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19-573: Jazz musicians played on the ground floor on a raised stage along one wall beneath a disco ball. The stage could also be seen from the balcony dining area. Musicians had a green room at the back and at times stayed in apartments on the floor above. It was a venue for soloists and small ensembles. Big bands performed either at the Imperial Room at the Royal York, in Massey Hall , or at various venues on

38-399: A similar venue, that functions as a waiting room and lounge for performers before, during, and after a performance or show when they are not engaged on stage . Green rooms typically have seating for the performers, such as upholstered chairs and sofas. The origin of the term is often ascribed to such rooms historically being painted green. Modern green rooms need not necessarily adhere to

57-491: A specifically green colour scheme, though the theatrical tradition of the name remains. Some English theatres contained several green rooms, each ranked according to the status, fame, and salary of the actor: one could be fined for using a green room above one's station. As often in etymological questions, the precise origins of a term are difficult to establish. This has led to many folk-etymological hypotheses and claims for high-profile terms such as green room . One of

76-436: Is 'stage', therefore 'greengage room' is 'stage room'; like most rhyming slang, the term was shortened, hence '"green" room'. Rhyming slang can be traced only as early as the 1840s, whereas the phrase "green room" predates this by several centuries, making such an etymology unlikely. In Shakespeare's day, the actors waited in a "tiring house" probably because actors were attired (put on or changed costumes) in this space. Here it

95-464: Is created when a flame fed by oxygen and hydrogen is directed at a cylinder of quicklime ( calcium oxide ), due to a combination of incandescence and candoluminescence . Although it has long since been replaced by electric lighting, the term has nonetheless survived, as someone in the public eye is still said to be "in the limelight". The actual lamps are called "limes", a term which has been transferred to electrical equivalents. The limelight effect

114-481: Is mentioned by Peter Quince as he plans for his acting troupe to rehearse in the woods: QUINCE: Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn-brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action as we will do it before the duke. Samuel Pepys mentions these locations at the Drury Lane Theatre Royal in 1667: ...she took us up into

133-649: Is overwhelmed with a flood of beautiful white light". Limelight was first used for indoor stage illumination in the Covent Garden Theatre in London in 1837 and enjoyed widespread use in theatres around the world in the 1860s and 1870s. Limelights were employed to highlight solo performers in the same manner as modern spotlights . During the American Civil War in July and August 1863 calcium lights were used during

152-532: The Drummond light after him. The earliest known use of limelight at a public performance was outdoors, over Herne Bay Pier , Kent, on the night of 3 October 1836 to illuminate a juggling performance by magician Ching Lau Lauro . This performance was part of the celebrations following the laying of the foundation stone of the Clock Tower . The playbill called it koniaphostic light and announced that "the whole pier

171-405: The makeup worn by actors; long before modern makeup was invented, the actors had to apply makeup before a show and allow it to set up or cure before performing. Until the makeup was cured, it was 'green', and people were advised to sit quietly in the 'green room' until such time as the makeup was stable enough for performing. It is possible that 'green room' might be a corruption of 'scene room',

190-462: The Colonial Tavern included major jazz artists from around the world. Musicians often stayed in very limited accommodation at the back. A brass plate memorial in the park which now remembers this historic building records the names of over 150 jazz musicians that performed at the tavern. Performers included Green room In show business , the green room is the space in a theatre , or

209-463: The London Coliseum) still refer to the stage as 'the green'. It is sometimes said that the term 'green room' was a response to limelight , though the name is merely a coincidence – "limelight" refers to calcium oxide , not to the fruit or colour . Furthermore, limelight was invented in 1820 and the term "green room" was used many years prior to that. The term 'green room' is also attributed to

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228-584: The Tireing-rooms and to the women's Shift, where Nell was dressing herself and...then below into the Scene-room, and...here I read the Qu's (cues) to Knepp while she answered me, through all her part of Flora's Figarys... Limelight Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light ) is a non-electric type of stage lighting that was once used in theatres and music halls . An intense illumination

247-694: The Toronto waterfront, including the Palais Royale , the CNE Bandshell , and the Palace Pier . Concerts were often recorded by CJRT's jazz disk jockey, Ted O'Reilly, and were broadcast on Saturday mornings with interviews of musicians discussing their performances and memories. Some of these interviews are in the Toronto Metropolitan University archives. Other competing jazz venues in Toronto at

266-443: The actors, while the surrounding space and circular banks were occupied by the spectators; Southern states that 'the green' has been a traditional actors' term for the stage ever since. Even in proscenium arch theatres, there was a tradition that a green stage cloth should be used for a tragedy . The green room could thus be considered the transition room on the way to the green/stage. Technical staff at some West End theatres (such as

285-410: The eyes from the glare of the stage." On the other hand, early stage lighting was by candlelight and later by gaslight, so the "glare" might well be apocryphal, a modern reference to bright stage lighting. Richard Southern , in his studies of medieval theatre in the round , states that in this period the acting area was referred to as 'the green'. This central space, often grass-covered, was used by

304-465: The oldest stories is that London's Blackfriars Theatre (1599) included a room behind the scenes, where the actors waited to go on stage, which happened to be painted green, and was called "the green room". A later renovation of London's Cockpit-in-Court theatre in 1662 included a green baize dressing room, which has also been suggested as the origin of the term. It has also been theorised that such waiting rooms were originally painted green to "relieve

323-445: The room where scenery was stored which doubled as the actors' waiting and warm-up room. Many actors also experience nervous anxiety before a performance, and one of the symptoms of nervousness is nausea. As a person who feels nauseous is often said to look "green", suggesting that the 'green room' is the place where the nervous actors wait. Comedian and dancer Max Wall attributes the phrase to Cockney rhyming slang , where 'greengage'

342-624: The time were George's Spaghetti House , the Town Tavern and George's Bourbon Street. Upscale nightclubs and big band venues included the Savarin Tavern, the Imperial Room at the Royal York Hotel , the Palais Royale , and the CNE Bandshell . The first band to open the Colonial Tavern was a band led by Cy McLean , who led the first full-scale black dance band in Canada. Artists who performed at

361-418: Was discovered in the 1820s by Goldsworthy Gurney , based on his work with the "oxy-hydrogen blowpipe ", credit for which is normally given to Robert Hare . In 1825, a Scottish engineer, Thomas Drummond (1797–1840), saw a demonstration of the effect by Michael Faraday and realized that the light would be useful for surveying. Drummond built a working version in 1826, and the device is sometimes called

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