Welcome to the green room

I was recently talking to someone and found myself using the green room as an analogy for a period of waiting. Green rooms came into being in the world of theatre; they are rooms backstage where performers hang out while they’re waiting to perform, sort of like a theatrical lounge room.

I used to be a performer and I have memories of those moments of waiting in a dressing room or green room, made up and costumed and ready to go on stage to do my thing. Depending on what I was performing and under what conditions, those waits in the green room could be marked by feelings of nervousness, excitement, fatigue, impatience, or determination. But every wait in a green room was marked by the sensation of holding oneself in readiness to take action when your turn came.

Author
Meredith Lewis draws on over 30 years’ experience in the arts, community, and university sectors in her work as a mentor, facilitator, and non-fiction writer. She helps people regain trust in their creative identities, as individuals and within groups. Her work focuses on helping people to find their creative identities, regain confidence in their creativity, and embed resilience into their creative practice. She has recently published resources to support people with this and you can find them here.

 

(Amended) Photo by Sam Moqadam on Unsplash