunity for people who are not pursuing professional careers in the industry to get involved in an amazing community of people. Never in my life have I met a more diverse, hard-working group of people than those that put on shows as students. 

In response to Brad Pontius’ piece, I do agree that it’s okay for theater to be competitive, but he fails to mention one major part of theater. It was born of competition. In Ancient Greece plays were performed and playwrights were able to showcase their skills for the chance to win money and fame. The City Dionysius Festival was the Super Bowl of Ancient Greece. The reason that we have some of these plays extant is because they beat the competition, or they were able to stay intact, either way they won the historical lottery. Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Aeschylus all won that competition and that’s why their work is still performed today. Don’t belittle theater to keep an aspiring actor from realizing what it is; pure competition.

When I first got “into” theatre, one the best pieces of advice I was given on how to cope with rejection was along the lines of: “go home and cry, then move on and try again”. I think we all try to skip straight to the “move on and try again” part, but it's not that easy. Give yourself a break.

It is a radio play that is over 25 years old, yet the artistic producers at Fabulist Theatre in Vancouver, BC believes the themes in Dim Sum Diaries are just as relevant today. Onstage Blog sits down with director Mary Littlejohn to chat about the show.

Set in France, in the 1820s / 1830s (i.e. in the same universe as Star Trek), Les Misérables is a much-loved musical, based on a book which nobody has ever read. It's the story of Jean Valjean, a man who stole a loaf of bread (or maybe murdered somebody), and found a … secret admirer … in Javert. And the whole time, it was just a comparison of Old and New Testament morality.

Alright, here are all of those very weird but kind of wonderful conspiracy theories, explained.

Everyone has been there. 

The show was announced, maybe it was a play you didn’t know or one you loved and dreamed of doing for years, either way, there is THAT role. That role you are perfect for. You are in love with that role. You must play that role. 

I have recently been watching Smash by Theresa Rebeck with my girlfriend and it struck me in two ways. Firstly, Theresa Rebeck is a genius and one of my favorite writers out there. Second… Derek Wills is one of the most charming jerks I’ve ever loved on screen. Three. Three things, then – third being that Smash is one of the most brutally honest dramatizations of…drama. The sometimes cutthroat nature of auditions, the sore feelings afterward, and just how dumb everyone can be during the process because we’re a bunch of weirdos stuck in a single room together for hours.

The naked body.

It is one of the last taboos in American theatre, or in any other form of American art, for that matter. Audience members will gladly accept all of the vulgar language and explicit in the world, but if an actor dares to appear without clothes on for even one short scene, all hell will break loose.

Seldom does the casting of a local production occur and I don't hear about some sort of casting controversy. Every time I'm told of these "atrocities", I tend to ask myself, as well as the person telling me, were you actually screwed over or just didn't get the role?