This year, the Actors’ Gang heard the phrases that nobody wants to hear: “no money,” “economic downswing,” “reduced endowments,” “it’s best to not produce any plays this season.”

Artistic Director Tim Robbins responded with the first words — well, letters — that came to his mind: “WTF?!”

The Actors’ Gang, which has produced and performed numerous award-winning plays for more than 20 years, faced an unfortunate dilemma. How could a drama group renown for its theater ignore its artistic calling?

In response to recommendations that called for an empty season, the members of the Actors’ Gang rebelled. They decided to be proactive, to ignore the crippling effect of faltering outside funding that had already debilitated many independent performance groups.

Instead, inspired by the first words uttered by their artistic director, the ambitious inaugural “WTF?!” Festival was born — an event spanning two months, incorporating countless mediums and featuring numerous headliners.

From Oct. 13 until Dec. 19, the Actors’ Gang’s 99-seat theater will be home to a medley of performers, including Sarah Silverman, Tenacious D, Jackson Browne, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Gore Vidal. Robbins, who curates each event, envisioned a festival utilizing the support of both the Gang and outside artists. In doing so, the festival incorporates a remarkably eclectic mix of performance art; between talkbalks and documentary showings, there are live concerts, poetry slams, a vaudeville circus and even a Culver City-wide carol.

“I believe that our space can be much more than just a theater space,” Robbins said. “Most of [the performers] invited don’t have homes within Los Angeles … I’m looking at this as a way to not only open our door to new audiences but to open our doors to other groups in this economy that can’t afford to rent space.”

The festival is certainly an ambitious project. Primarily, it hopes to raise money for the group and for its many community outreach programs. Among the latter are the group’s arts curriculums in the Culver City School District, its summer family theater program, summer children’s theater and theater workshops in adult and juvenile correctional facilities.

Despite the Gang’s monetary aims, this festival still includes many chances for a broader community audience. Many of the events featuring well-known performers are crafted as fundraisers, but the festival’s free and low-cost events reflect the group’s underlying principle to do anything it can to serve the community.

“We want to make theater for everybody, not just for the people that can afford it,” Robbins said. “The survival of a community organization or arts group is not just in the money; it’s in the people coming to your doors.”

In many ways, the Actors’ Gang is lucky. Because of its big-name members and bigger-name support, it can find ways to endure and overcome a dwindling economy that tends to scapegoat art. Many theater companies are folding, countless individual venues are closing and some museums are even shutting its doors after years of community support. Robbins states that independent theater has to “find creative ways to survive in an economy like this,” but creativity is sometimes insufficient when support is already fickle and ephemeral.

In this “crap” economy — as Robbins puts it — art is disappearing from many societal spheres. Across the country, arts programs are waning in elementary, middle and even high schools to account for increasing budget cuts. Even summer camps focused on the arts for youth are being forced to increase their prices and reduce financial aid options. Television shows like Glee may be voicing the need for artistic and creative growth in every individual’s life, but art is deemed trivial and unnecessary when funds are cut and redistributed, Robbins said.

“It’s a real shame. There’s a direct connection between creative thinking and arts programs. It’s not enough just to teach math and science and English; you have to involve other parts of the brain. It’s a lack of vision in our educators.”

Though the Actors’ Gang is not the first to experience economic whiplash, its response to this universal problem is unique. In the face of an economic crisis that ostracizes long-established donors and condenses already slim governmental and educational grants, this festival will open its doors to outside artists, friends and potential new audiences in an attempt to ride out the economic drought.

Beyond the aspirations of the festival are concrete plans for the Gang — currently, a few members are touring Spain performing an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984, and the Gang is also preparing for a major production in January — but the next two months, its hopes are placed on the stage of the Ivy Substation.

“Part of the theme of the festival is to reach new audiences,” Robbins said. “To make them aware of the company and the work we do and hopefully in doing so, create an experience that will make them come back to theater.”