By Melissa Friedman
Dear Epic Friend,
I cannot believe that we’ve just begun our 18th season! It’s been quite the Epic journey and I’m so grateful to you for helping us make an impact on our audiences, students, schools, partners and communities over these 17 years. As Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director, I wake up every day with a passion, commitment, and courage to do this work that I’ve seen first-hand make a huge difference in so many lives. I can’t keep these transformational things to myself! So I thought I’d take a moment to catch you up and give you a zoom in on what I am doing over the course of just two days in November.
Tuesday
9:00am Start at Urban Assembly School for the Performing Arts. In our 10th year partnering here, I work with all five 9th grade English classes in our ADAPTING ANTIGONE Residency, where we guide students through the process of adapting this Ancient Greek play about a young woman speaking truth to power. In between classes, I check in with the 10th, 11th and 12th graders in the hallway reminding them that REMIX starts today!
3:00pm Still going at Urban Assembly and it’s the first session for Shakespeare REMIX – our flagship after-school program! Today I’ll be introducing the story and themes of MACBETH. It’s my favorite play and as the director of the REMIX in Harlem, I cannot wait to see how this group of students connects it to their lives and the world they see around them. Today, we begin the process of building ensemble and “safe space” to encourage creative and artistic risk-taking.
Wednesday
9:30am Arrive at Theatre Row to warm-up and get into costume.
10:30am Perform THE WINNING SIDE, Epic’s Off-Broadway premiere of Jim Wallert’s new play about former Nazi SS Officer, Wernher von Braun, directed by Ron Russell, for an audience of 200 students. The artists on stage and behind the scenes are also the Teaching Artists in our schools. This means that the students I worked with yesterday morning are the students I get to perform for now – and I personally prepped them to see and engage with the play!
4:00pm Meet with Epic NEXT for COLLEGE PREP. I meet with Christina, Hailey, Marquese, Roman, Cassie, Joham, and Nashali (current 12th graders) at Epic’s office to work on personal statements, supplemental essays, resumes, and navigating the financial aid and decision process.
7:00pm Warm-up and get into costume again for another performance of THE WINNING SIDE for 200 patrons at the Acorn Theatre followed by a post-show discussion!
Phew! I know, I know. It’s a lot! But I hope it gave you some insight into the connections between our work OFF-BROADWAY, IN SCHOOLS as well as our work with EPIC NEXT – our youth theatre company. All of these programs work in tandem to use theatre as a tool for social change and none of them would be possible without your continued generous support.
Today, we launch our 2018 Year-End Campaign. Would you be willing to make a special year-end donation of $100, $200, or whatever you can give to help us continue this transformative work? I hope you will consider supporting us again this year. Our work is challenging. It’s rewarding. It’s impactful. And we can’t do it without you!
With deepest gratitude,
Melissa Friedman
Co-Founder & Co-Artistic Director
Epic Theatre Ensemble
