Producing Artists

Zak Berkman, Director of Artistic Programming
Zak is a former associate to Broadway producer, Margo Lion. He has an extensive background in new play development, previously working at Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Stage & Film, Sundance Play Lab, Voice & Vision, and Seattle Repertory Theatre. With Epic: Time & The Conways, Habitat, Little Eyolf, Hannah and Martin, Einstein's Gift, No Child..., Beauty on the Vine, Widower's Houses, A Hard Heart, Palace of the End, as well as numerous workshops, readings, and special events such as Epic's Celebration of First Time Voters and The Sunshine Series Festival. Zak's plays include Beauty On The Vine, A Breath Short of Breathing (Epic, NYS&F, Soho Rep., Lark, Zephyr/Tamarind), Pieces of the Throne (Epic), A Splendid Isolation, and Rust. Television/Film: Days of Our Lives, The Heartland Chronicles, Clinging Ivy. Zak is also a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab and recipient of Manhattan Theatre Club's Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship. He's married to Teri Lamm and they are the proud parents of Eliot and Theodore.

Melissa Friedman Founding Producer
As an actor with Epic Off-Broadway: Praxis in A Hard Heart, Clara in Einstein's Gift, Hannah in Hannah and Martin, Little Eyolf, Habitat, Time & the Conways. As an actor with Epic Journeys: The Oresteia Project, Antigone-in-Progress, Enemy of the People, The Visit. As a director of Epic's Bridge productions: Romeo & Juliet: 2 Households, Othello: I am not what I am, Hamlet: Out of Joint and the upcoming Richard III. Other Off-Broadway & Regional: Degenerate Art and Much Ado About Nothing with Irondale Ensemble Project, The Last Night of Ballyhoo at the Fulton Opera House, An Ideal Husband at Tennessee Rep, The Substance of Fire, Macbeth (with Victor Garber), Love's Labour's Lost (with Richard Easton), Henry IV (with John Goodman) at the Old Globe Theatre. Film & TV: Santa Smokes, Novel Reflections: The American Dream, (PBS). Melissa is a Lead Teaching Artist with Epic and program co-designer at Epic's partner schools throughout the city and beyond; as well as the primary executive in charge of Epic's education division. She has presented workshops at conferences on sequential arts education and Epic's mission of developing "Citizen-Artists" throughout the Northeast including at the NYC Arts-in-Education Roundtable's Face-to-Face Conference, NYSCA's Empire State Partnership Summer Seminar, and Common Ground Conference in Rochester. Melissa received her BA in Theatre from Oberlin and an MFA in Acting from the University of San Diego/Old Globe Theatre.

Ron Russell Founding Producer
With Epic: Director of 21 fully-staged productions of student adaptations of Greek classics in communities across the Northeast as part of the Journeys Series; workshops of A Breath Short of Breathing, Hannah and Martin, POP'd, Einstein's Gift, Pieces of the Throne, No Child..., and Dear Mr. President; Off-Broadway productions of J.B. Priestley's Time and the Conways, Kate Fodor's Hannah and Martin, Vern Thiessen's Einstein's Gift, and his own adaptations of Ibsen's Little Eyolf and Shaw's Widowers' Houses (with Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr.); Teaching Artist Residencies in 13 schools including Site Manager and Co-College Counselor at the Bronx HS for Writing and Communication Arts, co-founded by Epic through the Gates Foundation/New Century High Schools Initiative. Founder: UBI Repertory Theatre in San Diego; Co-Founder: Swine Palace Productions in Louisiana (with RSC's Barry Kyle); Panelist and Consultant: Arts-in-Education Division of the New York State Council on the Arts.

James Wallert Founding Producer
As an actor with Epic: A Breath Short of Breathing, Antigone-In-Progress, Hannah and Martin, Time & the Conways, Pieces of the Throne, Habitat, Little Eyolf, Einstein's Gift, The Oresteia Project, Enemy of the People, Romeo & Juliet: 2 Households, Much Ado about Nothing, Dear Mr. President. Jim is the co-creator of the musical POP'd. Other theatre credits include: The Old Globe Theatre, Northern Stage, SoHo Rep, HERE, Circle Theatre, The Lark, Abington Theatre, Kansas and Nebraska Shakespeare Festivals. TV/Film: Time Of Your Life, Tumbling After, Wet, and Just the Beat. Jim received his BA in theatre from the University of Kansas and his MFA in Acting from the Old Globe/ University of San Diego.

Producing Artists

Will Pomerantz, Associate Director of Artistic Programming
With Epic: director of A Hard Heart. Will has directed and developed plays with such theatres as Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Theater Workshop, Ensemble Studio Theater, Soho Rep, Culture Project, The Signature Theatre, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum and The Pittsburgh Public. He has directed world premieres by such playwrights as John Guare, David Auburn, David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Belber, Noah Haidle, Sung Rno, Kira Obolensky and Carey Perloff. In addition to his work on new plays, Will has also directed texts by Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shakespeare, Shaw and Sophocles. His production of The Shape of Things was voted Outstanding Production of the year in Washington, DC and received a Helen Hayes Award for outstanding performance. His production, of Dai received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance 2006-2007 and recently completed a sold-out run in Edinburgh, Scotland. Will is the first American director ever invited to direct for the National Theatre of Poland. He was Staff Repertory Director for The Acting Company for two seasons, and is an alumnus of the Directors Lab at Lincoln Center, a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and a member of Ensemble Studio Theater. He has been a guest artist for The Juilliard School (4 seasons), The National Theatre Conservatory at The Denver Center, Purchase College, Bard College and Cornell University.

Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. Producer
With Epic: A Hard Heart, Beauty on the Vine, Have U Heard/ Much Ado About Nothing, The Oresteia Project, Antigone-in-Progress, An Enemy of the People, Einstein's Gift, Hamlet, Othello, The Visit. Off Broadway: The Old Settler with Leslie Uggams (Primary Stages, Audelco Award), Betty's Summer Vacation (Playwrights Horizons), Fast Blood (Lark Theatre/Hansberry Project), Free Market (Working Theatre), Ice Island (Melting Pot Theatre). Regional: A Raisin in the Sun and Blues For An Alabama Sky (Syracuse Stage), Home (Round House Theatre), A Raisin in the Sun, The Grapes of Wrath, Antigone, and The Comedy of Errors (Schwarz Center for Performing Arts) Antigone, Romeo and Juliet, and Peter Pan (People's Light and Theatre Company). Teaching: Resident Professional Teaching Associate at Cornell University, 2003-2005; Adjunct Professor in Acting at Marymount Manhattan College, 1998-2000. Television: All My Children, As the World Turns, Law and Order, NYPD Blue and Third Watch.

Sarah Winkler Producer
With Epic: A Hard Heart, Einstein's Gift, Beauty on the Vine, An Enemy of the People, Antigone-in-Progress, The Oresteia Project. New York & Regional: The Last Seder (Organic Theatre), Inherit the Wind (Fulton Opera House), Radium Girls (Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey), House of Mirth (Charm School), The Tempest (Empty Space Theatre Company), Elmer Gantry (Peculiar Works Project). Film/TV: Trifling with Fate, Je Suis Venu te Dire, Rencontre a New York, Milk & Money, In the Weeds (FOX). Sarah is a Founding Board Member of Step Up Women's Network. Proud Mom of astonishing 5 year old Noah and astonishing 1 year old Asher.