Green room -- where does the name come from?

The origin of this name for the room in which performers wait before going on stage or on-air is not known.

It probably refers to a room that was actually painted green, but which room and which theatre is uncertain. London's Blackfriars Theatre (1599) included a room painted green (or covered with green cloth) behind the scenes; this green room was where the actors waited to go on stage; and it was called "the green room." In a similar way my office has a conference room with a marble table -- we call it the "marble room". One could imagine lawyers' conference rooms getting the name "marble room" over time and nobody remembering exactly why.

The earliest uses of green room are in reference to the London theatre. Thomas Shadwell's Restoration comedy, "A True Widow" (1678), mentions in Act Four:

Stanmore : "No madam: Selfish, this Evening, in a green Room, behind the Scenes, was before-hand with me...".

The term "green-room" is mentioned in Colley Cibber's "Love Makes a Man" (1701):

"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."

There are several unlikely theories of where "green room" came from.

Often it is stated that the waiting room for the stage is green because this is a soothing colour—which is unlikely as being based on 20th century psychological theory. More to the point, apart from Blackfriars Theatre, most "green rooms" are not and never were green.

Another (usually) American story is that it is called green because the actors would also be paid here -- but English money isn't green like U.S. currency -- and in any event actors were not customarily paid in the room where they waited before going on stage. Finally, in the 1600's actors would not likely be paid in banknotes -- they would most likely be paid in coin.

Finally, the suggestion the green room is green because nervous actors tended to look green with stage fright is more a joke than a serious suggestion. Of course, actors with stage fright look pale and not green.