 | Ron Russell Co-Founder, Executive Director MFA-Directing, LSU; BA-Neuroscience, Oberlin College. After founding the nationally-acclaimed Summer Theatre Enrichment Program at El Centro de Servicios in Lorain, OH, Ron came to New York as Education Director at Theatre for a New Audience. From 1996-2001, he administered one of the nation’s most in-depth programs for introducing students to Shakespeare, serving over 25,000 students. Ron has directed extensively in NYC including 19 Off-Broadway productions (11 for Epic). His work in public schools includes over 50 educational sites, and has been recognized by the White House, the NEA, an OBIE Award, the International Ibsen Award, the Municipal Arts Society, and NYC Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg. |
 | Melissa Friedman Co-Founder & Co-Artistic Director Melissa is an actor, director, producer, teaching artist, and mentor with Epic. Epic acting credits include: The World Premieres of THE WINNING SIDE and A MORE PERFECT UNION, the NY Premieres of HANNAH AND MARTIN, EINSTEIN’S GIFT, HABITAT and A HARD HEART, as well as MACBETH, BORN WITH TEETH, OTHELLO,TIME AND THE CONWAYS, LITTLE EYOLF, PILLARS OF SOCIETY (in Norway), and MEND by Dominique Morisseau. Other Acting credits - both regionally and Off-Broadway: AN IDEAL HUSBAND, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, DEGENERATE ART, THE SUBSTANCE OF FIRE, THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, TAMING OF THE SHREW, MACBETH, HENRY IV directed by Jack O’Brien. Directing credits include over 20 Shakespeare Remix Productions. On behalf of Epic, Melissa received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award for the Remix program from First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House. She co-wrote Epic’s Citizen Artist Curriculum Guide and continues to teach arts integration residencies in ELA, History and Science classrooms at Epic’s partner Public High Schools. With Susan Kelechi Watson, she leads the I AM EPIC Young Playwrights Festival, which mentors young Epic playwrights in the writing, producing and publishing of one-act socially-relevant plays. Melissa is a mentor with the Arthur Miller Foundation, with whom she led the EPIC VIRTUAL THEATRE LAB, a city-wide student ensemble devising original work within the digital theatre context. Melissa leads the training program for Epic Next, Epic’s youth theatre ensemble. Prior to co-founding Epic, Melissa taught with Theatre for a New Audience, BAM, and Roundabout and has led professional development workshops across the world - including for the National Theatre of Scotland, NYU, Juilliard, Broadway Teaching Group, The Public Theatre and is a city-wide Professional Development facilitator with the NYC Department of Education’s Theatre Program. Melissa received her BA from Oberlin College and is an improviser trained with the Upright Citizens Brigade and a classically trained actor with an MFA from the Old Globe /University of San Diego. |
 | James Wallert Co-Founder & Co-Artistic Director James is an actor, writer, director, producer, and educator. As an actor with Epic, James has appeared Off-Broadway in Richard III, Dispatches from (A)mended America, Macbeth, Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven, A Hard Heart, Widowers’ Houses, Einstein’s Gift, Hannah and Martin, Little Eyolf, Habitat, and Time and the Conways. TV and Film credits include The Snakes (HBO), Time of Your Life, ITV’s Future States, Romeo & Juliet, and Ambition’s Debt. In 2015, James received a Smithsonian Fellowship at the National Air and Space Museum to research his play The Winning Side. He has directed touring productions of Laundry City, Building Blocks, Default, and Nothing About Us for Epic NEXT as well as Macbeth, Henry VI, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV, and Romeo and Juliet for Epic’s Shakespeare Remix program (winner of the 2009 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award). Since Co-Founding Epic Theatre Ensemble in 2001, James has curated and administered Epic’s Forum Series (funded by Humanities New York), serving over 150,000 audience members. MFA- Acting, Old Globe/University of San Diego; BA- Theatre, University of Kansas. He is the author of Citizen Artists: a Guide to Helping Young People Make Plays that Change the World (Routledge Press). |
 | Dalissa Duran Alumni Producing Manager - Curriculum Dalissa is an Epic Alum, and a developing teaching artist. She is first-generation, recently earning a BA of Media and Communication, and Latin America and Caribbean Studies from Muhlenberg College. Dalissa was a part of Epic all throughout high school and was also the lead editor in Epic’s first touring piece 10467. She became a very involved alum by being a part Epic Next’s summer intensive for multiple years and working with Epic through the start of the Covid/Zoom era, helping the Remix team direct some of their first online pieces. Through the Philly Young Playwright program Dalissa wrote the play El Jefe, which was produced. Currently she is working on a pilot-program of Middle school Remixes throughout NYC, and is in classrooms at Epic’s partner schools. One of Dalissa’s main goals in her work with students is to “help them build that clear confidence in their work. All a student needs is someone to say that they see their skills and boom! Their craft starts to grow. That’s what happened to me when I first joined Epic, so I want to pass that on as much as I can.” |