Evan Linder

Evan Linder is an ensemble member and the founding co-artistic director of Chicago's The New Colony, a theatre company founded in 2008 devoted to world premiere plays and musicals. He works in Chicago as a playwright, actor and director. He also teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago. Evan is a proud graduate of the College of Charleston and is the recipient of the school's Alumni of the Year award in 2016. His plays include Byhalia Mississippi, Jo & Liv, The Hunted, 11:11, The Warriors, The Bear Suit of Happiness, B-Side Studio and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, which enjoyed an Off-Broadway run as part of the Soho Playhouse's 2012-2013 season and has seen productions in over 35 States, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Spain, Great Britain & Japan. Byhalia, Mississippi received simultaneous world premiere productions on January 8th, 2016 at theatres in Chicago, Toronto, Memphis and Charleston SC. The following week, theatres in Boulder, Los Angeles and Birmingham produced staged readings of the play before a live online World Premiere Conversation was held connecting audiences and creative teams in all seven cities. Byhalia received six nominations including Best Production at Chicago's 2016 Jeff Awards, winning three including the Jeff Award for Best New Work. In summer of 2016, Byhalia, Mississippi was remounted with the original Chicago cast at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The Kennedy Center will produce Byhalia, Mississippi in June 2019 as part of their 2018-19 season. His play The Hunted, co-written with Paul Oakley Stovall, was named a finalist for the 2017 O'Neill Playwrights Conference and received further development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Black Swan Lab. His newest play Jo & Liv was commissioned by the Goodman Theatre and received a staged reading there in July 2017 directed by Krissy Vanderwarker. At The New Colony in Chicago, Evan continues to teach the Writers Room, an education program he created in 2015 that has now welcomed over 100 emerging playwrights.