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Elevator Repair Service, a theatre ensemble, was founded by director John Collins and a group of actors in 1991. Since that time, ERS has built a body of work that has earned it a loyal following and made it one of New York’s highly-acclaimed experimental theatre companies.
During its first 15 years, the company worked with found texts or improvised, anything that wasn't literature as director John Collins pointed out in an interview. These pieces included Language Instruction (1994), inspired by Andy Kaufman and "How To Speak Dutch" LP's; Cab Legs (1997), referencing Tennessee Williams; and Total Fictional Lie (1998), which drew on documentary films as its source material. On composing these early pieces, former ERS co-director Steve Bodow said, 'We like words or movement or sounds that go through a process of several translations. Sometimes it’s literal, from one language to another, sometimes it’s more metaphorical, from one medium to another.'
This has changed with the play Gatz, premiered in 2006, the first of a trilogy -although initially not planned as such- of plays based on American novels from the mid to late 1920s. The trilogy consists of the plays Gatz, The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928) and The Sun Also Rises (The Select). ERS have adapted these three plays in different ways. For the first play, Gatz, based on the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (first published 1925), ERS performed every word of the book in a production that lasted over six hours. The second play based on The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (first published 1929) and ERS staged a single chapter.
For the third play, based on The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (first published 1927), ERS created an edited version relying heavily on original dialogues but omitting most of the novel's prose.
The group's theatre pieces are built around a broad range of subject matter and literary forms. They combine elements of slapstick comedy, hi-tech and lo-tech design, both literary and found text, found objects and discarded furniture, and the group's own highly developed style of choreography. ERS creates its performances through extended periods of collaboration. Sources for the group's work include novels, non-fiction writings, films, plays, television programs, and various other media.
Each ERS piece is developed over the course of a season through several work-in-progress showings to small audiences and culminates in an extended run in New York. ERS’ first show was presented in December 1991, and since 1997, its work has toured the United States and Europe.
The company has performed at New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Performance Space 122, The Performing Garage, HERE, The Ontological at St. Mark's Church, The Flea, The Kitchen, and Soho Rep. Abroad, ERS performances have been presented in Holland, Belgium, Slovenia, Austria, Norway, Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Australia, Ireland, The United Kingdom and Singapore; and, in the United States, the ensemble has been presented in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Hanover (NH), Troy (NY), Columbus, Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston, Burlington, Washington D.C., Sarasota (FL) and Portland (OR).
ERS has received numerous awards including The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Theater Grant; the Theatre Communications Group's Peter Zeisler Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement; a Guggenheim Fellowship for artistic director John Collins; Eliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Director, Outstanding Visiting Production and Outstanding Actor; Lucille Lortel Awards for Alternative Theatrical Experience and Best Director; and an Obie for Performance.
138 South Oxford St, Suite 2D
Brooklyn NY 11217
Phone: (718) 783-1905
Fax: (718) 398-2794
info@elevator.org
Here are few videos reflect some of their work.