Tim Robbins

And I was to play a gang member.

And it was, you know, this kind of satire about what was going on in New York City at the time.

And I found myself acting on the streets of New York.

And what that meant was that they would pack a truck with four 4x8 platforms raised up about two feet, which was the stage, a couple iron bars that held a backdrop, and a truck that had all the costumes in it.

So we would go to a different neighborhood every Saturday and Sunday in the month of August.

and uh set up our stage uh set up an audience area do a little parade in the neighborhood to get more audience and then do this play for 45 minutes to an hour what was the reception like do you remember how people received you well you have to understand most of these people are seeing theater for the very first time we're not going to wealthy neighborhoods we're going to you know all kinds of neighborhoods in new york and uh

The reception was always great.

One thing those audiences didn't have was the filter that you learn when you go to theater a lot.

So there was an awful lot of talking back.

Yeah, which is great.

And by the way, you learn very quickly that...

That's a reality you have to deal with.

Not only that reality, you have to deal with mama up before flights yelling for her kids, or someone yelling, or some guy that's drugged out who's just wandering onto the stage all of a sudden, and he's there, and it's like, oh, what's he doing?

We had one scene where George Metenyev, this actor, plays this guy named Dogfiend, and he's a thief.

and he grabs one of the characters on stage's purse and runs away, right?

And we had three guys chasing him.

He's running faster than I've ever seen him run.

He comes backstage and we're all like, no, no, it's just the play, it's just the play.

They were ready to kick his ass, it was so funny.

Yes.