Student-run theater club provides creative outlet for amateur performers
Ever wanted to act in, direct or even try your hand in writing a play? There’s an outlet for you to channel your creativity and share it with other students, and they want you.
Green Room Productions, a student-run theater club, is a group of creative students who put on student-written and -directed works as well as modern classics each semester.
“Green Room started before our time,” said William Vaughan, a third-year theatre student and the club’s president. “It’s been passed down.”
The club is open to all students.
“It’s really open to anyone. Most people involved aren’t theatre majors,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan said Green Room provides an opportunity for people who perhaps enjoyed acting in high school or in community theater productions “and they get to college [and] don’t have the opportunity to do that anymore.”
Rocco Thompson, a third-year theatre student, said being involved in Green Room Productions has given him a chance to try his hand at directing a full-length show before staging a show at the theater department’s Lab Theatre space next year.
“For some of us who are majors, it’s a chance to try out directing,” Thompson said.
Elizabeth Coffin, another third-year theatre student, has been involved in the club since her freshman year. Coffin currently serves as the club’s treasurer and will maintain her office next year as well. While she has participated in Green Room Productions shows onstage, she said most of her work is done behind the scenes.
“I’ve been in a couple of the Grindhouses,” Coffin said. “My involvement is mostly backstage.”
The club has five officers, but its membership numbers shift from production to production.
“You can drift in and out,” Vaughan said. “Some people just do one production.”
Getting involved with Green Room Productions has more benefits besides gaining theatrical experience.
“It’s really a great way to meet people and make friends,” Thompson said.
Green Room Productions puts on Grindhouse, an evening of student-written, -acted and -directed work and a variety of other acts, including a magician on one occasion, every semester. Green Room’s most recent Grindhouse featured 10 shows with a running time of 10 minutes each
“It’s a collection of undergraduate works written by students,” Vaughan said. “We’re really open to any suggestions.”
No matter what genre or style a piece falls into, Green Room Productions won’t discriminate against a work.
“If there’s a project you’ve ever wanted to do but were too afraid to try, now is the time to try it. There are a lot of supportive people who are able to help you,” Thompson said.
Coffin echoed Thompson’s remarks.
“We can make whatever you want to do happen,” Coffin said.
In addition to Grindhouse, Green Room Productions produces at least two other shows each semester. The company’s next show will be a production of modern American playwright Sarah Ruhl’s “The Clean House,” directed by Thompson.
The show tells the story of an aspiring Brazilian comedian named Matilde who moves to America after her parents die, and works as a housekeeper as part of an agreement.
“I wanted to do it as a project for the seniors that I’m friends with because although they get cast in many things ... they don’t get to work together a lot,” Thompson said.
“The Clean House” will be presented at Benson Theatre April 27–29 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7.
To learn more about Green Room Productions, visit the club’s Facebook page or email sogrnrmp@mailbox.sc.edu.