EPIC PLAYERS Theatre Company Marks 10 Years of Casting Disabled Artists
The nonprofit pays equity wages to disabled performers as it grows from New York into Los Angeles.
A decade after its founding in New York City, Epic Players, a professional theater company built for and around neurodivergent and disabled artists, is marking its tenth season while expanding operations to Los Angeles. The company casts disabled and neurodivergent performers in leading, paid roles, addressing an industry landscape in which disabled characters make up roughly two percent of speaking roles onscreen, most of them played by non-disabled actors.
Epic Players is a non-profit professional theater company built for and around neurodivergent and disabled artists. It casts its players in leading roles, pays them an equity wage, and puts full-scale productions in front of real audiences. Built on the belief that 'you cannot be what you cannot see,' the company started a decade ago in New York City with a handful of performers and is now, according to the organization, the largest neuro-inclusive theater company in the country.
Epic Players by the numbers
- 10 years of programming and now in its 10th season
- 250-plus neurodivergent and disabled artists served nationwide
- 139-person waitlist in New York, plus a growing waitlist in Los Angeles
- 100-plus free performing arts classes offered every year
- Equity wages paid to its performers, in an industry where most disabled talent never gets on the payroll at all
Past productions have been ambitious, full-scale theater, not scaled-down showcases, including:
- Rent
- Spring Awakening
- Little Shop of Horrors
- Into the Woods
- The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The company's orbit has also included notable guest artists:
- Abbey Romeo of Netflix's LOVE ON THE SPECTRUM is an ongoing company member
- Kristen Bell and Josh Gad have lent their time as celebrity guest artists
- Conan O'Brien shared the stage with the company and called it the first time he ever performed with professionals
Epic Players has staged full-scale productions including RENT, SPRING AWAKENING, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, INTO THE WOODS, and THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, and reports serving more than 250 neurodivergent and disabled artists nationwide, with waitlists in both New York and Los Angeles. Abbey Romeo of Netflix's LOVE ON THE SPECTRUM is an ongoing company member, and the organization has drawn celebrity guest artists including Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, and Conan O'Brien.
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