Evan Yionoulis, an Obie award-winning director and nationally-recognized teacher of acting, has been Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of Juilliard’s drama division since 2018. On July 1, she will return to Yale as Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of the David Geffen School of Drama there and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre. She had previously served twenty years on the faculty there and was a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, where she directed Cymbeline, Richard II, The Master Builder, George F. Walker’s Heaven, Brecht’s Galileo, and numerous other productions including Caryl Churchill’s Owners, Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss, and the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Bossa Nova.

She has directed new plays and classics in New York, across the country, and internationally, including Adrienne Kennedy’s He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box for Theatre for a New Audience, where she also directed Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders (Lortel Award, Best Revival). Other credits include Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour (Broadway), Three Days of Rain (Obie Award for direction, Manhattan Theatre Club), and Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center Theater).

With composer/lyricist Mike Yionoulis, she has been developing Redhand Guitar, about five generations of musicians across an American century, and The Dread Pirate Project, about identity and anonymity across the digital and natural worlds.

She is a Princess Grace Awards recipient and served for twelve years on the executive board of SDC, the labor union representing stage directors and choreographers, the final six as president. Her book Listening and Talking: A Pathway to Acting is published by Methuen Drama.