Tim Robbins: My dream was never a movie

Tim Robbins, best known to Chinese audiences for his starring role in the all-time classic "Shawshank Redemption," appeared in Shanghai these days. He was, this time, the founder, artistic director and director of the Actors Class Theater Company in Los Angeles. After his run at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, he brought Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which he directed, to Shanghai, where it will be performed for three sold-out performances starting tonight.

Delivering pizzas to pay his way through school

He won the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Globe for his vivid performance as an amoral movie mogul in 1992's Big Player. He won the best supporting Actor Oscar at the 76th Academy Awards in 2004 for his role in Mystic River.

Robbins is also one of Hollywood's few all-rounders who can write, direct and act. In 1992, he wrote, directed and starred in Born to Win, a film about the inside story of a Senate campaign, and sang the interlude. His second film, Death Row Walk, in 1995, earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Director in 1996 and won four awards at the Berlin Film Festival that year.

Despite his success in the film industry, Tim Robbins has always considered himself a theater man. As early as age 12, Robbins joined his high school theater group. At the time, his sister was working in a theater on Broadway in New York. While watching his sister work, Robbins was approached by a theater executive to play a street punk in a play. That year, he made his theatrical debut. Two years later, Robbins tried his hand at stage directing. After a brief stint at the State University of New York, he transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied theater by delivering pizzas and delivering bus schedules.

"New York in the '60s and' 70s was so open and liberal," Robbins says with a wistful smile. "Theater was so focused on social issues, and the idea was that theater was a tool that could change society." However, Robbins felt a sense of loss after moving from New York to California. "When I was at UCLA, the school was more focused on traditional mainstream theater like musicals, which was very different from the diverse theater culture in New York. Luckily, I met some naughty classmates there who would also enjoy unconventional, avant-garde experimental theater."

So in the early 1980s, after graduating from college, Tim Robbins and like-minded alumni staged the French playwright's "King Ubud," which showed the darkest parts of human nature. Robbins led them to form The Actors'Gang in Los Angeles in 1981.

There's only been one show in 33 years that needed a couch

In 33 years, neither the Hollywood red carpet applause nor the celebrity halo stopped Robbins' initial dream of theater. But in the early years of forming the troupe, although they had a lot of ideas, they still clearly felt the lack of methods, especially the method of actor training.

In 1984, when Los Angeles hosted the Olympic Games, artists from around the world gathered to perform and exchange arts. One of them was the French Sunshine Theater Company, whose artistic director, Ariane Mnouchkine, deeply influenced Robbins and his company.

After the show, one of Sunshine's leading men stayed in Los Angeles to give several workshops to members of the "Actors Class," training actors in Italian improvisational comedy. Robbins, who already had a lot of acting experience in movies and TV shows, was confident, but several times he was quickly pushed off the stage by teachers. Robbins was puzzled to discover that one of his classmates had not been kicked off the stage, and at that moment he suddenly understood what was most important in a theater performance: "the state of being 100 percent committed." It was at that stage that Robbins got a sense of the relationship between the audience and the performers from these theater people: "The audience may have tried their best to buy a ticket and may not even have the money to take the bus and walk to your show, so you have to do your best to respect the audience."

After that, Robbins began experimenting with this method for training actors, and his own film and television performances began to follow it. "In this way, I can discover a more real world." He also began to constantly observe the eyes of people around him. "Behind many people's eyes, there is often a very interesting human story."

At the height of his career, Robbins still asked his agent to give him four months a year to write and act in plays. "So my agent is always having a hard time with me."

For 33 years, Robbins and his company have averaged 120 to 150 shows a year in Los Angeles and around the world, and produced three to six new plays a year. Charity performances are an important part of this, and they want to bring theatre to everyone who wants to see it, not just the rich. One day a week in Los Angeles, the Actors Class theater company performs a "pay what you can" special, "Pay what you are willing to pay."

The Actors' Troupe has also stuck to its original non-realist style and ideals: "We're very proud that in the last 30 years or so we've only staged one play that required a sofa, and almost every American realist play has a sofa."

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" had a budget of only $3,000

Last year, Actors Class was one of many nonprofits in the United States that were struggling with the economic crisis. The company had to find new ways to survive as a result of a massive cut in sponsorship. This time, the troupe is making its first trip to China with a cast of 14 actors, which Robbins laughs is a kind of recognition.

"It's one of my favourite Shakespearean plays, and it ends with a beautiful blessing for all the children yet to be born," Robbins said of the production.

Yet "A Midsummer Night's Dream" had a surprisingly small budget, costing less than $3,000 from the beginning to the end. Robbins' "poverty play" has hardly any stage sets or even costumes, and the actors use their bodies to play everything. It was only with a slightly larger budget this time around that Robbins added simple props and costumes for the forest setting. "In fact, I hope to inspire young artists to know that budget is not the most important thing, but to make theatre with like-minded people who share a common belief." "Robbins said.

In Los Angeles, a stone's throw from Hollywood vanity fair, Robbins confesses: "My dream was never a movie. I know many successful filmmakers who are unhappy because they have lost the power to face the audience and communicate and express themselves. I also know a lot of theater people who will never be 'famous,' who have been performing in their communities for decades, but who are happy doing their favorite play. I think what matters is what you feel in your soul, and if you love drama in your heart, you will get happiness from it. You have to ask yourself if it's going to hurt if you don't do it, and if it does, then do it."

"I have never thought of anything that has made me feel more happy and joyful in my soul than theater." Robbins, who took the company to China for the first time, said he hopes to explore more opportunities in the future. "If it's just about making money, theater is not a good choice," he said.