Milestones - The Actors' Gang

1984

Four TAG members take a Commedia dell’Arte workshop with George Bigot, attaching the rigid discipline of Ariane Mnouchkine’s Theatre du Soleil to the company’s anarchic punk rock theater style

1985

Methusalem, The Eternal Bourgeois produced at the Wallenboyd Theater, directed by Tim Robbins, featuring Ron Campbell, Lee Arenberg, Ebbe Roe Smith and Helen Hunt in the cast, with live music composed and performed by John Densmore of the seminal L.A. rock band The Doors 

1986

Production of Violence at The Wallenboyd, written by Tim Robbins and Adam Simon, featuring John Cusack, Fisher Stevens, Ned Bellamy, Jeremy Piven and Lee Arenberg and directed by Robbins

1987

Carnage, A Comedy - The first theater piece produced by MOCA as part of the inaugural series of performance art in theater called Angels Flights Series, in partnership with the Wallenboyd. Written by Adam Simon and Tim Robbins, the play went on to run at the Tiffany Theater in Hollywood and in 1989 was invited as the United States Representative at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Joe Papp of The Public Theater, in New York, invites TAG to perform Carnage, A Comedy as part of their 1989 - 1990 Season 

TAG receives the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Margaret Harford Award for continued excellence in theater

1992

Live Radio Show of Tim Robbins’ play about Christopher Columbus, Mayhem, The Invasion, is performed in a nationwide broadcast on NPR on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ Landing.

TAG is cited in an article on the “Cultural Elite” by Newsweek Magazine

1994

The company takes residency at The Actors’ Gang Theater, in Hollywood, and begins producing theater all year-round, inaugurating the theater with Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, collaborating with playwrights Ellen McLaughlin and Charles Mee, and directors Oscar Eustus, Brian Kulik and David Schweizer

1995

Hysteria directed by Tracy Young premieres at the Actors’ Gang Theater to rave reviews. Tracy, along with directors Jason Reed and Michael Schlitt spearhead a productive time over the next five years with productions of Cool Cops, Kick Ass Militia, Mein Kampf, Klüb, and Euphoria

1996

First Outreach Initiative - Shadow Clan, a youth after school program -  

Collaborations with Namaste, Culture Clash, Ben Guillory, Roger Guenveur Smith, Bill Rauch and the Cornerstone Theater Company amongst others

TAG members Kyle Gass and Jack Black form Tenacious D

1997

Bat Boy The Musical, written by Gang member Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe premieres at The Actors’ Gang Theater. The musical would go on to tour throughout the world and win awards in New York for best Off-Broadway Musical, including the Lucille Lortel Award, two Richard Rogers Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Outer Critics Circle Award

2000

With the support of Eric Garcetti, TAG begins afterschool programs with local public schools in Hollywood