William Green [aka Banjo Bill]

  1. Banjo Bill YouTube channel
  2. Banjo Bill Facebook profile

William “Banjo Bill” Green is a songwriter and banjo player as well as an actor, director and playwright.  A fixture at local coffeehouses and open mic nights for over a decade, Banjo Bill has hosted several open mic nights through the years.  In addition his love of theatre is not only displayed on stage and behind the scenes but through creative performing arts groups at various venues.  Most recently he brings his humor and gift for storytelling to youtube with the Banjo Bill Show.

William Green was born in Auburn Alabama and earned a Ph.D in English from Louisiana State University.  He relocated to Bowling Green in 1993.  He has had some 150 poems published in the US, Canada and England in publications such as the Chicago Review and Southern Review.

After reading several times at Cafe Voltaire’s poetry night, Green helped form the theatrical performance group Black Cup Theatre and later Talking Dog Theatre.  Both did a variety of skits, comedy and music.

Through his college years he played bass with local bands.  In 1995 he purchased his first banjo and created Banjo Bill, adding music to the poetry and performance nights he was hosting.

 In the late 90’s he joined Fountain Square Players and began acting and directing their productions.  He also worked with Public Theatre of Kentucky.

County Affiliation: Warren

Band Affiliations:

Performing Group Affiliations:

  • Black Cup Theatre (1995) – poetry, theatrical performance, comedy performing mostly at Cafe Voltaire [members: Sam Stonebreaker, William “Banjo Bill” Green, Dutch DeBoer, Geriecke Summerville,  Misty Bernard, Elizabeth Bissett]
  • Talking Dog Theatre (1996)  [members: William “Banjo Bill” Green, Elizabeth Bissette, Troy Camplin and Heather Whitaker (Cochran)]

Recording Credits:

Publishing Credits:

  • The Hobbit: A Journey Into Maturity
  • The Great Conspiracy – book
  • Green’s two-act mystery, A Shot in the Yard ,was produced September 2010 by Fountain Square Players.
  • His adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost staged January 2010 by Waterloo Community Playhouse; previously staged May 2003 by Fountain Square Players.
  • His mystery script, Murder at the Depot, performed September 2009 at the Historic Railpark and Museum at the L&N Depot.
  • He has written or co-written dozens of short film scripts produced for his YouTube channel, Banjo Bill Green, 2009-present.
  • His comedy, Homer’s Choice, was a finalist in the 2009 Mountain Playhouse International Comedy Playwriting Competition
  • His drama, Dancing Backwards, was a finalist in the 2007 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival and a semifinalist in the 2006-2007 Beverly Hills Theatre Guild-Julie Harris Playwright Award Competition.
  • His comedy, Dr. Jason and Mother Hyde, staged February 2005 by Fountain Square Players.
  • His adaptation of the E. Nesbit classic, The Story of the Amulet, won the Coleman A. Jennings award for best new children’s script from Southwest Theatre and Film Association, November 2004.
  • His comedy, The Christopher Marlowe Murders, has had two staged readings, in October 2002 by Public Theatre of Kentucky and in November 2003 by Bailiwick Repertory in Chicago.
  • He co-wrote a 1999 comedy CD, Conspiracy 27, and scripts of two variety shows by Black Cup Theatre which played 1996-98 in Bowling Green and Louisville, Kentucky.
  • Two plays, Pollution (a one-act) and The Seeming Prey of Psychic Storms (full-length program of one-acts) staged while he was a graduate student at Louisiana State University.
  • Well over a hundred poems and stories published in many journals, including Chicago Review, Southern Review, and The Literary Review. Author of The Hobbit: A Journey into Maturity (as William H. Green) and two poetry chapbooks. Green has long been active in regional theatre, amateur, academic, and semi-professional, having acted in more than fifty plays and directed twelve.