EPIC Players Marks 10 Years Centering Neurodivergent and Disabled Artists

EPIC Players, a nonprofit theater company based in New York City and Los Angeles, is marking its 10th anniversary and 10th season. The bicoastal organization serves 250 Neurodivergent and Disabled artists across two coasts, teaches 100 free performing arts classes a year, and operates with a staff of nine.

When EPIC Players first began in 2016, the landscape for Disabled artists in the entertainment industry was stark: up to 85% of autistic college graduates are unemployed or underemployed, and Disabled workers face unemployment at roughly twice the rate of everyone else, which in the arts translated to an industry where Disabled talent was rarely cast, rarely paid, and almost never handed the big titles. Over the past decade, EPIC Players has built a professional theater company where Neurodivergent and Disabled artists are cast, trained, championed, and paid an Equity wage, producing full-scale productions including Rent, Spring Awakening, Little Shop of Horrors, Into the Woods, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

The company's Players have shared stages with Kristen Bell and Josh Gad, and performed alongside Broadway stars at 54 Below. Their ranks include Abby Romeo of Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, while company member Conor Tague went from EPIC's stage to Broadway in How to Dance in Ohio, crediting EPIC in his Playbill bio. What began in New York now spans both coasts, with a home in New York City and a growing presence in Los Angeles. Demand for the programs includes a waitlist 139 people deep in New York, with another growing in Los Angeles.

Executive Artistic Director and founder Aubrie Therrien leads the nine-person staff that runs the bicoastal company. In a single week the team is casting a show, walking a performer through their first professional stage time, sitting with a family, chasing funding, and solving a housing displacement crisis two hours before lights up.

Team

Aubrie Therrien, Executive Artistic Director and Founder, can speak on EPIC Players' ten-year evolution, how opportunities for Neurodivergent and Disabled artists have changed over the past decade and where the industry still falls short, as well as the realities of building and sustaining a nonprofit theater company, from fundraising and institutional support to creating lasting, paid opportunities for artists.

Talia Eapen, Director of Program Operations, can speak on creating accessible spaces for Neurodivergent and Disabled artists, from rethinking the traditional casting process and what an inclusive audition room looks like to training teaching artists to bring their artistry into the classroom while meeting a wide range of learning and access needs. Eapen can also speak to EPIC's ongoing monthly training sessions designed to help teaching artists sustain inclusive learning environments, as well as challenges that can extend beyond the classroom and stage, from housing displacement and navigating benefits to connecting artists with critical support systems.

Cassidy Kaye, Creative Programs Lead, can speak on rehearsal and stage readiness, how EPIC prepares artists stepping onto a professional stage for the first time, and the structures and supports that help performers build confidence and independence while meeting the expectations of a professional production.

Jamie Rose Hays, Access Coordinator, can speak on working with families and caregivers while supporting Neurodivergent and Disabled adults as independent professional artists, including how EPIC navigates the role of an artist's support network without losing sight of their autonomy, career goals and professional identity.

Meggan Dodd, Director of Devised Theatre, can speak on what accessibility looks like behind the curtain, from production and technical design to creating rehearsal and performance environments that account for sensory and access needs without sacrificing artistic ambition.

Briana Gibson Reeves, Education Director, can speak on creating a pathway from training to employment, how EPIC's classes, education and career-development programs prepare Neurodivergent and Disabled artists for the professional entertainment industry, and why the goal extends beyond participation to meaningful, paid professional work.

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