Elevator Repair Service is a New York theatrical production company. Their current show The Select (The Sun Also Rises) is at the O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College until Sunday

What is the best production you have been in or worked on?
There’s no way to answer that question honestly since the list is changing all the time. Among the shows that I’ve done with ERS, certainly the three novel adaptations hold a special place, with Gatz [the others are The Select and The Sound and the Fury] holding pride of place if only because it has taken us all over the world. It’s possible that the best work I ever did was a production of Gertrude Stein’s Photograph in college, and that it’s been all downhill since then. Almost always, my favorite show is the next one.
- Mark Barton, lighting designer

What is the best production you have been to? It’s an impossible question, but three of the top are Berliner Ensemble’s production of Arturo Ui directed by Heiner Mueller, Banana Bag and Bodice’s Animal or Sandwich, and Tadeusz Kantor’s Wielopol! Wielopol!
- Adam Shive, associate production manager

What is the worst show you have worked on? A children’s clown/puppet show. We frequently sold zero tickets at matinees. I was the stage manager, and I would have to go inform the performers (sitting in full clown makeup) that no one was in the audience.
- Kate Scelsa, actor

Where were you when inspiration struck for your latest role? After we had started the run of The Select in New York, I did something onstage that made me think of Miss Piggy. And I have used her as an inspiration ever since.
- Kate Scelsa

The Select: Controlled chaos

What is your pre-show routine? Vocal/physical warm up. Listening to Arletty songs, watching Hotel du Nord and listening to Carmen Linares, watching old footage of [Spanish bull-fighter] Juan Belmonte.
– Kaneza Schaal, actor

And post-show? Shot of whisky.
- All

What makes your art form the best art form? It’s not necessarily the best one, but it’s a pretty good one. It’s a very generous, trusting thing for a group of people to pay to come and sit in a dark room with you and basically say, “okay, show us what you got”. And then we have a responsibility to meet that. And that is crazy and also wonderful.
- Kate Scelsa

No one should ever go to the theatre on an empty stomach: what’s the best meal/drink to have before seeing your show at the DTF? Roast young suckling pig and Rioja Alata.
- Kaneza Schaal

The best thing about your job is … Going to work every week at a different place and getting to interact with such a large variety of creative, inspired people all over the world who are working hard to create shows they believe strongly in. The best thing about theatre is the people who bring it to the stage and I get to go to work with them every day.
- Dans Maree Sheehan, associate lighting designer

What are you looking forward to when your DTF run is finished? Going straight to Lisbon to do three shows of The Selectat Culturgest.
- Ariana Smart Truman, producer