John Collins

Teaches at Elevator Repair Service Theater

John Collins is the Artistic Director and founder of Elevator Repair Service. Since 1991, he has directed or co-directed all of the company’s productions. Collins is the recipient of a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama and Performance Art and a 2011 United States Artists Donnelley Fellowship. In 2010, he 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 Measure for Measure at The Public Theater and The Select (The Sun Also Rises) at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, and at the New Zealand Festival. His writing about theater 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). Collins was born in North Carolina and raised in Georgia. He holds a combined degree in English Literature and Theater Studies from Yale.