James Joyce’s Ulysses has fascinated, perplexed, scandalized, and/or defeated readers for over a century. Building on a rich history of staging modernist works—Gatz, The Sound and the Fury, The Select (The Sun Also Rises)—Elevator Repair Service (ERS) takes on this Mount Everest of twentieth-century literature.

Elevator Repair Service (ERS) is a New York City–based company that creates original works for live theater with an ongoing ensemble. 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. Founded in 1991, ERS has created an extensive body of work that includes upwards of 20 original pieces. These have earned the company a loyal following and made it one of New York’s most highly acclaimed experimental theater companies. The company is best known for Gatz, its award-winning verbatim staging of the entire text of The Great Gatsby. ERS has received numerous awards and distinctions, including Lortel awards, a Bessie award, and an OBIE award for Sustained Excellence, as well as a Guggengheim Fellowship and Doris Duke Performing Artist Award for Artistic Director John Collins.

For their Penny Stamps event, Elevator Repair Service's John Collins and Scott Shepherd will discuss the founding of ERS, the arc of its work, the importance of literature as a cultural influence, and their upcoming performance, Ulysses, which will be staged as part of the University Musical Society’s 2024-25 season.

John Collins (Director) founded Elevator Repair Service in 1991. Since then he has directed or co-directed all of the company’s productions while also serving as the company’s Artistic Director. ERS productions directed by Collins include Cab Legs, Room Tone, Gatz, The Select (The Sun Also Rises), The Sound and the Fury, Arguendo, Measure for Measure, and numerous others. The company’s work, under his direction, has been seen in over a dozen countries as well as in cities across the U.S. John is an experienced sound designer and has worked for The Wooster Group, Richard Foreman, Target Margin Theater, and others. Recent projects include Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge, and a new adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship, and a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
Scott Shepherd (Performer, Co-Director, Dramaturg) has been a member of ERS since 1994, when he played a drunk passed out on a radiator in McGurk: A Cautionary Tale. Other ERS appearances include Measure for Measure; Gatz (Obie Award); No Great Society; Total Fictional Lie; Cab Legs; and Shut Up I Tell You. He has worked with The Wooster Group since 1997, playing Hamlet in Hamlet and other roles in The Town Hall Affair; Vieux Carré; Poor Theater (Obie Award); To You, The Birdie!; Brace Up!; and others. His screen credits include Killers of the Flower Moon, The Last of Us, First Cow, El Camino, True Detective, The Young Pope, and Bridge of Spies.

This event will be an interview conducted by Tom Sellar, a writer, editor, dramaturg and curator, editor of Yale’s international journal Theater, and professor in the Practice of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at Yale. Sellar’s arts writing and criticism has appeared in national publications including Artforum, BOMB, the New York Times, the Guardian, 4Columns, TheatreForum, and American Theatre.

Elevator Repair Service will perform Ulysses at the Power Center on October 19 at 7:30 p.m. and October 20 at 2 p.m. For more information and to order tickets, visit UMS.org.

Presented in partnership with University Musical Society. This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan.
Series presenting partners: Detroit PBS and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Radio.