Elevator Repair Service (ERS)'s Ulysses begins its world premiere engagement June 20 as part of The Fisher Center at Bard College's SummerScape festival. Featuring James Joyce's complete, original text, the production is directed by ERS Artistic Director John Collins, with co-direction and dramaturgy by Scott Shepherd. Performances continue through July 14.
The cast features ERS ensemble members Dee Beasnael (7 Daughters of Eve), Kate Benson (Fondly, Collette Richland), Maggie Hoffman (Radiohole collective), Vin Knight (Gatz, The Select (The Sun Also Rises)) Scott Shepherd (Gatz), Christopher-Rashee Stevenson (Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge), and Stephanie Weeks (The Whitney Album).
"One of the reasons we like working with literature is because it gives us a big problem of form that we have to grapple with, while also coming with the gravity of these great novels," Collins said in an earlier statement. "We love trying to figure out what to do with this collision of theater and literature, and the challenge is a little different every time. I had always wanted us to take on something that was big and intimidating, something that would require a new and unique approach. I think I got my wish.”
The production features set design by dots, costume design by Enver Chakartash and Caleb Krieg, lighting design by Marika Kent and Matt Lazarus, sound design by Ben Williams, sound engineering by Gavin Price, projections by Matthew Deinhart and Alessandra Cronin, and props by Patrícia Marjorie and Ned Gaynor. The creative team also includes assistant director and stage manager Maurina Lioce, and assistant stage manager Kelsey Vivian. Hanna Novak of ERS serves as producer.
Daphne Gaines, April Matthis, and Mark Barton contributed to the development of ERS' Ulysses.
ERS is a New York City-based theatre company founded in 1991 whose shows are created from a wide range of texts, including transcripts of trials and debates, literature, classical dramas, and new plays. Previous literary works include verbatim stagings of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (set to make a final NYC encore run via The Public Theater later this year), William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
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