Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Jorge Miguel "Jay" Rivera-Herrans is a playwright, composer, lyricist and actor, raised in Dorado, Puerto Rico, and known for composing and writing EPIC: The Musical.

He studied theater at the University of Notre-Dame.

He played the title character in 2018 In The Heights production at the South Bend Civid Theater.

During his time as a student, he wrote a semi-biographical musical, Stupid Humans, that he got to produce and star in in 2019 with the help of his professor Matt Hawkins. It tells the story of Indigo (also played by Rivera-Herrans), who drops out of medical school against his father's wishes, to follow his dream of becoming a singer and songwriter.

He received a faculty grand before graduating in 2020 to pursue production ; he workshopped Stupid Humans with Matt Hawkins, rewriting it and renaming it "My Heart Says Go". It got produced at the South Bend Civic Theater in April 2023.

EPIC: The Musical
Rivera-Herrans began writing EPIC in the end of his studies in 2020.

EPIC is based on the Odyssey : it centers on Odysseus, played by Rivera-Herrans, struggling for 10 years against monsters and gods to return home to his kingdom of Ithaca after the Trojan War.

Fully sung-through, the musical has pop, electronic, rock, orchestral and world music influences.

The concept album aims at telling Odysseus' voyage through 40 songs, released in 9 albums - called "sagas" - containing four to five songs each. The first one, the Troy Saga, was released on 25 December 2022 ; the second one, the Cyclops Saga, came out on 27 January 2023. The third one, the Ocean Saga, is scheduled for 25 December 2023.

Starting in January 2021, he shared his progress and snippets of the songs on Discord and Tiktok, where they became viral.

He also used Tiktok to do open auditions for most characters.