Don Evans

Don Evans
Born	April 27, 1938 Merchantville, New Jersey, United States
Died	October 16, 2003
Spouse(s)	Frances Gooding Chapman (div.)

Donald Thomas "Don" Evans (April 27, 1938–October 16, 2003) was an African-American playwright, theatre director, actor and educator.

Evans was born April 27, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Mary Evans. 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.

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. He also was an adjunct professor at Princeton University and a visiting professor of theater arts at Rutgers University.

He worked from 1978 to 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.

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

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