1981: Actors’ Gang founded by UCLA students,


including Tim Robbins, from about 10 members of


an acting class and/or the Theater Department softball team. The troupe also includes Richard Olivier (the son of Joan Plowright and Sir Laurence Olivier), among Robbins’ peers at UCLA. The first off-campus production Ubu the King premieres at the Pilot II Theater on Santa Monica Boulevard, funded


from Robbins earnings as a waiter and


television actor.


 


Early to mid-’80s: Tim Robbins becomes bi-coastal and eventually relocates to New York. He administers the theater from across the continent via videotaped rehearsals and phone calls. In his absence, Mike Schlitt becomes the head of the troupe, and an


intermediary between Robbins and the company.


 


1985: Methusalem (Wallenboyd Theater)


 


1986: Violence (Wallenboyd Theater), Battery


(Second Stage Theater)


 


1987: Carnage (Museum of Contemporary Art)


 


1988: Carnage and Freaks (Tiffany Theater).


Mark Seldis starts working with the company.


 


1989: Seldis co-produces The Big Show at


San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts and


Santa Monica’s Powerhouse Theater. Carnage travels to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the New York Public Theater, where it is savaged by the critics.


 


1990: The Good Woman of Setzuan (Odyssey Theater)


 


1991: Robbins asks Seldis to serve as the Gang’s


general manager.


 


1992: Blood! Love! Madness!, Woyzeck, Klub,


Hysteria (all at the Second Stage Theater)


— “a seminal year”


 


1993: Robbins opens the L.A. office of his film


studio, Havoc. He offers Seldis and Bob White each


a three-year contract to run the office as well as the Actors’ Gang. Robbins also pays out $350,000 for the $500,000 cost of the lease and conversion of a vacant warehouse on Santa Monica Boulevard into a


twin-theater complex.


 


1994: The new theater space is baptized with


The Orestia.


 


1996: Tracy Young’s Euphoria and Beth Milles’


production of The Imaginary Invalid. Robbins closes


the L.A. office of Havoc, announces his resignation


as artistic director of the Gang and cuts his financial


contributions to an average per year of $45,000 of the $300,000 operating budget, in a desire to see “self sufficiency occur.” Seldis continues on as unsalaried general manager. With mega–fund-raising efforts, the


Gang remains in the black.


 


1997: Bat Boy: The Musical (will move on to become an Off-Broadway hit in 2001)


 


1998: Salome (directed by David Schweizer),


MedeaMacbethCinderella (co-directed by Young


and Bill Rausch). The theater’s artistic committee


allocates Seldis a salary from the theater’s operating fund. Production manager Don Luce is the only


other salaried employee.


 


2000: Dreamplay (workshop), XXX Love Act, How


To Steal an Election. As a four-year lease comes up for renewal, Robbins announces his intention to return to the theater, and runs into questioning by the company.


 


2001: Bypassing the company, Robbins convenes


a board of directors meeting at the Hotel W. A 6-3 vote, and Robbins’ $200,000 check, installs Robbins as CEO and reinstalls him as artistic director. He jettisons a 2000-2001 season that had been decided by a company-wide vote in exchange for a season of his choosing, starting with his own production of Mephisto, to open in late August, and Georges


Bigot’s staging of The Seagull, tentatively


slated to open in October.

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