Actors Gang Organization

The actor sat back in his chair at a coffee shop booth. "You know what an actor's life in Hollywood is like?" he asked rhetorically. "It's like getting out on a road, putting your thumb out and hoping you hitch a ride. "Sure enough, you get picked up. Then they drop you off down the road. And you get back out there and thumb another ride. You just hope someone gets you to where you want to be." James Terry, the actor, knew that lonely road.

Tim Robbins jokes that he could've given the title "While Rome Burns" to his new festival at the Actors' Gang. Times are tough, people are angry, "and they have every right to be," says the Oscar-winning actor and artistic director of the Culver City-based theater company. "There've been really bad decisions made that we're paying the bill for now." Like most cultural entities, the Gang, one of L.A.'s most accomplished theatrical institutions, has been scorched financially by the economic crisis.

Tim Robbins jokes that he could've given the title "While Rome Burns" to his new festival at the Actors' Gang. Times are tough, people are angry, "and they have every right to be," says the Oscar-winning actor and artistic director of the Culver City-based theater company. "There've been really bad decisions made that we're paying the bill for now." Like most cultural entities, the Gang, one of L.A.'s most accomplished theatrical institutions, has been scorched financially by the economic crisis.

THE one thing people always say about Simon Abkarian is that there's something in the way he moves. When the noted French Armenian actor starred in Sally Potter's 2005 film in verse, "Yes," movie critic Karen Durbin exulted in his physical presence, calling it "a visual feast." Now Abkarian is bringing some of his loose-limbed elegance to the Actors' Gang new home in Culver City, where he's directing a production of "Love's Labor's Lost," which opens Saturday.

Given the way the film "The Hours" has created renewed interest in Virginia Woolf, Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of "Orlando" at the Actors' Gang seems sagely timed. Happily, this West Coast premiere staging of Woolf's epic 1928 time-traveling gender-bender is excellent theater as well, scoring an elegant, seamless bull's-eye. "Orlando" was inspired by Woolf's passion for Vita Sackville-West.

Cinderella didn't have it so bad. Granted, her stepmother was mean, but at least she was no murderer. Cinderella should be grateful that her stepmother wasn't Medea. Or that Macbeth wasn't a friend of her father's. Thoughts like these are likely to skitter through the brains of theatergoers who see "Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella," a collaboration between the Actors' Gang and Cornerstone Theater, at the Gang's theater in Hollywood. The production offers three plays for the price of one.

'If you know your dad will give you the dough, you have no reason to get a job," said actor-director Tim Robbins. "It's crippling." And so Robbins has stepped down as the Actors' Gang artistic director and chief financial benefactor (if not its dad). The group is now being run by a board committee of six company members: Ned Bellamy, Brian Brophy, V.J.

When Tim Robbins started out in street theater, the actor recalls, he was competing for attention with noisy trucks, mothers hollering out of windows at their children and neighborhood drunks who would wander onstage and sing along. Today Robbins is one of the hottest film actors around, given his highly visible portrayal of the sleek studio executive in Robert Altman's "The Player."

Hello from ringside. We're here today at the Actors' Gang Theater in Hollywood to talk to the two theater upstarts behind "World of Wrestling," opening Friday. Michael (The Producer) Rivkin is a 28-year-old ex-New Yorker who cut his stage chops with the Wooster Group. He's mean, he's lean, he's avant-garde-antuan! And Jason (The Director) Reed is a 27-year-old Vegas-reared talent who's making his Actors' Gang directorial debut with this show. Growl for the folks, killer!

The Actors' Gang, the eclectic, risk-taking theater company headed by actor Tim Robbins, has opened its doors to Shadow Klan, a teen theater workshop program under the direction of Actors' Gang veteran Brian Brophy. The teen-agers, along with members of Actors' Gang and the Classical Theatre Lab, are presenting their original play, "Waltz de la Tierra," next Tuesday for a five-day run.

The Actors' Gang is the front-runner in the race to become the resident company at the Ivy Substation, a coveted 99-seat venue operated by the Culver City Redevelopment Agency. The agency's review panel is recommending the Gang, and the agency's board will meet Monday evening to consider final approval. The two-year contract would begin on July 1. The Gang was selected from a field of 14 applicants.

The Actors' Gang is considering a move. The pugnacious theater company's Santa Monica Boulevard digs in Hollywood were sold last fall, and the new owner, Jack Khorsandi, wants to charge a rent the troupe can't afford, according to its managing director, Greg Reiner. Negotiations with Khorsandi were continuing last week. The Gang's lease ends June 30.

"The Actors' Gang storms London," declared Keythe Farley, one of the co-writers of "Bat Boy," an Actors' Gang-developed musical about a half- human mutant that will open in the West End on Sept. 8. Also in September, the Hollywood-based Gang hopes to mount a London production of "Embedded," Tim Robbins' barbed look at the Iraq war and its media coverage. "Bat Boy" began with a 1997 production in the Gang's smaller Hollywood space, where the budget was about $12,000 and the seats numbered 41.

Tim ROBBINS is not campaigning for governor. Nor is he pitching politics to talk radio shock jocks. He isn't even hustling the Hollywood party circuit to gain Academy Award votes for his haunting performance in "Mystic River." The Manhattan-based actor-writer-director is in California again to express his politics the old-fashioned way: through his art. He still believes drama can change consciousness.

Given the way the film "The Hours" has created renewed interest in Virginia Woolf, Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of "Orlando" at the Actors' Gang seems sagely timed. Happily, this West Coast premiere staging of Woolf's epic 1928 time-traveling gender-bender is excellent theater as well, scoring an elegant, seamless bull's-eye. "Orlando" was inspired by Woolf's passion for Vita Sackville-West.

In four to six shows a week since Oct. 11, the Actors' Gang company has been exploring on stage the role of the theater in society. For 20 years, the same company has been experimenting offstage with the role of democracy in the theater. In both cases, the results look mixed at the moment--but difficult to ignore. And in both cases, the results have much to do with Tim Robbins, the company's once-and-again artistic director, principal benefactor and resident movie star.

A good cause and loud music lured hundreds of people to 2nd Coming on Friday night for a sweaty benefit for the Actors' Gang, the 8-year-old Los Angeles theater ensemble led by actor Tim Robbins. A low ebb in the club scene (or a wave of philanthropy?) may explain the around-the-block lines and valet parking that was full by 10:30. Once inside, the only way to move was like toothpaste through a tube--but what an interesting way to meet people.

The brash young Actors Gang and 88-year-old director Martin Magner were announced as recipients Wednesday of special Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards. The Gang has won the annual Margaret Harford Award, presented for "continuing contribution," while Magner will receive a lifetime achievement award. Born at UCLA in 1981 and led by Tim Robbins, the Actors Gang has created a series of ensemble pieces ("Carnage," "Freaks," "Violence" "Slick Slack Griff Graff").

Long before he became known as an actor, director, writer and producer, Tim Robbins was making a name for himself on the stage. In 1981, Robbins and a group of friends from UCLA formed a theater company called the Actors' Gang. The Gang gained prominence in the years that followed, later becoming known for its original, often political work, including the highly acclaimed plays "Violence" and "Carnage."

The underground wing of the Mark Taper Forum is going public. No, it's not a revolutionary movement out to overthrow Taper artistic director Gordon Davidson. It's the Taper's corps of play developers, who work on projects that usually are not ready or aesthetically appropriate for the Taper main stage. This week, the Taper underground emerges from its usual lairs to produce a modest festival of fully staged productions, under the banner of an old Taper moniker--Taper, Too.