Soothing? Nerve-racking? Discover the myths and the facts behind the color.

f you have no idea where the term "green room" comes from, you’re not alone. Many of the people who work in green rooms every day, from audio technicians to studio coordinators to TV anchors, are equally unaware. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of theories.

Since green rooms today are affiliated with the relatively modern television, many people think the phrase is only as old as the technology. "I think the term ‘green room’ comes from either the old ‘Tonight Show’ or ‘Today’ show. One of those shows had a room that was colored green for guests, and the name just stuck," said Mort Gasner, a CBS studio supervisor.

In fact, the first recorded usage of the term dates back to London in 1678, when "The True Widow," a play by Thomas Shadwell, was first performed. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1701 book called "Love Makes Man," written by actor and dramatist Colley Cibber.

But why specifically green? There are almost as many tales behind the term "green room" as there are guests who wait in them.

ROLLING OUT THE GREEN CARPET

Joel Siegel, ABC’s movie critic, said he thought the green room started as a joke. When actors a few centuries ago were told to go offstage to the green room, it wasn’t a real room, he said – just a reference to the grass and trees outside.

But since the late 1600s, theaters have boasted offstage rooms that actually were decorated in green. The green room may take its name from London’s Drury Lane Theatre, which "just happened to be painted green some time in the late 17th century," according to The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins.

Green was a general theme in many other theaters as well. Green carpet was regularly placed on stage in the 18th and 19th centuries during tragedies, to protect the dresses of the performers, writes George B. Bryan in "De Proverbio," an online journal of proverb studies. The curtains, upholstery and coats of the stage attendants who removed the furniture were also green, he writes.


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These actors have left the green room to enter the stage.

 

 

 

The earliest green rooms

"No, Madam: Selfish, this Evening, in a green Room, behind the Scenes, was before-hand with me."
-- "The True Widow," a play written by Thomas Shadwell and first performed at the Dorset Garden Theatre in December 1678.

"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."
-- "Love Makes Man," a book written by actor and dramatist Colley Cibber and published in 1701.