Epic Players Inc

“Part iii, line 1: organizations mission epic players, inc. Founded on august 15, 2016 is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, neuro diverse theatre company dedicated to createing professional performing arts opportunities and supportive social communities through the arts for persons living with developmental disabilities. Though our inclusive mainstage productions, musical cabarets, original showcases, skills-based classes and career resources, we hope to increase critical employment opportunities, pioneer increased inclusion in the arts, and break down social stigmas surrounding neuro-diverse communities.”

“PART III, LINE 4A: PROGRAM SERVICE ACOMPLISHMENTS EPIC Education: One of EPICs primary services are free classes and career development workshops for all company members living with developmental disabilities. In 2024/25, we offered over 100 classes in devised theater, improvisation, musical theater, film production, arts administration, and personal narrative. We served up to 20 individuals in each class, and 120 community members over all. We also employed 20 teaching artists and class mentors to support students. EPICs innovation stems from our neuro-inclusive teaching techniques and work culture. True to our mission, EPIC creates an environment where artists living with and without developmental disabilities can work and learn together in the same class or production. In our performing arts classes, EPICs teaching method is adapted to ensure all lessons are accessible to the learner, regardless of ability. EPIC continued its in school programming to teach social skills through the arts to students 8 to 18 who are living with developmental disabilities. EPIC worked with several school partners and hosted bi-weekly classes in 2024/2025 at each school from September to June with 12 students in each class and two teaching artists leading each class. We worked with over 700 students in NYC DOE public schools who are Disabled or Neurodivergent. With our free classes, we hope to provide the training and support needed for our Players to pursue a meaningful career in the arts and to expose students with disabilities to a pathway to accessible arts and creative confidence. EPIC Productions: EPIC works tirelessly to create professional quality performing opportunities in the arts for its neuro-diverse actors so they can get hands-on job experience in the field and be prepared to attain jobs outside of EPIC in the arts world. EPIC employs all of its neuro-diverse artists onstage and behind the scenes and pays them a stipend for their time and talent. EPIC produces 2 challenging, neuro-inclusive, and paid performances per year, reaching audiences of over 2000 people with each production . Our 2024 productions included Christmas Carol and Seussical The Musical as well as two cabaret productions at Joes Pub and an original spoken word production called The EPIC Underground: Storytellers. All of our mainstage productions are selected for their capacity to be elevated by a neuro-diverse cast. Each production provides our players with the opportunity to apply their skills in real-time, showcase their talent, and learn from professional colleagues in the arts. Our players serve as actors, assistant directors, stage managers, technicians, and front of house staff for our shows and each is compensated for their time and talent. In 2024/25, we held 107, 3-hour rehearsals for our two main stage productions and employed 77 neuro-diverse artists onstage and backstage along with 10 neuro-typical artists. Our audiences are also neuro-inclusive, with roughly 50% of our turnout consisting of members family and friends who are also living with neuro-diversities. Our audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive and reflected success in raising awareness of neuro-diverse communities and the challenges they face, with 30% of our attendees indicating that ours was the first neuro-diverse production they had witnessed; and that they were likely to return or similar performances. Through the access given by EPIC, company members have recently auditioned for, and won roles in, Off-Broadway productions, primetime television shows, and commercials; some members have even been featured in films shown across the nation and earned their actors union membership. Additional recent accomplishments include: being featured on Good Morning America, growing another branch of EPIC in Los Angeles with 50 members, being featured on EXTRA, being a NYTimes pick for our first original production.”

“A meeting among the board of directors, bookkeepers and accountant takes place to discuss all aspects of tax return prior to filing.”

“These documents are available to the public upon request.”