Scott Shepherd, star of Elevator Repair Service’s production of GATZ, which opens at the A.R.T. on January 7, 2010, will be at Border’s Bookstore to talk about the production created by his company on Tuesday, January 12 at 1pm.
Shepherd has the entire novel committed to memory, performing his role as the reader/ narrator Nick Caraway. Attendees of the event will have the opportunity to test Mr. Shepherd’s knowledge of the book.
GATZ is an ambitious, audacious, and accessible theatrical tour de force, an interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic The Great Gatsby. Transforming a literary masterpiece into an intoxicating six-hour theatrical experience -during which every word of the book is spoken- the celebrated New York-based theater company Elevator Repair Service brings the written word to life. Inside a run-down office, workers, supervisors, and visitors mysteriously assume the roles of Fitzgeralds characters. A remarkable ensemble of 13 actors draws the audience into a powerful, provocative, and verbally sumptuous world caught between the past and present. Gatz begins one morning in the low-rent office of a mysterious small business when an employee finds a ragged old copy of The Great Gatsby in the clutter of his desk and starts to read it out loud. And doesn’t stop.
At first his coworkers hardly seem to notice, but then strange coincidences start happening in the office, one after another, until its no longer clear whether hes reading the book or the book is doing something to him.
Scott Shepherd grew up in the suburbs of Charleston, SC and Atlanta, GA and graduated from Brown University in 1990. He joined ERS in 1994. His credits with ERS include McGurk: A Cautionary Tale; Shut Up I Tell You (I Said Shut Up I Tell You); Cab Legs; Total Fictional Lie; Gatz; No Great Society; The Sun Also Rises. He was also a member of the renowned The
Wooster Group, where he appeared in The Hairy Ape; North Atlantic; To You, The Birdie!; Brace Up!; Poor Theater (receiving a Bessie and an Obie award); The Emperor Jones; Hamlet; La Didone; and Vieux Carré. This is his first appearance on a Boston stage.
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 highly acclaimed work and has appeared on stages in downtown New York and across the U.S. and Europe. ERS shows are built around a broad range of subject matter including literary, dramatic and cinematic forms. They
combine elements of hi-tech and lo-tech design, vaudeville, both literary and found text, found objects and discarded furniture and the group’s own highly developed style of choreography. The company has generated a repertoire that includes 14 original full-length pieces and several short pieces and workshop productions. ERS is the recipient of the 2009 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Theater Grant, TCGs 2009 Peter Zeisler Memorial Awars for Outstanding Achievement. The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928) was nominated for the 2009 Lucille Awards for Outstanding Play and Outstanding Sound Design. During its run at the Sydney Opera House, Gatz was nominated for Australias prestigious Helpmann Award for Best Play.
IN PHOTO: Scott Shepherd and his book. Credit: A.R.T.
For more information go to http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/gatz
