Based in Brooklyn, NY
Theater Company
Elevator Repair Service (ERS) creates original theater productions through a time-intensive collaboration among a tightly-knit group of actors, designers and director, John Collins. The ensemble's ongoing creative project is to translate text and media from non-dramatic sources into performances for intimate physical spaces. Since 1991, the company has made work from biographical and historical research and, more recently, from unabridged passages from literature. The ensemble's tools for this process include a combination of conventional and radically unconventional performance styles, choreography and experimental design. ERS is guided by a belief in the uniqueness of theater as a medium. In our work we look for innovative ways to exploit the unpredictable and revelatory experience of live performance.
Founded in 1991 by John Collins, Artistic Director. Born 1969, Chapel Hill, NC; lives in New York, NY
1991 B.A., Yale University
2008 The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928), premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop, New York, NY; also performed at Redcat, Los Angeles, CA
2006 No Great Society, premiered at Performance Space 122, New York, NY
2006 Gatz, premiered at the Kunsten Festival des Arts, Brussels, Belgium and the Walker Art Center; Minneapolis, MN; also performed in Amsterdam, Holland; Zurich, Switzerland; Bergen, Trondheim and Oslo, Norway; Vienna, Austria; Lisbon, Portugal; Philadelphia, PA; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Dublin, Ireland; Chicago, IL; Troy, NY
2002 Room Tone, premiered at Performance Space 122, New York, NY; remounted at the Ohio Theater, New York, NY; also performed at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; the Flynn Center for the Arts, Burlington, VT; Dance Place, Washington, D.C.
2000 Highway to Tomorrow, premiered and remounted at HERE Arts Center, New York, NY; also performed at the Wexner Center, Columbus, OH
1999 Language Instruction: Love Family vs. Andy Kaufman (revival), premiered at The Flea Theater, New York, NY
1998 Total Fictional Lie, premiered at Performance Space 122, New York, NY; also performed in Berlin, Germany; Houston, TX; Columbus, OH; Minneapolis, MN; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR
1998 CAB LEGS, premiered at Performance Space 122, New York, NY; also performed in Fribourg, Switzerland; Salzburg, Austria; Munster, Germany; Amsterdam, Holland; Brussels, Belgium; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Berlin, Germany
2006 Company-in-Residence, New York Theatre Workshop
2008 Recipient, Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant
2006 Zurich Theater Spektakel Acknowledgement Prize
2003 New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" Award for Visual Design
