Evan Linder is a founding member and the former co-artistic director of Chicago’s The New Coordinates, 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 received the Alumni of the Year award in 2016. His plays include Byhalia Mississippi, 11:11, The Warriors, The Bear Suit of Happiness, B-Side Studio and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, which was named Best Overall Production at the 2012 NYC International Fringe Festival and is published by Samuel French. 5 Lesbians also 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.

.

His play 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 the 2016 Non-Equity Jeff Awards where Evan was given the Jeff Award for Best New Work. In summer of 2016, Evan reprised his role as Jim in the remount of Byhalia, Mississippi at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Byhalia was recently announced as part of the Kennedy Center’s 2018-2019 Season.

His play The Hunted, co-written with Paul Oakley Stovall, received its first public reading at About Face’s First DrAAft Series in August 2016 and was named a finalist for the 2017 O’Neill Playwrights Conference. The Hunted received further development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab in August 2017. He recently reprised his role as Stuart in the remount of Broken Nose Theatre’s At the Table, winner of four 2017 Jeff Awards including Best Play and Best Ensemble. 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, Evan continues to teach the Writers Room, an education program he created in 2015 that has now welcomed over 60 emerging playwrights.