Milestones - The Actors' Gang
1982
Ubu The King premiers at the CASH Gallery in Hollywood and then opens to rave reviews and runs for six months at the Pilot Theater in Hollywood
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
2001
George Bigot returns for a summer long intensive training program, going on to direct The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
2002
Production of Anne Nelson’s The Guys, with Tim Robbins and Helen Hunt and directed by Robert Egan. Subsequent casts include William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Jeanne Tripplehorn, David Hyde Pierce, and Phillip Baker Hall. TAG tours the play with P Adam Walsh, Adele Robbins, Brent Hinkley, Kate Mulligan, Cynthia Ettinger, Patti Tippo, V.J. Foster, and Cameron Dye