CHOREOGRAPHY + TEXT: TRANSLATING SOURCE MATERIAL INTO PERFORMANCE

Led by Artistic Director John Collins, four members of the ensemble, Victoria Vazquez, Katherine Profeta, Ben Williams, and Mike Iveson will conduct the master class. The class will begin with a short lecture/video demonstration about the company’s work by John Collins. The ensemble members will then talk about ERS’ use of text, dance, found video and other found materials and the different working methods the company uses to create original performance. After showing some of the source material for a finished dance from its current show at NYTW, The Select (The Sun Also Rises), the company will teach the dance to the workshop participants.
The participants will be split into smaller groups. Each group will be given a piece of text, a piece of music and several found objects. The groups will be asked to create scenes incorporating these elements and the learned choreography. An ensemble member will lead each group.

The weekend will include a presentation, discussion and revisions of the material generated as well as a wrap-up discussion about making ensemble work in New York City

Previous theatre experience is not required for admittance into the class. Anyone who is interested in experiencing ERS’ methodology for creating original theater pieces in a hands-on, participatory workshop should apply.

Photos by Rob Strong
Tuition for this class is $175

Application deadline is October 7th. Class will be limited to 20 participants. Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. Payment information is required upon application; however, your credit card will not be charged/your check will not be deposited until you have been accepted into the class and have confirmed your participation. After your payment has been processed, tuition is non-refundable and non-transferrable. If you have questions or would like to speak to someone about whether this class is right for you, please call 212-780-9037.

Class will be held on Saturday, January 21 (10am-5pm) and continue on Sunday, January 22 (10am-1pm) at
New York Theatre Workshop, 83 E. 4th Street, 3rd Floor Rehearsal Room. This space is NOT wheelchair accessible.
 
This class is currently full.
To be put on a mailing list to receive information about
upcoming classes, please email classes@nytw.org


About the Instructors:

John Collins founded Elevator Repair Service (ERS) in 1991. Since then, he has directed or co-directed 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' Room Tone. John is the recipient of a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art and also in 2010 received the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director for Gatz at American Repertory Theatre. John was born in North Carolina and raised in Vidalia, Georgia. He holds a degree in English and Theater Studies from Yale.

Mike Iveson’s credits include: Off-Broadway: Gatz (ERS/The Public Theater, A.R.T., Sydney Opera House and world tour); The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928) (ERS/New York Theatre Workshop and world tour); Crime or Emergency (Soho Rep & P.S.122); Dot (Clubbed Thumb/Ohio Theatre). Regional/national tours: The Select (The Sun Also Rises) (ERS/Edinburgh International Festival, Philadelphia Live Arts); plus tours with Sarah Michelson, Sibyl Kempson, New York City Players, Dancenoise and many others. B.A. in Theatre from Oberlin College.

Katherine Profeta is a founding member and choreographer of ERS. She is also a dramaturg with a DFA from Yale, and an Assistant Professor at Queens College's Department of Drama, Theater and Dance. ERS: all productions in some capacity large or small except Gatz. Other work includes 131 (director/choreographer, PS 122), King John (dramaturg, Theatre for a New Audience), The Geography Trilogy and How Can You Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere? (dramaturg, Brooklyn Academy of Music).

Ben Williams, a native of Culleoka, Tenn., has worked for ERS as an actor, sound designer, technical director, and production manager since 2004. Credits with ERS: The Select (The Sun Also Rises), The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928), No Great Society and Gatz. Recent projects include: Walse-Fantasie, a solo dance for Mikhail Baryshnikov (voice-over); Vision Disturbance with NYCPlayers (sound); and the Summer Institute at the Performing Garage (Sound, TD).

Victoria Vazquez has been a member of ERS since 1996. With ERS she has performed in Cab Legs, Total Fictional Lie, The Sound and the Fury (April 7th, 1928) and Gatz. Vazquez has also performed in Das Maedchen, People Without History and Caveman (with Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players), and Pullman, WA (Young Jean Lee) among many others. She has presented two original theater works in New York: Wrestling Ladies (Creative Capital Foundation Grant) and The Florida Project, both at PS 122. She is a teaching artist for Creative Capital's Professional Development Program, The Kitchen's program at Liberty High School, New York Theatre Workshop and The Wooster Group's Summer Institute.

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 a generation of theater-makers. ERS is a Company-in-Residence at New York Theatre Workshop.