We’ll call this chapter “The Need for Cake, a.k.a. Arcadia Tech and Preview Weeks.” There is something besides the desire to put on the best theatrical production you possibly can that brings people together in a theatre, and that is food in the Green Room. And now for your theatrical definition of the day… The Green Room is a term that has been used to describe the room where actors relax before and after a show. This I found written by Gary Rominger from theatrecrafts.com:
“According to an old professor of mine “The term ‘green room’ is one of the most used and least understood words in theatre. The word actually is in reference to the makeup worn by the actors. When first applied, old style makeups were prone to cracking until fully cured. During the period immediately after makeup was applied, it was ‘green’ or uncured. The Green Room was a quiet place for the actors to sit and relax while the makeup was ‘green’ and to allow it to cure properly.
Thomas Shadwell
And from the The Oxford Companion to the Theatre entry under “Green Room” the first reference is in Thomas Shadwell’s play A True Widow (1678). The relevant line from Act Four of that play is:
Stanmore : “No madam: Selfish, this Evening, in a green Room, behind the Scenes, was before-hand with me…”
It has also been suggested these places are called ‘green rooms’ because they were often a soothing shade of green. OR a place to eat! It has been fortunate that during the tech and preview week of Arcadia we have celebrated about 5 birthdays each with a cake. And on top of that been supplied with sweet treats from our lovely Company Manager Kate Holst Test. And various actors and other staff have kept the table stocked as well. Tech schedules are fairly…no VERY intense concentration-wise. Long hours, little sleep, lots of meetings before and after scheduled rehearsals, and the rehearsals themselves sometimes last 10 hours a day. So you have bleary-eyed, heavily caffeinated, sleep-deprived tech crew, staff, designers and actors all doing their dead level best to put all the various pieces together and create the whole beautiful production you will be watching. I, with our Artistic Director and Director of this production, Michael Halberstam, move around the theatre, sitting in various seats in the house checking out sight lines or blocking, and prop placement etc. And every now and then back stage we hear an outburst of delirious giggling. Or, on stage—after a few actors have run through a scene or piece of blocking for the seventh time because of lighting or sound or blocking or clothes choreography or what-have-you—a much needed pratfall or a bursting into song is bound to happen.
Dahlias on the set of ARCADIA
For this particular show, if the actors, stage management and design team heard the phrase “let’s take it from ‘Dahlia studies’,” a knowing look of shared insanity would cross their faces. And we’ll just let that remain a mystery. Then you have Preview week, which is tech week with public performances on top. Less grueling hour-wise for some but nonetheless rehearsing during the day, finessing scenes perfecting tech cues, and finishing touches to the set. So, in the green room, to see a kind of primal look on these people’s faces when they see a new cake, or chocolates or windmill cookies or… and then to hear the sounds, “ooh, mmmm, umhhmmm..” as the chewing commences… It all makes perfect sense.
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