Don Evans

Evans was born April 27, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,^[1] the son of Mary Evans.^[2] After serving in the United States Marine Corps, he graduated from Cheyney State College in 1962 and went on to Temple University, earning a master's degree in 1968 and a Master of Fine Arts in 1972.^[2]

In 1972, Evans became an associate professor at Trenton State College (later named The College of New Jersey), where he chaired the Afro-American Studies Department.^[2] He also was an adjunct professor at Princeton University and a visiting professor of theater arts at Rutgers University.^[2] During this time, Evans wrote essays and articles for Black World, Essence, Players, and Pride.^[3][4]

He worked from 1978 to 1998 with his friend and fellow playwright August Wilson in forming a National Black Theatre Summit at Dartmouth College, from which was formed the African Grove Institute for the Arts.^[5]

Evans studied acting, directing, and playwriting at the Hagen-Berghof Studios in New York City from 1969 to 1970,^{[citation needed]} during which time he also taught English and Drama at Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey.^[6] 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.^{[citation needed]} The following year, this became his Manhattan debut production, at the Theater de Lys.^[2]

In 1976, Evans wrote It’s Showdown Time, a raucous adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.^[2] In 1978, Evans wrote Mahalia, his first musical, a portrait of gospel vocalist Mahalia Jackson.^[7][8] Louis, Evans' musical portrayal of jazz legend Louis Armstrong, was written in 1981. Other works include Blues for a Gospel Queen, 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,^[9][10] described by The New York Times as a "Pinteresque variation on the Big Bad Wolf story."^[11] Evans wrote his final play, When Miss Mollie Hit the Triple Bars, in 1999. It was based on the life of his mother, Mary.^{[citation needed]}

Over the course of his career, Evans received playwriting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey Council of the Arts, and the New Jersey Historical Society.^{[citation needed]} Eighteen of his plays have been produced, both in the US and in countries including Germany, England and Hong Kong.^{[citation needed]} He also served, from 1983 to 1988, as artistic director for the Karamu House^{[citation needed]} in Cleveland, Ohio.

Don Evans was named an AMPARTS Fellow for the United States Information Agency to India in 1984.^{[citation needed]}

Evans was divorced from Frances Gooding Chapman. He had by two sons, Todd and Orrin, and a daughter, Rachel Marianno. He died at the age of 65 of a heart attack on October 16, 2003, at his home in Merchantville, New Jersey.^[2]

Published

• Sugarmouth Sam Don't Dance No More (Dramatists Play Service, NY)
• The Trials and Tribulations of Staggerlee Booker T. Brown (Dramatists Play Service)
• The Prodigals (Dramatists Play Service)
• One Monkey Don't Stop No Show (Dramatists Play Service)

Produced

• Orrin
• Blues For A Gospel Queen
• 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