Tim Robbins, Actors' Gang stand up to tough times
source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-actors-gang12-2009oct12,0,593401.story
-
-
- St_Alia_10191
- added this
"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. Earlier this summer, the ensemble's accountant even recommended that, to save money, the Gang should consider temporarily not producing theater and just focus on its extensive educational and community outreach programs.
Robbins' incredulous three-word response gave the new festival its name: "WTF?!" That scrappily emphatic statement of purpose expresses the outlook of the ambitious endeavor, which opens Tuesday and runs through Dec. 19.
"I'm not ignoring the economy," Robbins says. "We are flying in the face of it. We are saying, 'This is not going to stop us.' And so the best way we can figure out for it not to stop us is to do more than we ever have in the past."
Curated by Robbins, "WTF?!" will mix film screenings, live music, theater, poetry, dance performances and readings, among other activities. Several will be performed by members of the Gang, such as the double-bill performance "Sole Mates" and "Death and Giggles" by Daisuke Tsuji, who has toured as a clown with Cirque du Soleil.
Other events will bring in outside artists. Among the marquee names who'll lend their presence to the Gang's intimate 99-seat space at the Ivy Substation for the festival will be Jackson Browne, Tenacious D, John Doe of X, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie."
Like most cultural entities, the Gang, one of L.A.'s most accomplished theatrical institutions, has been scorched financially by the economic crisis. Earlier this summer, the ensemble's accountant even recommended that, to save money, the Gang should consider temporarily not producing theater and just focus on its extensive educational and community outreach programs.
Robbins' incredulous three-word response gave the new festival its name: "WTF?!" That scrappily emphatic statement of purpose expresses the outlook of the ambitious endeavor, which opens Tuesday and runs through Dec. 19.
"I'm not ignoring the economy," Robbins says. "We are flying in the face of it. We are saying, 'This is not going to stop us.' And so the best way we can figure out for it not to stop us is to do more than we ever have in the past."
Curated by Robbins, "WTF?!" will mix film screenings, live music, theater, poetry, dance performances and readings, among other activities. Several will be performed by members of the Gang, such as the double-bill performance "Sole Mates" and "Death and Giggles" by Daisuke Tsuji, who has toured as a clown with Cirque du Soleil.
Other events will bring in outside artists. Among the marquee names who'll lend their presence to the Gang's intimate 99-seat space at the Ivy Substation for the festival will be Jackson Browne, Tenacious D, John Doe of X, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie."
-
- groups:
- Entertainment, Music, Art and Style, Culture, 9 more
-
- tags:
- Entertainment, Music, WTF, Art and Style, 16 more
-
-
nursediesel
-
That's right get back to the job of acting and entertaining for the hell of it.
Who doesn't want to spend thier down time enjoying a well done concert, play, or musical? Something to take our minds to a different place for a few entertaining hours. - 3 years ago
-
nursediesel
