JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN Extends At The Actors Gang Through Today

The Actors' Gang has announced an extension of 'Johnny Got His Gun' at the Ivy Substation, adding two performances, a matinee performance on November 11th, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I and Veteran's Day and an evening performance on November 14th. The stage adaptation of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's war novel, Johnny Got His Gun, written by Bradley Rand Smith and directed by Tim Robbins, began previews on October 6th and opened October 13th.

Daryl Miller of Los Angeles Times said, "The staging by Tim Robbins, the Gang's adventuresome leader, pulls us so wholly into this world that, 80 minutes later, we are surprised to realize we've been sitting in a brick walled theater in Culver City the whole time. However, there is proof of our travels: tear-slicked faces and a feeling of elation" and Travid Holder, of ticketholdersla mused "incredibly evocative theatrical magic...could not have been more timely. That's what creating art is all about"

"We are happy so many people want to see the show. I am honored to have had the opportunity to bring this beautiful story to our stage!" said Artistic Director Tim Robbins.

Johnny Got His Gun takes its title from a popular recruiting slogan used by the US military and incorporated into popular songs. The narrator, twenty-year-old Joe Bonham, got his gun and went to war in 1918. An exploding shell reduced him to a silent life. Far from home, in a hospital bed in Europe, Joe Bonham is without a voice but ready for battle, ready to explode with rage at what the war left behind. A story about survival and the unyielding and persistent need in all human beings to live with dignity and purpose, Johnny Got His Gun reminds us that behind every casualty of war there is the story of a young person with hopes, aspirations and dreams of life.

The cast cast of nine includes Nathan Woodworth, Pierre Adeli, Mela Green, Scott Harris, Kaili Hollister, Mary Eileen O'Donnell, Luis Quintant, Tess Vidal, and Andrea Monte Warren.

The Actors' Gang 2018/19 season began on October 6th, with Johnny Got His Gun, and will conclude on June 22nd, 2019, with The Misadventures of Spike Spangle, Farmer (Formerly Violence), written by Adam Simon and Tim Robbins and directed by Bob Turton.

"With the Hellzapoppin Season, The Actors' Gang is excited to present eight plays with a defiant spirit and an affirmation of the power that exists in all of us to change the world," continued Tim Robbins. "The season includes three plays from Nobel Prize winning playwrights, new pieces developed by our company and satires that rip bare the hypocrisy of the powerful."

Other plays include Aphrodite's Holiday Show by Lee Margaret Hanson and Adam J. Jefferis, Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo, One Act Festival / The Classic - No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre and Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, One Act Festival / The Original - Tradition by James Edward Bane and A Perfect World by Lynde Houck, a return of The New Colossus by The Actors' Gang Ensemble and Tim Robbins and Free Shakespeare in the Park, adapted by Cynthia Ettinger, the company's co-artistic director. The "Johnny Got His Gun" poster features original artwork by Nate Kitch.

General tickets for Johnny Got His Gun, the first production of this season, are available for $34.99. Seniors may purchase $30.00 tickets, and young adults under 30 years of age and full-time students may purchase tickets for $25.00. On opening and closing night, tickets range from $34,99 to $50.00. Continuing The Actors' Gang mission to make theater accessible to all, all Thursday evenings throughout the 2018/19 Season are "Pay-What-You-Can." Tickets are available online at www.TheActorsGang.com and by phone by calling 310-838-4264.

Dalton Trumbo (1905 - 1976) is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter and novelist who wrote several classic films including Roman Holiday, Exodus, Spartacus, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and The Brave One. In 1947, Trumbo refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee during its investigation of communist influences in the motion picture industry, served 11 months in federal prison for contempt of Congress, and was subsequently blacklisted from working in Hollywood. Living in Mexico and writing under a pseudonym, Trumbo continued to write classic films, winning two Academy Awards while blacklisted. In 1960 he was publicly given screenwriting credit for his work on Exodus and Spartacus, effectively bringing an end to the ban on blacklisted artists in Hollywood.

Bradley Rand Smith is a writer and director. His other stage credits include Daughter, Theatricals, Mojave, Nocturn, Jazz Lives, and Blue Notes, while his screenplays include Blink, The Craftsman, Last Verdict and the 2008 film adaptation of Johnny Got His Gun.

For the past 36 years, Tim Robbins has served as Artistic Director for The Actors' Gang, a theater company formed in 1982 that has over 150 productions and more than 100 awards to their credit. Past productions with The Actors' Gang include: As Writer/Director - The New Colossus (2017-18), Harlequino On to Freedom (2017), Break the Whip (2010-11), Embedded (2003-4), Mayhem, the Invasion (1992), Carnage, A Comedy (1988-89), Violence, The Misadventures of Spike Spangle, Farmer (1987) and Alagazam (1986). As Director -A Midsummer Night's Dream (2012-16), Orwells' 1984 (2006-16), Mephisto (2001), The Good Woman of Setzuan (1991), Methusalem, the Eternal Bourgeois (1985), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1984), Ubu the King (1982); In addition to producing live theater throughout the year, The Actors' Gang provides arts education to thousands of Elementary, Middle and High School students working in 12 LA USD schools and in underserved communities in the L.A. area. Since 2006, The Actors' Gang's groundbreaking Prison Project provides theatrical workshops to incarcerated men and women in 12 California prisons.

As Actor, his credits include Here and Now, Marjorie Prime, The Brink, Mystic River, The Shawshank Redemption, The Player, Bull Durham and Jacob's Ladder. As a writer/director Dead Man Walking, The Cradle Will Rock, and Bob Roberts. Robbins has won the Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG Award, the Prix d'Interprétation Masculine at the Cannes Film Festival and the Officier de L'Ordre des Arts des Lettres from the Republic of France.

For tickets, please call 310-838-4264 or visit www.TheActorsGang.com/season-2018/19 to purchase tickets online or to view the complete 2018/19 Hellzapoppin Season schedule. The Actors' Gang Theater is located at The Ivy Substation at 9070 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA, 90232.

The Actors' Gang was founded in 1981 by a group of young actors looking to build a theater that would present relevant and vibrantly entertaining plays. Over the past 37 years, The Actors' Gang has performed for audiences in Los Angeles and throughout the world, on five continents and in 40 U.S. States. Our groundbreaking Prison Project is currently in twelve California prisons, serving incarcerated women, men and children with rehabilitation programs that significantly reduce the recidivism rate. Each year, thousands of children in Los Angeles public schools discover confidence and creativity with our Education Department through in-school immersion and after-school programs and by participating in classes that encourage acceptance, respect and team building in a fun and impactful way.

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

The Actors' Gang ensemble has included accomplished actors such as Jack Black, Lee Arenberg, John Cusack, John C. Reilly, Brent Hinkley, Helen Hunt, Kate Walsh, Kyle Gass, Fisher Stevens, Ned Bellamy, Jeremy Piven, Ebbe Roe Smith, Kate Mulligan, and Tim Robbins. The theater company has presented the work of innovative theater artists including Georges Bigot, Simon Abkarian, Charles Mee, Culture Clash, Bill Rauch and The Cornerstone Theatre Company, Tracy Young, Namaste Theater Company, Roger Guenver Smith, Eric Bogosian, Oskar Eustis, Danny Hoch, Beth Milles, David Schweizer, Brian Kulick, Stefan Haves, Jason Reed, Michael Schlitt and Tenacious D.

Guest artists that have appeared on The Actors' Gang stage include: Jackson Browne, Sarah Silverman, Ben Gibbard, John Doe, Tom Morello, Jenny Lewis, Wayne Kramer, Paul Provenza, Zooey Deschanel, Serj Tankian, David Crosby, Pink, Felicity Huffman, Jill Sobule, William H. Macy, Phillip Baker Hall, Jeanne Tripplehorn, T.C. Boyle. and the late, beloved, Gore Vidal.

Recent touring productions include Harlequino: On to Freedom, A Midsummer Night's Dream, George Orwell's 1984, The Exonerated, Tartuffe, Embedded, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine and The Guys. Over the last thirty years The Actors' Gang has toured the U.S. in forty-five states and on five continents, performing across the world from London to Milan, Bucharest, Athens, Madrid, Barcelona, Bogota, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Buenos Aires.

With our productions, educational outreach programs and tours, we strive to strengthen communities in a way that only the medium of theater can and contribute to the ongoing dialogue about our society and culture.

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