Tim Robbins

No, we don't do productions.

We go into the prison system and teach classes.

The aim is to work in the way that we work at the Actors' Gang.

When we're workshopping, we use the Commedia dell'arte.

The reason we use it is because we want to free people of the idea that they have to create a character out of a whole cloth.

So you go to one of those characters, and then the more important part of the work is you have access to four different emotions.

And you have to choose one of them when you come onto stage.

And those emotions are happiness, sadness, anger, and fear.

That's it.

So make a choice when you come on stage of one of those emotions in the character that you are playing.

And when I took this training in 1984, I couldn't get on stage.

I was already a working actor, and there was this French actor named Georges Bigot from the Théâtre du Soleil that just performed in the Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles.

And there were this big sensation, and he was running this workshop, and I wanted to take it, right?

And he would not let me on stage.

He'd yell at me.

He said, get off, get off, get off.

And I couldn't figure it out, and I got really frustrated.

And then I saw this one actor make an entrance,

and I understood what George was talking about.

This total theater, from the moment you come on stage, an image, a character, an emotion, and an urgency, and an importance to tell this story.