Tim Robbins Directs 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

TIM ROBBINS

Culver City, CA, June 6, 2013…The Actors’ Gang, the critically acclaimed Los Angeles based ensemble theatre company, presents a Shakespeare classic. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Artistic Director, Tim Robbins, opens Saturday, June 29. The show runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm at the company’s home theater at the Ivy Substation in Culver City, California. Tickets are available by phone 310.838.4264 or online at www.TheActorsGang.com.

A Midsummer Nights Dream

A surreal world of fairies, spells, incantations, lovers bewitched by magic, the Fairy Queen making love to an ass. The world in disorder made right by the mischief of the night. Twelve actors from The Actors’ Gang working with director Tim Robbins and the company’s Co-Artistic Director, Cynthia Ettinger illuminate Shakespeare’s forest with original music, kinetic expression and a fervent approach to the reality and magic of the language of the play.

“This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays—there are so many layers of truth, untruth, dream, reality, magic and deception. A marital dispute puts the universe in disorder and the confusion that emerges is dangerous and full of outrageous behavior and wildly funny.” – Director, Tim Robbins

This workshop production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be presented with minimal costumes, props and scenery, relying mainly on the creative imagination of its players to realize Shakespeare’s magical world.

About the Director, Tim Robbins

Tim Robbins ranks among contemporary cinema’s most acclaimed and provocative voices; a multifaceted talent, who has acted in, written, directed and produced films including Mystic River,Catch a Fire, Dead Man Walking, The Shawshank Redemption, The Player, Bob Roberts, Bull Durham, Jacobs Ladder, Hudsucker Proxy, The Secret Life of Words and Cradle Will Rock. 

In addition Robbins has been a consistent and influential voice in the theater for the past 32 years as an actor, director, playwright and artistic director of The Actors’ Gang, which has travelled the world to five continents and extensively in the United States with productions including Embedded, George Orwells' 1984, The Exonerated, The Guys, and The Trial of the Catonsville Nine.

Robbins has also been instrumental in the development and expansion of education and outreach programs at The Actors’ Gang, arts programs that have reached thousands of children currently without school funding for theater programs. In addition Robbins and several other Actors’ Gang members regularly conduct theater workshops with incarcerated men in an effort to fill the gap in arts rehabilitation programs in the California corrections system. 

The Actors’ Gang

For 32 years, The Actors’ Gang has received international acclaim for presenting over 150 new, unconventional and uncompromising plays and dynamic reinterpretations of the classics in Los Angeles, throughout the United States, and on five continents. Guided by Founding Artistic Director, Tim Robbins, and Co-Artistic Director, Cynthia Ettinger, the company was founded in 1981 by a group of like minded artists looking to create theater relevant to the society we live in and restore the ancient sense of the stage as a shared sacred space.

The Actors' Gang has presented the work of innovative theater artists including Georges Bigot and  Simon Abkarian of the Theatre du Soleil, Bill Rauch and the Cornerstone Theatre Company, Culture Clash, Oskar Eustis, Tracy Young, Charles Mee, Roger Guenver Smith, Eric Bogosian, David Schweizer, Danny Hoch, Beth Milles, Brian Kulick, Stefan Haves, Namaste Theater Company, Jason Reed, Michael Schlitt, and Tenacious D.

The Actors' Gang ensemble has included accomplished actors such as Jack Black, John Cusack, John C. Reilly, Helen Hunt, Jeremy Piven, Jon Favreau, Kate Walsh, Fisher Stevens, Ebbe Roe Smith, Brent Hinkley, Kate Mulligan, Lee Arenberg, Kyle Gass and Tim Robbins.

The Actors’ Gang began touring its productions throughout the world in 1989, representing the US at the Edinburgh Festival with Carnage, a Comedy before moving to the Public Theater in New York.Since then the company has toured in Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America and throughout the US with productions such as 1984, The Trial of the Catonsville 9, The Guys, The Exonerated and Embedded. In 2004, The Actors’ Gang performed its anti Iraq war satire Embeddedto four months of sold-out houses at New York’s Public Theater and in 2001 Bat Boy: The Musical won the Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics awards for best new musical Off-Broadway.

Tickets/Directions/Parking

Performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream begin June 29 and run Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. 

The Actors' Gang is located at the Ivy Substation at 9070 Venice Blvd. (near the intersection of Culver and Venice Blvds.) in Culver City.  Two hours free parking is available throughout downtown Culver City; the Ince Parking Lot (corner of Culver and Ince) is directly across the street from the theater. Several restaurants are only a few blocks' walk from The Actors' Gang and offer a variety of dining options before and after the theater. Show your ticket stub at Akasha, Kay N’ Dave’s, Rush Street, La Rocco’s Pizzeria, and City Tavern to receive 10% off your meal. Show your ticket stub at Ugo Café to receive a free gelato.

The Ivy Substation is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible.  For reservations and information, call The Actors' Gang Box Office at 310-838-GANG (310-838-4264) or visit www.theactorsgang.com

CALENDAR LISTING

The Actors’ Gang Presents: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

WHAT: Announcing William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Tim Robbins

WHO:  Presented by The Actors' Gang (Tim Robbins, Artistic Director / Simon Hanna, Managing Director)

WHEN: A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Begins June 29

Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm 

HOW: 310-838-GANG (310-838-4264) or www.theactorsgang.com

WHERE: The Actors’ Gang (at the Ivy Substation)
9070 Venice Blvd. / Culver City, CA 90232
(corner of Culver & Venice Blvds; two hours free parking available across the street in Ince Parking Lot, corner of Culver & Ince)

TICKETS: A Midsummer Night’s Dream $34.99 general admission; $30 for students and seniors; Tickets can be purchased online at www.theactorsgang.com or by phone 310.838.4264. Thursday night performances are Pay-What-You-Can with a suggested donation of $20 

MORE INFO: www.theactorsgang.com or 310.838.4264