Elevator Repair Service Theater

Elevator Repair Service (ERS) is a New York City-based experimental theater ensemble founded in 1991 by Artistic Director John Collins. The company’s shows are created from a wide range of texts that include found transcripts of trials and debates, literature, classical dramas, and new plays. Since 1991, ERS has created an extensive body of work, including over 20 original theater pieces across dozens of productions in the United States, Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. The recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, ERS has cultivated a large audience at home and abroad. With numerous honors and distinctions, the ensemble is one of New York’s most highly-acclaimed theater groups.

The company’s best-known work Gatz (2010), an eight-hour verbatim staging of The Great Gatsby set in a mysterious low-rent office, is frequently cited as a landmark work of contemporary performance. Having created critically acclaimed adaptations of The Great Gatsby, The Sound and The Fury, and The Sun Also Rises, the ensemble’s work in 20th-century modernist literature has been a hallmark of its over 30 year career. ERS most recently added James Joyce’s Ulysses to its list of great novels brought to life onstage.

ERS’s pieces are created through extended periods of collaboration with an ongoing ensemble. The actors, designers, stage manager and director all contribute to the creative process through the development of each piece. The ERS ensemble – actors, designers and administrators – includes over fifty artists, a collaborative administrative full-time staff of five, and a 16-member Board of Directors.

ERS is currently developing its next major work over the course of the 2026-2027 season in residence at The Public Theater, with a presentation of this finished piece anticipated in 2027.