Epic Theatre Ensemble Announces THE FIFTY STATE CONVERSATION

Epic Theatre Ensemble, a professional theatre working in partnership with The National Coalition on School Diversity and Dodd Human Rights Impact at the University of Connecticut, has announced The Fifty State Conversation.

The initiative features a series of free online screenings and post performance discussions around Epic's film Nothing About Us, a student-created exploration of educational segregation, and culminates with a national conversation about racial justice in schools with multi-generational participants from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC taking place on May 17, 2021. May 17th, marks the anniversary of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education in which the justices ruled that "Separate but Equal" schools were unconstitutional.

Nothing About Us is a rigorous, passionate, and hilarious exploration of educational segregation written and performed by those most affected and least consulted: students. New York State has the most racially and socio-economically segregated schools in the nation and New York City Public Schools still remain more segregated than they were before the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. The student artists pose the question: What does separate but equal mean to us today?

"My school was segregated," said Chrissy Guzman, a former Epic student and one of the creators of Nothing About Us. "All you hear is like, 'Oh, New York is so diverse, you got everybody from everywhere.' But then you dig deeper and it's not really. Look at the schools. What's going on there?"

"I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder if the current state of U.S. democracy is a function of our nation's segregated schools", said Epic's Co-Artistic Director James Wallert. "We need cultural change in order to transform the American education system. Cultural change in our country has always been led by young people and artists."

Nothing About Us was created in the summer of 2018 as part of Epic NEXT, a multi-year youth development program designed to identify and nurture a new generation of diverse arts leaders. The student researchers/writers/artists were commissioned by New York Appleseed to explore the issue of educational segregation. They researched the subject, interviewed the stakeholders, merged transcribed selections from the interview material with their own original writing to form a script, and performed the play to content-connected audiences around the United States and internationally. After each performance, the student artists facilitated a conversation with the audience about the questions and themes in the play.

"These plays hit home for me. Being able to make these educators listen to the reality of what students go through every single day is so liberating," said Lizette Padua, another former Epic student and one of the writer/performers in Nothing About Us.

From 2015-2020, the plays of Epic NEXT received 182 performances in 30 cities in 3 countries for 47,000 audience members including teachers, principals, superintendents, school board officials, education policy researchers, and legislators. With the outbreak of COVID-19, Epic adapted the plays to digital formats and have screened and discussed them in online forums with more than 5000 audience members.

To register as a participant, to co-host a conversation in your community, or to contribute youth-created content for The Fifty State Conversation go to: www.EpicTheatreEnsemble.org/fifty.

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