Michael EvendenProfessor, Theater StudiesDirector of Undergraduate Research, Theater Studies
Biography
Michael Evenden (he/him) The son of a Norwegian immigrant, Dr. Evenden received his MFA and DFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism at the Yale School of Drama, and has taught acting, directing, and dramatic history, literature, criticism, and theory at five colleges and Universities, including Emory, Cornell, and Yale.
He has served as a consultant dramaturg, hired by actors Dianne Wiest and Harris Yulin for projects on and off Broadway, and by Yup’ik storyteller and playwright Jack Dalton for his plays Assimilation and The Last of His Kind, developed for Native Voices at the Autry in San Diego and Cyrano’s Theater in Anchorage, Alaska. He has been an assistant literary manager of the Yale Repertory Theater, an associate editor of Theater Magazine, the literary manager of the Promised Valley Playhouse in Salt Lake City, and, in Atlanta, has been a production dramaturg for the Alliance Theater (August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia), the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Actor’s Express (the world premiere of Robert Schenkkan’s Handler), and Theatrical Outfit (the world premiere adaptation of John Kennedy O’Toole’s Conspiracy of Dunces).
He came to Emory in 1987 as a founding member of the Theater Studies faculty and Resident Dramaturg at Theater Emory. At Theater Emory, in addition to production dramaturgy, he has acted in and directed occasional projects, has devised experimental performances integrating dramatic, poetic, and historical materials, and has happily participated in the development of new plays by Frank Manley, Steve Murray, Robert Schenkkan, David Kranes, and Matthew Maguire. He is the recipient of awards for teaching and advising, is the author of a number of scholarly articles and reviews, and provided the website materials for the tenth edition of Brockett and Hildy’s History of the Theatre. He is the author of a book, Silence and Selfhood: The Desire of Order in Mozart’s Magic Flute, published by the Peter Lang Press.
