Welcome to “A Few of My Favorite Things” — arts edition! In this series of Q&A interviews, The Bates Student sits down with students involved in the arts on campus to learn about their favorite parts of what they do. Today we’re chatting with Lucie Green ’23, the current Executive Director of The Robinson Players. The only entirely student-run theater group at Bates and one of the oldest in the country, The Robs celebrated their centennial last winter.

Lucie Green ’23 carries with her an aura of gentle confidence and welcoming authority — the exact sort of poise you’d want from, say, the executive director of a student theater group. Crewneck and sneaker-clad, her blonde hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail. The backpack she carries is substantial in size, the result of a double-major in English and theater — and two theses currently in process. 

Despite the amount of work she’s juggling, Green seems to hold her plans for The Robinson Players effortlessly in her head. There’s the One-Acts Festival this November, for which she’s currently seeking proposals from students interested in directing 10-minute plays. There’s the main stage show in February, which will be chosen from student proposals, and the musical in May. Equally important are the club’s offstage offerings. “I want it to be more about uniting the community than the events we put on,” Green says. “It should be enjoyable; you should look forward to it.”

Equal parts bubbly and thoughtful, what exudes from Green most obviously is her deep love for the theater group that has nurtured her from a first-year sorting props backstage to a senior working on an honors thesis in stage management, with stops as a stage crew member and the club’s technical director along the way. A seasoned veteran who appreciates the ability of theater to be constantly fresh, Green told us a few of her favorite things about theater, about Bates, and most of all about the club she hopes will be “a comfortable, safe space to try something new” for future generations of Batesies.

Favorite part about theater:

“What I really love about theater is the live aspect of it,” says Green. “It’s such a unique, intimate exchange between everyone who put the show together and the audience. You show up and you’re there all together in the same space.”

She likes the microcosm for the human experience that theater can be, too. “Theater is all about human nature, and how much of it is contained in the small moments.” 

Favorite way to be involved in a production:

Green is a stage manager at heart — “it’s for sure my favorite,” she says — and has been stage managing for the Robinson Players since her sophomore year. This means that she’s in charge of coordinating the moving pieces between actors and crew. “The show gets handed over from the director to the stage manager at the beginning of tech week,” Green explains. “You bring in all these new people … lighting, sound, sometimes projections, props, costumes, and so you kind of get to see it all come together.” 

During performances, Green calls the show — meaning that she delivers cues, via headset, to crew members. For instance, “I’m the one who says, you know, ‘standby cue eight,’ and then the light board person will press it when I say go.”

Favorite theater space on campus:

“My favorite theater space on campus is actually the prop room,” Green says. “It’s right above Schaeffer stage, and during my freshman year I spent a long time organizing props up there.” It’s a delightfully messy and lived-in space, but Green laughs, “At least it looks better than when I first went up there.”

Favorite thing about fall in Maine:

“The leaves,” says Green, without missing a beat. “Obviously.” Though she considers Pittsburgh, where she’s lived since mid-high school, to be home in many ways, she was born and bred in Massachusetts. The fall foliage, she says, “makes me nostalgic.”

Favorite study spot on campus:

“Schaeffer Theater,” Green says — a versatile enough space for hanging out, goofing off, and maybe even getting some homework done.

Favorite life lesson learned from theater:

There’s a pause here, as Green weighs her words carefully. “What theater has done for me is that it’s taught me how to be vulnerable in collaborative spaces,” she says. This matters especially since she considers herself to be “a very solitary, independent person.”

To embody another person as entirely as an actor does onstage is an act of profound empathy, and carries with it emotional weight. “[Theater has] really helped me connect to the most basic connections and human nature,” Green says. “I feel very honored to be able to work with so many talented people who are looking to experience the full range of human emotion.”

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If you, too, are looking for opportunities to experience the full range of human emotion via a unique form of storytelling — be that onstage, in a prop room, from a light board, or backstage — the Robinson Players have several upcoming opportunities open to the general student population, regardless of experience levels. 

Before Sept. 28: Students interested in directing a one-act play should email Green at [email protected] with their questions or proposal.

October: Auditions for the One-Acts festival.

Throughout October and November: One-Acts actors rehearse; scene shop, technical directors, and crew members work on their aspects of production.