EVREN ODCIKIN

EVREN ODCIKIN is a director, writer, and arts administrator with a deep commitment to championing historically-excluded voices and stories in the American theatre.

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As a director, he has worked at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater, A.R.T., Woolly Mammoth, PlayCo, New York Theatre Workshop, Geva Theatre Center, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, the Lark, Kennedy Center, The Civilians, InterAct (Philadelphia), Cleveland Public Theatre, TheatreSquared, Magic Theatre, Crowded Fire, Golden Thread Productions, TheatreFirst, and Playwrights Foundation with such writers as Melis Aker, Kevin Artigue, Guillermo Calderón, Christopher Chen, Jeesun Choi, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Gabriel Jason Dean, Yussef El Guindi, Lauren Gunderson, Prince Gomolvilas, Denmo Ibrahim, David Jacobi, MJ Kaufman, Hannah Khalil, Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Michael Lew, Mona Mansour, Rehana Lew Mirza, Baruch Porras Hernandez, Betty Shamieh, Caridad Svich, Jordan Tannahill, Lauren Yee, and Amir Nizar Zuabi, amongst many others. His productions have been Barrymore and Theatre Bay Area Awards Recommended; appeared on "Best of the Year" lists in San Francisco Chronicle, WBUR, KQED, Bay Area Reporter, and SF Bay Times; were named as a Critic's Pick for Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and San Francisco Chronicle; and were nominated for numerous Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards. 

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As a writer, he created 1001 Nights (A Retelling) with Leila Buck under commission for Cal Shakes. He translated short plays by Zehra İpşiroğlu and Ebru Nihan Celkan from Turkish for NYU Abu Dhabi. His adaptation of Plautus’s The Braggart Soldier based on a translation by Deana Berg premiered at Custom Made Theatre Company in 2016, and his translation of Sedef Ecer’s On the Periphery received its world premiere in a co-production for Golden Thread Productions and Crowded Fire Theatre Company. He has also written two short plays: The King of Istanbul and The Queen of Istanbul.

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Evren serves as the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programming at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and is a founder of Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists and organizations engaging with Middle Eastern stories and beyond. He is a founding steering committee member of MENA Theater Makers Alliance. From 2015-2018, he served as the Director of New Plays and Marketing at Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, where he is now a resident artist. On the administrative side, he was most recently the communications consultant for KQED’s $135 million Campaign 21, and has held high-level marketing and communications positions at American Conservatory Theater and Magic Theatre.

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Recognitions include a “Theatre Worker You Should Know” selection by American Theatre Magazine; a National Director’s Fellowship from the O’Neill, NNPN, the Kennedy Center, and SDCF; the TITAN Award from Theatre Bay Area; and being selected as an Emerging Theatre Leader by Theatre Communications Group for their Leadership Bootcamp. He has served on selection committees for Theatre Communications Group, National Endowment for the Arts, Zellerbach Foundation, NNPN Showcase of New Plays, Magic Theatre, and Middle East America Initiative. Evren was born and raised in Turkey and is a graduate of Princeton University.

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(Photo by Angel Gardner, Princeton Arts)