Franklin & Marshall College is pleased to announce that the Green Room Theatre will be rededicated as the James Lapine Theater, a tribute to one of F&M’s most decorated and accomplished performing arts graduates.

“James Lapine is a giant of the theater. He is one of our nation’s most gifted authors, playwrights, and directors, and an inspiration for generations of young people,” said President Andrew Rich. “We are thrilled to honor him with the James Lapine Theater at F&M. The updated theater will be a place for current and future Diplomats who dream of bringing their own visions to stage and screen.”

From F&M to the Global Stage

One of the world’s most lauded living directors, screenwriters and playwrights, James Lapine ’71 started his academic journey as a history major at F&M. A fine arts class introduced him to photography, a skill he cultivated as editor of the College yearbook “Oriflamme,” and continued at California Institute of the Arts, where he earned his MFA.

Lapine began his career as a photographer and graphic designer before taking on freelance and teaching assignments for the Yale School of Drama. During a January term, students and teachers were tasked with participating in work beyond their normal scope of expertise. His students suggested he direct a play, and he agreed — as long as they selected one. Their choice was Gertrude Stein’s “Photograph,” and he was given a script that Lapine remembers as “five acts long and only three pages in length — basically a poem.” 

The challenge intrigued him. He decided to use photographs he had taken as projected images throughout the production and asked a jazz composer from the Yale School of Music to produce the score. A rave review from the New Haven Register encouraged him to consider putting the production on in New York, and a friend completing studies at Columbia encouraged him to reach out to the painter Jasper Johns, a known fan of Stein’s poetry. A foundation that Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage had just founded, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, then gave Lapine a $2,500 grant to put on the show. The production caught the attention of the “New York Times,” which gave it a rave review and “Photograph” became an Off Broadway production that won Lapine an Obie Award. 

“It kind of steamrolled from there,” he remembers. “ I think there’s a lesson there. Some people know what they want, what they want to do, who they want to be. I didn’t worry about it. I had confidence in who I was and what interested me. F&M was impactful in that way, because it exposed me to a lot of interesting ideas and professors and thoughts. That’s what a liberal arts college can do.”

James Lapine '71 talks with F&M students during a Philadelphia Alumni Writers House event he hosted in New York City with "Manchester by the Sea" screenwriter and playwright Kenneth Lonergan in 2018.

Lapine has won many accolades since from his dozens of plays and musicals, thirteen of which have premiered on Broadway. A frequent writing partner and director of Stephen Sondheim, his work has been enjoyed by millions. In addition to the three Tony Awards that Lapine won for “Into the Woods,” “Passion” and “Falsettos,” he and Sondheim were named recipients of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Sunday in the Park with George.” Lapine is also the recipient of multiple Drama Desk Awards, British Evening Standard Awards and Olivier Awards. He was an honorary degree recipient and Commencement speaker for the F&M Class of 1994.

His work as a writer and director has also featured prominently in film and television.

Now, Lapine is finishing his second book, following 2021’s “New York Times” bestseller “Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George.” In January he will direct Edward Albee’s “The Goat” on Broadway starring Pedro Pascal and Sarah Paulson. 

In reflecting on advice he would offer to current F&M students interested in writing and the performing arts, Lapine urged them to find their own voices. “Try to explore the world. Try to avail yourself of every opportunity that comes your way. It’s the greatest thing as a writer that you can do, to push yourself into uncomfortable situations and places, to meet people you don’t know, and to examine who you are and what interests you.”

A Storied Heritage of Performance

The restoration and renaming of the theater is made possible, in part, by an anonymous $1 million gift to support a significant renovation of the existing performance space and provide programmatic support for theatre and dance performances and events.

Associate Professor of Theatre Rachel Anderson-Rabern said she is excited by the possibilities the gift will support.

“Our committed, brave and creative students eat up their time with us in the theatre. This gift supports department programming and performances, allowing us to provide a better education and set of experiences for our students, increase community outreach, and facilitate mentorship and networking opportunities,” Anderson-Rabern said. “It also signals to our students that the performing arts are important, critical components of an educational ecosystem that thrives on storytelling, imagination and humanity.”

Theatre and dance, first known as drama programming, has a storied history at Franklin & Marshall, with the first documented production, “She Stoops to Conquer,” performed by students and community members in 1899. The “Green Room Club” name was adopted during the group’s second production, a nod to the staging area where off-stage actors wait for their cues.

Before a suitable venue existed on campus, F&M productions took place in various Lancaster spaces, including the former Orange Street Opera House and the current Fulton Theatre. Over the years, the group transitioned through several venues — including Hensel Hall and the former Martin Auditorium at Lancaster’s YMCA — before finding a permanent home in Keiper Liberal Arts’ “Little Room Theatre” in 1937. The new venue soon became known as the Green Room Theatre for the Green Room Club’s nearly exclusive use of the space. 

Today, Green Room productions are typically intimate black box shows for audiences of 200 or fewer and offer a complement to other campus performance spaces, including the 300-seat Schnader Theatre in the Roschel Center for the Performing Arts and the 500-seat theatre in the Ann and Richard Barshinger Center For Musical Arts in Hensel Hall.

Experiencing and Enhancing the Arts at F&M

The legacy established by F&M’s first performers continues to flourish on campus. Investments in theatre, dance and the arts preserve the beating heart of campus culture and help current and future Diplomats find their voices.

Alumni, families, neighbors and friends are invited to attend campus productions, from experimental student-led works to professionally directed dance and theater. To view the current season of productions or to reserve your seats, visit the F&M Box Office and the College’s public Events Calendar, where visitors can filter for theatre, dance, art and other events.