Fanny Seward's Description of Ford's Theater

[Tom Bogar]

Re "greenroom": I don't think anybody knows for sure. I have heard every theory there is, from the color of the walls and/or carpet, to actors being ill, to Greek vines, to the storage there of shrubbery, to a misstating of the word "scene". The Oxford Companion to the Theatre says that the first reference to “Green Room” is found in act four of Thomas Shadwell's 1678 play A TRUE WIDOW: Stanmore : "No madam: Selfish, this Evening, in a green Room, behind the Scenes, was before-hand with me..."