Fisher Center LAB presents
Fisher Center LAB Commission/World Premiere
Created by Elevator Repair Service
Directed by John Collins
Co-Direction and Dramaturgy by Scott Shepherd
Text: Ulysses by James Joyce
September 21 – October 1, 2023
Due to extenuating circumstances, the following performances of Ulysses have been canceled:
• Saturday, September 23 at 8 pm*
• Sunday, September 24 at 3 pm
• Thursday, September 28 at 8 pm
• Friday, September 29 at 8 pm
• Saturday, September 30 at 2 pm
• Saturday, September 30 at 8 pm
• Sunday, October 1 at 3 pm
*The after-party following Saturday evening’s performance has also been canceled.
If you have tickets to any of these performances, we have canceled and refunded your tickets. Members of the Box Office Team will contact you directly to process your refund if we do not have payment information on file.
We apologize for this inconvenience. If you have any questions, please contact 845-758-7900, or email boxoffice@bard.edu.
James Joyce’s Ulysses has fascinated, perplexed, scandalized, and/or defeated readers for over a century. Building on a rich history of staging modernist works—Gatz, The Sound and the Fury, The Select (The Sun Also Rises)—Elevator Repair Service (ERS) takes on this Mount Everest of twentieth-century literature in their Fisher Center debut. Seven performers sit down for a sober reading but soon find themselves guzzling pints, getting in brawls, and committing debaucheries as they careen on a fast-forward tour through Joyce’s funhouse of styles. With madcap antics and a densely layered sound design, ERS presents an eclectic sampling from Joyce’s life-affirming masterpiece.
Photo © 2022 Kevin Yatarola for Symphony Space
Performers
Dee Beasnael, Kate Benson*, Maggie Hoffman, Vin Knight*, Scott Shepherd, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, Stephanie Weeks*
Scenic Design dots
Costume Design Enver Chakartash
Lighting Design Marika Kent
Sound Design Ben Williams
Projection Design Matthew Deinhart
Properties Design Patricia Marjorie
Assistant Costume Design Caleb Krieg
Assistant Lighting Design Matt Lazarus
Assistant Projection DesignAlessandra Cronin
Assistant Properties Design Ned Cían Gaynor
Assistant Director and Stage Manager Maurina Lioce
Producer Hanna Novak
Production Manager Aaron Amodt
Sound Engineer Gavin Price
Assistant Stage Manager Jack Ganguly*
Company Manager Becky Hermenze
Teleprompter and Clock Software by Scott Shepherd
*Actors’ Equity Association (“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions, and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions.
Characters in Ulysses by Performer (an abridged list, in order of appearance)
Dee Beasnael
Armstrong, Milly Bloom, Martin Cunningham, Boody Dedalus, Dilly Dedalus, Miss Kennedy, newborn baby, Alexander J. Dowie, Florry
Kate Benson
Haines, Simon Dedalus, Myles Crawford, Maggie Dedalus, Lenehan, the citizen, Dr Madden, Zoe
Maggie Hoffman
Molly Bloom, Lenehan, Miss Douce, Ned, Alf, Gerty McDowell, Punch Costello, Dr Dixon, Rudy Bloom
Vin Knight
Mr Deasy, Leopold Bloom
Scott Shepherd
Buck Mulligan, Blazes Boylan, Mr Nannetti, onelegged sailor, Almidano Artifoni, redheaded sailor
Christopher-Rashee Stevenson
Stephen Dedalus, the cat, Lenehan, Joe Hynes
Stephanie Weeks
Martha, Mr Power, Nosey Flynn, Russell, Father Conmee, Katey Dedalus, Miss Dunne, John Wyse Nolan, blind stripling, Dr Punch Costello, Mrs Thornton, Stephen’s mother
Before or after joining us at Elevator Repair Service’s Ulysses, explore the Ulysses Guide—a resource for readers of James Joyce’s novel, including background info, individual episode guides, photographs, maps, and other helpful resources.
“Not even Elevator Repair Service, the venerable experimental troupe best known for ‘Gatz,’ a marathon-length enactment of the full text of ‘The Great Gatsby,’ is heedless enough to stage the whole of James Joyce’s run-on, epic masterwork about Leopold Bloom’s daylong odyssey through Dublin. Directed by John Collins, the company’s artistic director, this world-premiere production instead samples chunks from each of the novel’s 18 episodes, letting them erupt in all their verbosity, vulgarity, vivacity and—it is Joyce, after all—opacity. Co-directed by Scott Shepherd, who is also part of the seven-actor ensemble, it has an entirely reasonable projected running time: two hours and 15 minutes.”—Laura Collins-Hughes for The New York Times
“A heroic company that dares to venture into literary realms.”—New York Times
Elevator Repair Service (ERS) is a New York City–based company that creates original works for live theater with an ongoing ensemble. The company’s shows are created from a wide range of texts that include found transcripts of trials and debates, literature, classical dramas, and new plays. Founded in 1991, ERS has created an extensive body of work that includes upwards of 20 original pieces. These have earned the company a loyal following and made it one of New York’s most highly acclaimed experimental theater companies. The company is best known for Gatz, its award-winning verbatim staging of the entire text of The Great Gatsby. ERS has received numerous awards and distinctions, including Lortel awards, a Bessie award, and an OBIE award for Sustained Excellence, as well as a Guggengheim Fellowship and Doris Duke Performing Artist Award for Artistic Director John Collins.
Ulysses is cocommissioned by and was developed, in part, at Symphony Space.
This performance is made possible, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Elevator Repair Service is also supported with funds from The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Howard Gilman Foundation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, Jockey Hollow Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, The New York Community Trust, The O’Grady Foundation, Scherman Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation.
Elevator Repair Service is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York.
Nearby villages and towns in the Hudson Valley boast a large selection of restaurants, as well as a variety of hotels, motels, inns, and bed & breakfasts.
Eat & StayBard College’s main campus is located in Annandale-on-Hudson (a hamlet of Red Hook), New York, on the east bank of the Hudson River, about 90 miles north of New York City and 220 miles southwest of Boston. The Taconic State Parkway and the New York State Thruway provide the most direct routes to our campus. Click the Google map below, or get directions by entering the following address into your GPS: 60 Manor Avenue, Red Hook, NY 12571.
From the East
If you are traveling from east of the Hudson River in New York State, take the Taconic State Parkway to the Red Hook / Route 199 exit, drive west on Route 199 through the village of Red Hook to Route 9G, turn right onto Route 9G, drive north 1.9 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
From the West
If you are traveling from west of the Hudson River, take the New York State Thruway (I-87) to exit 19 (Kingston), take Route 209 (changes to Route 199 at the Hudson River) over the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge to Route 9G, turn left onto Route 9G, drive north 3.5 miles, turn left onto Annandale Road, then turn right onto Manor Ave.
LUMA Theater
Accessible Seating
Wheelchair-accessible seating is available at all performances. Due to the flexible nature of this performance space, wheelchair seating varies for each production.
Wheelchair-Accessible Restrooms
Restrooms at all locations are wheelchair accessible. Single-use restrooms are available at most locations.
All-Gender Restrooms
Bard College and the Fisher Center support guests of any gender identity/expression in using the restroom of their choice. Additionally, all-gender restrooms are available at all venues.
Our driving principle is to operate with a duty of care for all our community—artists, audiences, and staff alike.
In order to share performances with as many audience members as possible, we ask that you read our Health and Safety Protocols on the FAQs page and commit to participating in our community of care.
Read the FAQs and Safety Protocols
