Epic Theatre Ensemble presents Epic Duets, an evening to benefit Epic’s nationally-recognized education and college access initiatives. This one-night only event will feature fine dining and fabulous duets of Epic’s students alongside renowned performers like Ariana DeBose (Summer: The Donna Summer Msuical – Tony Award nomination), Jacob Ming-Trent (Hands on a Hardbody, Shrek), Gizel Jiménez (Miss You Like Hell), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Miss You Like Hell), and other Broadway favorites to be announced.

At Epic, we believe in the voices of young people. We believe that their optimism, energy, and insightfulness, can, when harnessed, lengthen the arc of social justice and provide massive uplift to their communities. We also believe that participation in theatre is a uniquely powerful tool to help young people discover their voices, especially for those who have long lacked access in under-resourced communities and under-funded schools.

The Epic theatre experience goes beyond self-expression; it is a young person’s Epic story of “firsts.” For most, Epic is the first time they join a group, collaborate on a project, adhere to a schedule, raise their voice, tell their story, and create beauty, not to mention set foot on a stage and act in a play they built.

Epic’s impact doesn’t stop there. In fact, the Epic magic stays with our students as they leave the high-school stage and begin a life of new firsts – from that first day of college, to the first day of a new job – and then onto to becoming employees, supervisors, parents and citizens of the world, often relying on their Epic “firsts” as a foundation. Epic provides the stage where firsts can emerge, giving students the confidence, perspective, experience and opportunity for a more successful future. Young people who work with Epic over four years of high school have a stunning college attendance and retention rate of 98%, more than double that of their peers. It costs Epic only $1,250 to empower a young person for four years inside and beyond high school, ultimately helping these students matriculate into college. We are proud to report that the average Epic alumnus receives over $25,000 in merit-based financial aid towards their higher education, yielding a 20x return on investment.