Don Evans
Encyclopedia
Donald Thomas "Don" Evans (April 27, 1938–October 16, 2003) was a noted African-American playwright
, theatre director, actor
and educator.
, in 1938, Evans was an only child, raised by his mother, Mary Evans. After serving in the United States Marine Corps
, he attended Cheyney State College
, where he majored in secondary
English education. He went on to Temple University
, earning an Master of Arts
in education
and an Master of Fine Arts
in theater arts
.
and August Wilson's Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He also taught courses in African-American literature and drama, jazz
, and playwriting. Evans was a visiting professor at nearby Rutgers University
and Princeton University
, and worked from 1978-1998 with his friend and fellow playwright August Wilson
in forming the Black Theatre Summit at Dartmouth College
, from which was formed the African Grove Institute for the Arts.
from 1969 to 1970, during which time he also taught English and Drama at Princeton High School
in Princeton
, New Jersey
. An integral part of the Black Arts movement of the 1970s, Evans had his first plays, the one acts Orrin and Sugarmouth Sam Don’t Dance No More performed in 1972 at the Crossroads Theatre
, a professional playhouse in New Brunswick
, New Jersey
. In 1976 he wrote It’s Showdown Time, a raucous adaptation of William Shakespeare
's The Taming of the Shrew
. In 1978, Evans wrote Mahalia, his first musical, a portrait of Gospel
vocalist Mahalia Jackson
. Louis, Evans' musical portrayal of jazz legend Louis Armstrong
, was written in 1981. Other works include The Trials and Tribulations of Staggerlee Booker T. Brown, One Monkey Don't Stop No Show a tragi-comic look at a middle-class black family, and A Lovesong for Miss Lydia, described by the New York Times as "a Pinteresque encounter of two elderly people." Evans wrote his final play, When Miss Mollie Hit the Triple Bars, in 1999. It was based on the life of his mother, Mary.
Over the course of his career, Don Evans received playwriting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
, the New Jersey Council of the Arts, and the New Jersey Historical Society
. Evans has a total of six plays in publication, and a total of eighteen have been produced the world over, in such countries as Germany
, England
and Hong Kong
. He also served, from 1983 to 1988, as artistic director for the Karamu House
in Cleveland, Ohio. Don Evans was honored as AMPARTS Fellow for the United States Information Agency to India in 1984. He died at the age of 65 of a heart attack on October 16, 2003 at his home in Merchantville, New Jersey
.
Produced
Unpublished
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, theatre director, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and educator.
Early life and education
Born in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, in 1938, Evans was an only child, raised by his mother, Mary Evans. After serving in the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
, he attended Cheyney State College
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public, co-educational historically black university that is a part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Cheyney University has a campus that is located in the Cheyney community within Thornbury Township, Chester County and Thornbury...
, where he majored in secondary
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
English education. He went on to Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, earning an Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and an Master of Fine Arts
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in theater arts
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
.
Career
In 1971 Evans began teaching at Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), where he chaired the Afro-American Studies Department from 1971 to 1983. During this time, Evans directed such plays as The Taking of Miss Janie by Ed BullinsEd Bullins
Ed Bullins is an African American playwright. He was also the Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers. In addition, he has won numerous awards, including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and several Obies. He is one of the best known playwrights to come from the Black Arts Movement...
and August Wilson's Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He also taught courses in African-American literature and drama, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and playwriting. Evans was a visiting professor at nearby Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, and worked from 1978-1998 with his friend and fellow playwright August Wilson
August Wilson
August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama...
in forming the Black Theatre Summit at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, from which was formed the African Grove Institute for the Arts.
Theatre
Don Evans studied acting, directing, and playwriting at the Hagen-Berghof Studios in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from 1969 to 1970, during which time he also taught English and Drama at Princeton High School
Princeton High School (New Jersey)
Princeton High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Princeton Regional Schools district, which serves all public school students in the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township...
in Princeton
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. An integral part of the Black Arts movement of the 1970s, Evans had his first plays, the one acts Orrin and Sugarmouth Sam Don’t Dance No More performed in 1972 at the Crossroads Theatre
Crossroads Theatre
Crossroads Theatre is a prize-winning theatre located in New Brunswick, New Jersey and founded in 1978. It is the winner of the 1999 Regional Theatre Tony Award.-Mission:...
, a professional playhouse in New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. In 1976 he wrote It’s Showdown Time, a raucous adaptation of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
. In 1978, Evans wrote Mahalia, his first musical, a portrait of Gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
vocalist Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel"...
. Louis, Evans' musical portrayal of jazz legend Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, was written in 1981. Other works include The Trials and Tribulations of Staggerlee Booker T. Brown, One Monkey Don't Stop No Show a tragi-comic look at a middle-class black family, and A Lovesong for Miss Lydia, described by the New York Times as "a Pinteresque encounter of two elderly people." Evans wrote his final play, When Miss Mollie Hit the Triple Bars, in 1999. It was based on the life of his mother, Mary.
Over the course of his career, Don Evans received playwriting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, the New Jersey Council of the Arts, and the New Jersey Historical Society
New Jersey Historical Society
The New Jersey Historical Society is a historical society and museum located in Newark, New Jersey, United States. The Historical Society is housed in the former headquarters of the Essex Club. It has two floors of exhibition space, a gift shop, and a hall for lectures. The NJHS offers occasional...
. Evans has a total of six plays in publication, and a total of eighteen have been produced the world over, in such countries as Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. He also served, from 1983 to 1988, as artistic director for the Karamu House
Karamu House
Karamu House in the Fairfax neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, is the oldest African-American theater in the United States. Many of Langston Hughes's plays were developed and premièred at the theater.-History:...
in Cleveland, Ohio. Don Evans was honored as AMPARTS Fellow for the United States Information Agency to India in 1984. He died at the age of 65 of a heart attack on October 16, 2003 at his home in Merchantville, New Jersey
Merchantville, New Jersey
Merchantville is a borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the borough population was 3,821....
.
Quotations
- "I see myself writing in the tradition of Shaw and Moliere. I'm very much aware that I come from a street tradition, but my work came about because of writers I love, especially Shakespeare."
- "I've always tried to make college theater something multiracial and multicultural -- a living art form. But no one pays serious attention to black college kids who love the theater. They perform in isolated groups. In terms of craft, their work isn't seriously appraised."
- "What's painful is that all artists are part of a nonracial community. If you're good, you're good, and you should be evaluated, irrespective of race."
List of Plays
Published- Sugarmouth Sam Don't Dance No More
- The Trials and Tribulations of Staggerlee Booker T. Brown
- The Prodigals
- One Monkey Don't Stop No Show.
Produced
- Orrin
- Sugarmouth Sam Don't Dance No More
- Matters of Choice
- It's Showdown Time
- A Lovesong for Miss Lydia
- Louis (musical based on the life of Louis Armstrong)
- Mahalia (musical biography of Mahalia Jackson)
- One Monkey Don't Stop No Show
Unpublished
- What Harriet Did
- Honky Tonk
- When Miss Mollie Hit the Triple Bars
External links
- Playbill article
- Karamu House Official Website
- Biography, partial list of plays City-Data
- Globe News Wire article
- Website for the Unity Theatre Ensemble
- Tribute Site for Don Evans