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Elevator Repair Service, a theater ensemble, was founded by director John Collins and a group of actors in 1991. Since that time, 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 of the past 20 years.

The group's theater pieces are built around a broad range of subject matter and literary forms. They combine elements of slapstick comedy, hi-tech and lo-tech design, both literary and found text, found objects and discarded furniture, and the group's own highly developed style of choreography.

ERS creates its performances through extended periods of collaboration. Sources for the group's work include novels, non-fiction writings, films, plays, television programs, and various other media. Each ERS piece is developed over the course of a season through several work-in-progress showings to small audiences and culminates in an extended run in New York. ERS’ first show was presented in December 1991 and since 1997, its work has toured the United States and Europe.

ERS has been seen all over downtown New York and has cultivated a loyal – and growing – following. The company has performed at Performance Space 122, The Performing Garage, HERE, The Ontological at St. Mark's Church, The Flea, The Kitchen, Soho Rep and New York Theatre Workshop. Abroad, ERS performances have been presented in Holland, Belgium, Slovenia, Austria, Norway, Germany, France, Portugal and Switzerland; and, in the United States, the ensemble has been presented in Philadelphia, Chicago, Hanover (NH), Troy (NY), Columbus, Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston, Burlington, Washington D.C., Sarasota (FL) and Portland (OR). In 2009, ERS was awarded the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Theater Grant, as well as the Theatre Communications Group's Peter Zeisler Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement.

The company has steadily built a diverse audience since its inception and has earned near-universal praise from the press along the way. ERS’ best-known piece is 2005’s Gatz, which will continue to tour the world through 2010. This marathon presentation of the entire text of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has been called “thrillingly theatrical and moving” by The New York Times and “a revelatory and exuberant experience” by Variety, and was nominated for Australia's prestigious Helpmann Award for Best Play during its 2009 run at the Sydney Opera House.Gatz, which is still awaiting permission from the Fitzgerald estate to be performed in New York, has propelled ERS to a new level of visibility and acclaim.

The follow-up to Gatz, The Sound and The Fury (April Seventh, 1928), premiered in 2008 at New York Theatre Workshop. A daring presentation of “the Benjy chapter” of Faulkner’s notorious novel, The Sound and The Fury played to sold-out houses in an extended run in New York. Ben Brantley of The New York Times called it “a magical opportunity” and Hilton Als of The New Yorker called it “a great work . . . suffused with an innocence one rarely glimpses in a contemporary work of art.” The Sound and The Fury (April Seventh, 1928) was nominated for 2009 Lucille Awards for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Sound Design (Matt Tierney), and has an extensive touring itinerary through 2010.

ERS is and has been supported with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. The company is and has also been supported with funds from the Edward T. Cone Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, the Alliance of Resident Theaters-N.Y., the J.P. Morgan-Chase Fund for Small Theatres, The Edith Lutyens and Norman Bel Geddes Foundation, Altria Group, Inc., the Mental Insight Foundation, Off-Broadway Angels, 
the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program, a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Theatre Initiative, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.