Christine Evans

Christine Evans

Christine Evans’ award-winning plays have been produced in her native Australia, the US and the UK and published by Samuel French, Smith & Kraus and in Theatre Forum. In 2013, NoPassport Press published her trilogy, WAR PLAYS. Selected productions include TROJAN BARBIE at the American Repertory Theatre, the Garage Theater, Playbox Theatre (UK) and Charing Cross Theatre (UK); YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE HERE.,...
Christine Evans’ award-winning plays have been produced in her native Australia, the US and the UK and published by Samuel French, Smith & Kraus and in Theatre Forum. In 2013, NoPassport Press published her trilogy, WAR PLAYS. Selected productions include TROJAN BARBIE at the American Repertory Theatre, the Garage Theater, Playbox Theatre (UK) and Charing Cross Theatre (UK); YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE HERE., developed with Joseph Megel and Jared Mezzocchi (HERE Arts, NYC, 2013); WEIGHTLESS, MOTHERGUN and ALL SOULS’ DAY at Perishable Theatre; SLOW FALLING BIRD at Crowded Fire, San Francisco and at Darwin Theatre Company; in Australia, MY VICIOUS ANGEL at Belvoir St. Theatre, Vitalstatistix, and the Adelaide International Festival of the Arts.

Honors include a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Award, two MacDowell Colony residencies, a Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, an Australian Fulbright Award, Perishable’s International Women’s Playwriting Competition (2000 and 2002), the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, Plays for the 21st Century Award, the Rella Lossy Playwriting Award, and 2009 and 2013 Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) Playwriting Fellowships.

Evans is a Core Member of the Playwrights’ Center. She was a 2012 O’Neill Finalist, a 2010-13 Resident Artist at HERE (NY), and is a Women’s Project Playwrights Lab alumna. She holds an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from Brown and joined the Georgetown Department of Performing Arts faculty in 2012.

In 2015, her first novel, CLOUDLESS, was released by University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP). It is available online on Amazon and Barnes and Noble in the U.S. and U.K.
http://www.christine-evans-playwright.com

Plays

  • TORGUS & SNOW by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    7–9
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 6 more
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    Keyword: refugee, border + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, movement/physical, political, science fiction
    Keyword: refugee, border, trauma, immigration, international, Sweden, war, Ukraine, Romany, child immigrants
    NB: Updated October 2019.-- A talking vacuum cleaner, a child-turned-machine, and malevolent trolls interweave in a Nordic fever-dream inspired by Sweden’s “apathetic children” – young refugees who fall into coma-like states when faced with deportation.
  • GALILEE by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: fishing, Australia + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, fable/folktale, political
    Keyword: fishing, Australia, climate change, Lesbian, working class, ecology, coral reef
    GALILEE takes place amidst the collision of competing economic and ecological forces in a small Australian coastal town on the Great Barrier Reef. As coral bleaches deathly white across the Reef and the oceans heat up, a young marine scientist fights to save the seas - but first, she has to save her mother's hair salon business from a dangerous land shark.
  • CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: multimedia, war + 4 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, political
    Keyword: multimedia, war, Virtual Iraq, veterans, PTSD, Iraq
    CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR (previously titled YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE HERE.) is a multi-media play that tells the charged story of the interwoven lives of an African-American soldier, an Iraqi girl blogger and a white military therapist, through the lens of the technologies that connect them. Inspired by the convergence of video game environments, virtual technology and military research, it is the world’s first...
    CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR (previously titled YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE HERE.) is a multi-media play that tells the charged story of the interwoven lives of an African-American soldier, an Iraqi girl blogger and a white military therapist, through the lens of the technologies that connect them. Inspired by the convergence of video game environments, virtual technology and military research, it is the world’s first theatrical production licensed to incorporate animated landscapes from “Virtual Iraq,” a virtual-reality (VR) program based on war video-games and used in veterans’ PTSD therapy. Winner of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Playwriting/ Screenwriting Fellowship, 2013. It was developed through HERE's New York HARP artist residency program and elsewhere, with director Joseph Megel and media designer Jared Mezzocchi; slated for production at StreetSigns, Chapel Hill, September 2017.
  • SLOW FALLING BIRD by Christine Evans
    Cast: 
    9
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: Australia, Nauru + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Australia, Nauru, refugee, war, Heightened, Iraq, Afghanistan, international
    SLOW FALLING BIRD is set in an immigration detention center in Woomera in the dead heart of the Australian desert. It charts the tinderbox relationships between guards and inmates when a deadly bargain for a child's survival is struck across the wire. Mixing gritty realism with hallucinatory sequences, SLOW FALLING BIRD is set in both a real desert, and a desert of the mind. Winner of the Rella Lossy Award...
    SLOW FALLING BIRD is set in an immigration detention center in Woomera in the dead heart of the Australian desert. It charts the tinderbox relationships between guards and inmates when a deadly bargain for a child's survival is struck across the wire. Mixing gritty realism with hallucinatory sequences, SLOW FALLING BIRD is set in both a real desert, and a desert of the mind. Winner of the Rella Lossy Award (San Francisco) and the Monash National Play Award (Australia).
  • TROJAN BARBIE by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    11–16
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    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: Trojan Women, war + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, drama, experimental, tragedy
    Keyword: Trojan Women, war, women, heightened language, international
    Past and present violently collide when Lotte, an English tourist who repairs dolls, is captured while on a tour of current-day Troy and flung back into the ancient camp of Euripides’ Trojan Women. Her vacation gone horribly wrong, Lotte is finally rescued and life returns to normal–until Hecuba claws her way into the 21st century in search of her murdered children. Winner of the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award...
    Past and present violently collide when Lotte, an English tourist who repairs dolls, is captured while on a tour of current-day Troy and flung back into the ancient camp of Euripides’ Trojan Women. Her vacation gone horribly wrong, Lotte is finally rescued and life returns to normal–until Hecuba claws her way into the 21st century in search of her murdered children. Winner of the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Playwriting Fellowship and the Plays for the 21st Century award.
  • GREETINGS FROM FALLUJAH by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: drama, political + 1 more
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    Keyword: refugee, Iraq + 3 more
    Genre: drama, political, young audiences
    Keyword: refugee, Iraq, Fallujah, war, Muslim women
    A short solo play for a young woman. Several scenes can function as stand-alone monologues.

    Zaynab, a funny and lively girl in Fallujah, blogs from her home during the American invasion in 2003. Her romantic dreams of her cousin collide with the reality of war, until Zaynab turns to the moon for help.

    Inspired by the blogs of teenage girls from Iraq during what Iraqis refer to as...
    A short solo play for a young woman. Several scenes can function as stand-alone monologues.

    Zaynab, a funny and lively girl in Fallujah, blogs from her home during the American invasion in 2003. Her romantic dreams of her cousin collide with the reality of war, until Zaynab turns to the moon for help.

    Inspired by the blogs of teenage girls from Iraq during what Iraqis refer to as "the American war," and the great in-depth reporting and books of the fearless late Anthony Shadid.

    Zaynab is also a character in my full-length play, YOU ARE DEAD. YOU ARE HERE. developed in collaboration with director Joseph Megel and media designer Jared Mezzocchi.
  • CAN'T COMPLAIN by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
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    Keyword: women, aging + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, tragedy
    Keyword: women, aging, family, magical realism, race relations
    An inter-racial Boston-Irish ghost story. Rita is always in control. But when her daughter Maureen admits her to hospital for "a few tests" after a stroke, Rita's iron grip on the family's troubled history starts to disintegrate. Rita begins to plot her escape with the help of her elderly Irish roommate Iris, her granddaughter Jansis, and her cat's new best friend, the Devil--until a...
    An inter-racial Boston-Irish ghost story. Rita is always in control. But when her daughter Maureen admits her to hospital for "a few tests" after a stroke, Rita's iron grip on the family's troubled history starts to disintegrate. Rita begins to plot her escape with the help of her elderly Irish roommate Iris, her granddaughter Jansis, and her cat's new best friend, the Devil--until a riotous midnight party forces her to choose--flee, or stay and face the music? Awards: Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Merit Award (Playwriting/Screenwriting) 2012
  • WEIGHTLESS by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: queer, futuristic + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, satire, science fiction
    Keyword: queer, futuristic, money, social class
    An American family become trapped in their penthouse apartment, isolated from the world by wealth, fear, and an excessive attention to hygiene. A live in maid is constantly remodeled by her plastic surgeon mistress, at the cost of her memory, gender and sense of gravity. But when gravity returns, the family’s mirror-ball world explodes, leaving a surprising survivor.
  • MOTHERGUN by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: war, refugee + 2 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, political, tragedy
    Keyword: war, refugee, heightened language, international
    A group of three survivors from a fratricidal war, who have no common language, struggle to survive in the mud of a camp with only an unreliable translator to keep their fragile peace. A child soldier leads the way to safety, but at a terrible price. A tree blooms gold in the middle of a winter that won't end. Winner of Perishable Theatre's International Women's Playwriting Competition, 2000
  • MY VICIOUS ANGEL by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: circus, music + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale
    Keyword: circus, music, dreams, magical realism, Australian
    Pearl, a fallen trapeze artist, lands in hospital with a broken spine. Her childhood twin Merle haunts her and, through songs and games, tricks Pearl into revisiting a long-buried past. A kitchen tango, a parrot’s betrayal, a father gone to sea and a terrible fire finally lead to a reckoning between the twins in Pearl's haunted hospital room allow the twins to complete a story from which Pearl has fled and...
    Pearl, a fallen trapeze artist, lands in hospital with a broken spine. Her childhood twin Merle haunts her and, through songs and games, tricks Pearl into revisiting a long-buried past. A kitchen tango, a parrot’s betrayal, a father gone to sea and a terrible fire finally lead to a reckoning between the twins in Pearl's haunted hospital room allow the twins to complete a story from which Pearl has fled and in which Merle has remained trapped until now. Winner of the Adelaide Critics Circle Award- Outstanding Production
  • JOY by Christine Evans
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: isolation, magical realism + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: isolation, magical realism, Quarantine
    ELSE's been alone, with her insomnia, for months. Nightly, she begins a Zoom meeting, inviting JOY to join her. One night, JOY appears. But who is she?