Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Tsitsias, Evan
Director, playwright, performer, artistic director, and theatre educator, Evan Tsitsias studied at York University and Sheridan College. He has his Professional Training Certificate in “Theatre of the Oppressed” from London, England where he trained with Augusto Boal, Julian Boal, and Adrian Jackson.
His plays include Aftershock, The Murmuration of Starlings, Unstuck, Strange Mary Strange, and the musical Inge(new) – In search of a musical. His short film Bagged, aired on the CBC, WIFT, DC Shorts and NSI.
Selected Canadian directing credits include Impact Festival (MT Space), Theatre Aquarius, Grand Theatre, London (Studio), Fringe Festival, Next Stage, Buddies in Bad Times (Burn This!, Don’t Tell Mama, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom ). He has produced Homebody/Kabul (Dora Mavor Moore Awards nomination) with Mercury Theatre, Pterodactyls (Tarragon Theatre), Talk Sixty To Me (Summerworks), and an Ontario tour of Shirley Valentine.
In Germany he has co-created/directed/written I am Invisible (Bluespots Productions/Augsburg), Berlin Bound, My Berlin (FELD Theatre/SDF), and We Are The Play (Sisyphos Der Flugelefant/English Theatre Berlin) for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial.
He spent ten years at Theatre Under the Stars in Houston, Texas, where he directed James and the Giant Peach at Miller Outdoor Theatre, and worked as an Associate in the Education/Community Engagement Department. He has been the Artistic Assistant for the Company, and Head of Acting for the Humphreys School of Music Theatre. He is former and founding Artistic Director of Eclipse Theatre Company where he directed Kiss of the Spider Woman and Sunday in the Park with George, and created the Musical Theatre Lab.
He is a co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Directors Lab North, a sister program to the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, of which he is an alumnus. As a founding member of the World Wide Lab, an international directors collective, he spent a decade traveling across the globe co-directing/co-writing/co-creating mostly site specific, immersive pieces in Greece, Taipei, Rome, New York, and Thunder Bay.
He is a member of the Chicago Directors Lab, Playwrights Guild of Canada, and was a resident artist at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. He is also a member of the Tarragon Playwright’s Unit and the Stratford Festival’s Playwright’s Retreat.
His books, The Directors Lab and This is Beyond: A Time Capsule of Queer Experience (co-edited with Bilal Baig) were published by Playwrights Canada Press. His other work has been published in Germany, Canada, and the US.
He has been nominated for a Dora Award, the John Hirsch Directing Prize, Tom Hendry Award, Herman Voaden National Playwriting Prize (Honorable Mention), Broadwayworld Awards, and was a finalist for the Charles Abbott Directing Fellowship.
Website: www.evantsitsias.com
Last updated 2024-02-27
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