It's been over a month since we took in Gatz, Elevator Repair Service's ingenious adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and we still can't stop thinking about it. So we rang up the show's understated star, Scott Shepherd, to talk about this enthralling production, which brings Fitzgerald's masterpiece to life in a completely unexpected way: by using all of the novel's 49,000 words. (Shepherd has each and every one of them memorized.) The eight hour experience (with a break for dinner and intermissions) begins modestly, when Shepherd enters a shabby office, discovers the book in his Rolodex, and begins reading aloud in a deliberately faltering voice. But as the reader's co-workers begin to file in, they gradually and ever-so-subtly begin to morph into the characters in the book, and in an almost imperceptible way, the story comes alive on a level that no naturalistic adaptation could achieve. more ›

Elevator Repair Service [ERS] is rightly regarded as one of New York’s most innovative theater companies. Led by Artistic Director John Collins, who moonlights as a sound designer for The Wooster Group, the ensemble creates irreverent, idiosyncratic performances that wrest free from the straightjacket of naturalism with an absurd humor and colorful physicality. more ›