Elevator Repair Service Premieres FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND Tonight at NYTW

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) presents the world premiere of a new play from its acclaimed Company-in-Residence Elevator Repair Service (The Sound and the Fury, The Select, Gatz) -- FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND -- opening tonight, September 28, 2015.

This new work, written by NYTW Usual Suspect Sibyl Kempson and directed by ERS Artistic Director John Collins, is performed by a cast of 12 ERS performers, and features Scenic and Costume Design by David Zinn, Lighting Design by Mark Barton, and Sound Design by Ben Williams. The play was commissioned in part by the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN) and had preview performances there in May 2013 under the title Fondly, Collette Richland.

Elevator Repair Service has been a NYTW Company-in-Residence since 2005. Companies-in-Residence receive support and resources from NYTW to further their growth and development. NYTW has previously presented the ERS works The Select, No Great Society and The Sound and the Fury.

A couple is at home in Middle America. After a visit from a stranger, they are mysteriously summoned to an Alpen holiday. Soon after, while at a hotel with an extended circle of eccentric acquaintances, they are set upon by dark forces. They return home to find everything has changed.

The play was commissioned by the Walker Art Center with support provided by the William and Nadine McGuire Commissioning Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Producers' Council members Leni and David Moore, Jr./The David & Leni Moore Family Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. It was developed with support from the Playwrights' Center, and at The Performing Garage, Abrons Art Center, and New York Theatre Workshop.

For tickets and more information, visit www.nytw.org.

John Collins (Director) founded Elevator Repair Service in 1991. Since then, he has directed or co-directed all of the company's productions. John is the recipient of a 2014 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art and a 2011 United States Artists Donnelley Fellowship. In 2010, John received the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Director and the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director for ERS' production of Gatz. Recent ERS projects include Arguendo at The Public Theater, The Select (The Sun Also Rises) at New York Theatre Workshop and Fondly, Collette Richland preview performances at the Walker Art Center. His writing about theatre and sound design can be found in two recently published books, Theatre Noise: The Sound of Performance (Cambridge Scholars, 2011) and Encountering Ensemble (Methuen Drama, 2013). John was born in North Carolina and raised in Georgia. He holds a combined degree in English Literature and Theater Studies from Yale.

Sibyl Kempson (Playwright). Sibyl Kempson's plays have been presented in NYC, Austin, Omaha, Minneapolis, Bonn, Germany and Baltimore. Current collaborators, along with Elevator Repair Service, include David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group (I Understand Everything Better), Sarah Benson (Kyckling and Screaming), Rude Mechs & Salvage Vanguard Theater (FROM THE PIG PILE: The Requisite Gesture(s) of Narrow Approach). She is a 2015 Artist-in-Residence at Abrons Arts Center, where her fledgling 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr Co. will present its first production Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag in April 2015. USA Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, McKnight National Residency and Commission, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Commission, New Dramatists/Full Stage USA commission, and a National Presenters Network Creation Fund Award; individual funding from Jerome and Greenwall Foundations; MacDowell Colony Fellow, member of New Dramatists ('17), NYTW Usual Suspect. MFA Brooklyn College. Sibyl teaches playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College. Her plays are published by 53rd State Press, PAJ, and PLAY: A Journal of Plays.

Elevator Repair Service is a New York City-based company that creates original works for live theater with an ongoing ensemble. Since its founding in 1991 by John Collins and a group of actors, ERS has built a body of work that has earned it a loyal following and made it one of New York's most highly-acclaimed experimental theater companies. Next up for ERS is a remount of their 2008 production, The Sound and the Fury, at the Public Theater in New York City, beginning previews May 14, 2015. Recently ERS has been touring Arguendo. After premiering at The Public Theater in September 2013, ERS brought Arguendo to the Wexner Center for the Arts, the '62 Center, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Z Space and REDCAT. Their work has been seen across America, Europe, Australia and Asia, and they have been the recipient of many awards including a 2012 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence; The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Theater Grant; the Theatre Communications Group's Peter Zeisler Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement; and (for Gatz) Elliot Norton Awards for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Visiting Production and Lucille Lortel Awards for Alternative Theatrical Experience and Best Director. ERS ensemble members have received OBIEs for Sustained Excellence in Performance, Lighting Design and Sound Design. For more information about ERS visit elevator.org.

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