On 13 April 2026, TORCHES continues with a conversation with the award-winning director and founder and artistic director of Elevator Repair Service, one of the most acclaimed experimental theater companies in New York City.
John Collins is the founder and artistic director of Elevator Repair Service (ERS), a New York City-based ensemble that creates original works for live theatre. A native of Vidalia, Georgia, Collins graduated cum laude from Yale in 1991, with a B.A. in Theatre Studies and English Literature. Under Collins’ direction, Elevator Repair Service builds theatre performances from a variety of sources that include found text, amateur video, film, literature, and ensemble-generated choreography. Finished productions clash high-tech and low-tech design and mix disparate texts and forms to create live performances that are propelled by humor, narrative, pathos, and controlled chaos. ERS has cultivated a large following in New York and throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. As artistic director of ERS, John has directed or co-directed over seventy domestic and international productions of fifteen original full-length ERS works. Recent work includes Gatz (New York premiere at The Public Theater, 2010), The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928) (New York Theatre Workshop, 2008), and The Sun Also Rises (premiered at The Edinburgh International Festival in 2010).
