Jayden Epps ’16: Theatre provided people skills

What can you do with a theatre degree? Ask Jayden Epps ’16. Since graduating, Epps has discovered that their academic theatre work and stage managing provided them with strong people management skills.

“The skills I learned and honed at Cornell in the theatre realm very specifically are a one-to-one match with what I’m doing,” said Epps, who serves as executive assistant to the director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights. “I learned how to work together toward a goal and get everyone on the same page.” 

Epps’ primary work supports the Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes, including the launch of a hate and bias incident resource reporting helpline. 

As a student Epps created an individualized major, theatre for community engagement, based largely on a devised theatre project they participated in, “Those That Fall.” Devised theatre supports a community in telling their story and fostering an opportunity for people to come together to create an original work. Epps’ major combined coursework in theatre, education, psychology, and sociology. 

“Cornell and One Course At A Time are structured to be multidisciplinary, which is how I think now and how I teach other people to think,” they said. “I automatically really think broadly about who needs to be at the table, and I’m finding that not everyone thinks like that. I also find that I distill lots of information really quickly as a practice. That serves me well every time.” 

Epps was managing director, then general director, of Cornell’s Student Theatre Council (STC). In those years the STC worked hard to shift to a full season of four student-directed shows. One of Epps’ favorite Cornell memories was a dressy, end-of-year STC event on the Kimmel stage. “It was a celebration of all of the massive amount of work that we had done the year prior and the path we made to move forward,” they said. 

Epps, who came to the Hilltop as a first-generation student from St. Louis, Missouri, moved to Chicago after graduation. There, Heather ‘Byrd’ Roberts ’09 connected Epps with the people who gave them their first theatre job and with whom they continue to collaborate. Epps’ stage management credits include the devised piece “Cicada Summer,” with Rough House Theatre, and “Octagon,” with Jackalope Theatre.

Their freelance stage managing meant working nine-to-five followed by rehearsal, home to bed, and getting up to do it all again the next day. 

“It was unsustainable. I wanted to use my theatre skills to move forward in a social justice vein. I’m looking for a sustainable way to do all the work I want to do and am called to do,” Epps said.

They live with their fiance, Sarah Feldman ’17, a dog, and a leopard gecko. At age 30, Epps said they are most proud to be “independently self-sufficient while also having worked to surround myself with nothing but love. My best friends are Cornellians. I’ve spent so much time building a community of care around me and I’m so proud that I have found it.”