New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that The Select (The Sun Also Rises), created by Elevator Repair Service (ERS) based on Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, and directed by John Collins, will begin performances Friday, August 19 at 7pm, at NYTW, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. Opening night is scheduled for Sunday, September 11 at 7:00pm. The production runs through October 9, 2011.
Last fall
Elevator Repair Service electrified audiences with the triumphant GATZ, based on
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and their interpretation of The Sound and the Fury was critically acclaimed when it debuted at NYTW in 2008. The 2011-2012 season begins with the long-awaited return of ERS to New York Theatre Workshop with the final chapter in their trilogy of classic American literature. The Select (The Sun Also Rises) presents a fresh take on
Ernest Hemingway's tale of young expatriates living in early 20th century Europe in which journalist Jake Barnes, his former lover Lady Brett Ashley, and the writer
Robert Cohn cope with post-war realities and enter the "age of anxiety" following the end World War I.
Elevator Repair Service is a New York City-based ensemble that creates original theater pieces. ERS was founded by director
John Collins in 1991 and has since created an extensive body of work that includes full-length productions and short dramatic pieces. These have been seen all over the world and have garnered awards and accolades in Europe, Australia and the United States. The company builds its work from a variety of sources that include found text, video, film, literature and ensemble-generated choreography. Finished productions clash hi-tech and low-tech design and mix disparate texts and forms to create live performances that are propelled by narrative, humor, pathos and controlled chaos. Since its inception in the early 1990s, ERS has cultivated a large following in New York, around the U.S. and abroad. Its award-winning shows have influenced generations of theater-makers. ERS is a Company-in-Residence at New York Theatre Workshop.
John Collins is the founder of ERS and has been the director/co-director for all of the company's shows. From 1993 to 2006, he worked for The
Wooster Group as a sound designer (two Drama Desk nominations and two Bessie Awards). As a lighting designer, he won a Bessie Award for his design of ERS's Room Tone. John is the recipient of the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art, the
Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director for Gatz at
American Repertory Theatre and the 2011
Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director for Gatz. John was born in North Carolina and raised in Vidalia, Georgia. He holds a B.A. in English and Theater Studies from Yale.
Set and costume design is by
David Zinn; lighting design is by
Mark Barton; sound design is by
Matt Tierney and
Ben Williams.
New York Theatre Workshop, now celebrating its 30th season, is a leading voice in the world of Off-Broadway and within the theatre community in New York and around the world. NYTW has emerged as a premiere incubator of important new theatre, honoring its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape our lives. In addition, NYTW is known for its innovative adaptations of classic repertory. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village neighborhood, NYTW presents three to five new productions, over 80 readings, and numerous workshop productions, for over 45,000 audience members. Over the past 29 years, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including
Jonathan Larson's Rent,
Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul,
Doug Wright's Quills,
Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde,
Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, and
Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number,
Jessica Blank and
Erik Jensen's Aftermath and
Rick Elice's Peter and The Starcatcher. The 2002 remounting of
Martha Clarke's seminal work Vienna: Lusthaus and subsequent American tour was one of the longest-running productions in NYTW's history. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies, and minority artist fellowships. In 1991, NYTW received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement and in 2000 was designated to be part of the Leading National Theatres Program by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Select (The Sun Also Rises) plays at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. The regular performance schedule is Tuesday through Saturday at 7:00pm; Sunday at 1:00pm and 7:00pm. There will be additional performances on September 17 and a special student matinee on Wednesday, September 28 at 12:00pm. The Select (The Sun Also Rises)runs through Sunday, October 9, 2011. Tickets start at $70 and may be purchased online at www.ticketcentral.com, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or by phoning Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200. For exact dates and times of performance, visit
www.nytw.org.
AfterWords post-performance audience discussions will follow the Wednesday, August 31; Tuesday, September 6, and Tuesday, September 20, 7pm performances.
A special open captioned performance of The Select (The Sun Also Rises) for theatergoers who are deaf and hard of hearing will be held on the Sunday, August 28 matinee at 1:00pm. Funding for this program is provided, in part, by the
Theatre Development Fund's TAP Plus program in cooperation with the New York State Council on the Arts.
NYTW is pleased to make theatre accessible to everyone with its $20 CheapTix Sundays program. A dedicated number of tickets for Sunday evening performances at 7:00pm can be purchased in person at the NYTW Box Office for only $20. Tickets may be purchased in advance, payable in cash only and are available to all audience members.
NYTW also has $25 student tickets available for all performances. Student tickets may be purchased in advance from the NYTW Box Office with valid student identification.
In addition, NYTW offers discount ticket prices for adult and student groups of 10 or more. Please contact Group Sales at rebekahp@nytw.org.
The NYTW Box office is open 1:00pm to 6:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday.
New York Theatre Workshop receives public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Lead support for NYTW productions is provided by the Fund for the City of New York/Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the
Tony Randall Theatrical Fund, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and The Shubert Foundation.
The Select (The Sun Also Rises) is a co-production of
Elevator Repair Service and New York Theatre Workshop. It was commissioned by the Ringling International Arts Festival, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, in association with the Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY; the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival with funding from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative; ArtsEmerson: the World on Stage, Boston, MA; and Festival Theaterformen Hannover/Braunschweig.
