Evan Yionoulis is an award-winning theatre director who has helmed productions of new plays and the classics in New York, throughout the United States, and internationally.
She opened Manhattan Theatre Club’s Biltmore Theatre (Broadway) with Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour (starring Robert Sean Leonard), directed his Everett Beekin at Lincoln Center Theatre (with Robin Bartlett), and received an Obie Award for her direction of his Three Days of Rain at Manhattan Theatre Club (with Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery, and Bradley Whitford), having directed the premieres of all three at South Coast Repertory. She directed Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders (starring LisaGay Hamilton) (2008 Lortel Award for Best Revival) and the Off-Broadway premiere of Howard Brenton’s Sore Throats (with Laila Robins and Bill Camp) for Theatre for a New Audience.
As a writer, she adapted Carlo Gozzi’s The King Stag with Mike Yionoulis, who also wrote music and lyrics, and Catherine Sheehy, and directed its premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre where she is a resident director. Also with Mike Yionoulis, she adapted Euripides’ Medea and collaborated with him on Flights of Angels, a music theatre piece based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Their short film, Lost and Found, premiered at Cleveland International Film Festival in 2006.
Other theatrical directing credits include Warren Leight’s Glimmer, Glimmer, and Shine (with John Spencer) at the Mark Taper Forum and Manhattan Theatre Club; Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood (starring Kate Burton) at Williamstown; Stoppard’s The Real Thing, Naomi Iizuka’s 36 Views and Jon Robin Baitz’ Ten Unknowns at the Huntington Theatre; Daisy Foote’s Bhutan at the Cherry Lane and Him at Primary Stages; the premieres of Richard Greenberg’s The American Plan at Manhattan Theatre Club and his The Author’s Voice at Ensemble Studio Theatre (with Kevin Bacon, Patricia Clarkson, and David Hyde Pierce) and again for the Drama Department (with Philip Seymour Hoffman).
Yale Rep productions include Richard II (with Jeffrey Carlson), George F. Walker’s Heaven (with Michael O’Keefe), Brecht’s Galileo (starring Byron Jennings), Bulgakov’s Black Snow, adapted by Keith Reddin, Ibsen’s The Master Builder (with David Chandler), the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Bossa Nova, and, most recently, Owners by Caryl Churchill.
Other credits include productions at American Music Theatre Festival, Denver Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Center, Portland Stage, PlayMakers Rep, the Vineyard, and many others.
She has directed Seven, a documentary theatre piece about extraordinary women from across the globe who work for human rights, in New York, Boston, Washington, Aspen, London, Deauville, and New Delhi.
Early in her career, she received a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship and was subsequently awarded the Foundation’s prestigious statuette. She is currently Professor (adjunct) in the Yale School of Drama’s Departments of Acting (which she chaired from 1998-2003) and Directing.
