Professor Donald T. Evans, 1938-2003Donald Thomas Evans, playwright and professor, was born on April 27, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An only child, Don was raised by his mother, Mary Evans; he never knew his father. After serving in the United States Marine Corps and the Reserves, Don attended Cheyney State College in Westown, Pennsylvania, majoring in secondary English Education. Upon graduating in 1962, he taught public school until he decided to go to graduate school at Temple University first for an M.A., which he earned in 1968, and then an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts, which he earned in 1974. Even more important to his training as a playwright, Don studied acting, directing, and playwriting at the Hagen-Berghof Studios in New York City from 1969 to 1970. Don had married Frances Gooding in 1962 and by this time had three children: Todd, Rachel, and Orrin. In 1971 Don was hired by Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) to chair the Afro-American Studies Department, serving in that capacity from 1971 to 1983. He directed such plays as Ed Bullins’ The Taking of Miss Janie and August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at the suburban residential college, and he taught courses in playwriting, African American literature and drama, and jazz. He has also taught courses at Rutgers and Princeton Universities as a visiting professor. His other academic activities include publishing scholarly articles, such as a study of black playwrights of the 1950s in Black World; editing BT News, a quarterly magazine; and helping the University of San Diego and other schools develop a theatre program. He also helped organize, along with August Wilson, The Black Theatre Summit at Dartmouth University in 1997/1998, out of which was formed the African Grove Institute for the Arts. As a playwright, Don Evans was part of the Black Arts movement of the 1970s. A contemporary of Ed Bullins, his creative energies came out of the New Lafayette Theatre and the Negro Ensemble Company, both in New York City. The first person who told him he could write was James Oliver, a professor at Cheyney State University. Later Don reviewed plays by Alice Childress and Ron Milner, who encouraged him to try his own hand at writing for the stage. Don’s first plays were Orrin and Sugarmouth Sam Don’t Dance No More performed in 1972. In 1976 he adapted Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew as It’s Showdown Time; in 1978 he wrote Mahalia, his first musical; his second musical, Louis (1981), was about the great Louis Armstrong. His latest play, When Miss Mollie Hit the Triple Bars (1999), was based upon the life of his mother. The roster of popular actors who have appeared in his plays includes Kim Fields, Ted Lange and Debbie Allen. All told, Don has had eighteen plays produced and six published. His plays have been produced in virtually every major city of the United States, as well as in England, Germany, and Hong Kong. He has won fellowships in playwriting from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey Council of the Arts, and the New Jersey Historical Society. In 1974 Don was named Outstanding Playwright by the Arena Theatre. He was Artistic Director of Karamu House in Cleveland from 1983 to 1988, and an AMPARTS Fellow for the United States Information Agency to India in 1984. This was important to Don because it was the first time he was introduced as an American writer. In the classroom and as a director, Don was a committed teacher. His former students include such prominent artists as guitarist Stanley Jordan, and such actors as Christopher Reeves, Avery Brooks, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. His desire to help young people also led him to serve as Recreation Coordinator for the Princeton Youth Center. Don died of a heart attack on October 16, 2003. At the time of his death, It’s Showdown Time was playing before appreciative audiences in Chicago, under the auspices of the ETA Creative Arts company. A retrospective performance of Don's works is planned for February 7, 2004 in Kendall Hall at The College of New Jersey. Proceeds will benefit a memorial fund in his name. Compiled from information provided by the Evans family and a 2002 biography by Prof. Lincoln Konkle, Associate Professor of English, The College of New Jersey. The Konkle biography is used with the permission of the publisher, Alexander Street Press |
This website is sponsored by the Department of African American Studieshttp://afamstud.intrasun.tcnj.edu at The Colllege of New Jerseyhttp://www.tcnj.edu. Last updated on November 7, 2003. For further infomation contact the African American Studies Department at afamstud@tcnj.edu.