Joanna Evans

PH.D. CANDIDATE, M.A. '17

Joanna Evans

Joanna Evans is a South African theatre artist and performance scholar working in New York and Cape Town. They are a Ph.D. candidate in Performance Studies at NYU, researching the intersection of improvised performance and environmental subsistence in South Africa and the southern United States. Their creative practice is organized around collaboration and open-ended inquiry, and their plays have toured throughout South Africa, as well as to international festivals in Italy, Germany, Iran, Hungary, Réunion and the United States. Peer-reviewed publications include Unsettled Matters, Falling Flight: De-colonial Protest and the Becoming-Material of an Imperial Statue (TDR 2019), and “The World Trembles:” Borders and Borderlessness in the thought of Édouard Glissant (Women&Performance Journal, forthcoming 2023).

Why PS @ NYU?

Like a lot of people I didn't really know what Performance Studies was when I arrived, but very quickly I realized that this program would give me both the space and the support to explore the questions that are closest to my heart, and would push me to extend that inquiry into fascinating and unexpected places.

Education

New York University

Ph.D. Candidate - Performance Studies

New York, New York

 

New York University

Master of Arts - Performance Studies

New York, New York

 

University of Cape Town

Bachelor of Arts with Honors - Theatre and Performance 

Cape Town, South Africa

Awards & Distinctions

• TDR: The Drama Review Student Essay Contest Winner, 2017
• Leigh Odom Memorial Award for Distinguished Masters Student, NYU, 2017
• ‘Best Cutting Edge Performance’ nomination for 'The Year of the Bicycle,' Naledi Theatre Awards, 2017
• 'Best Emerging Director’ nomination, Naledi Theatre Awards 2016
• ‘Best Emerging Voice’ (Nomination), Naledi Theatre Awards, South Africa, 2016
• Best International Performance Award, Patchwork, 22nd Iranian International Festival of Theatre, 2015
• Best International Performance Award, Hamedan, Iran, 2015
• Imbewu Trust Scribe Award for Playwriting, South Africa, 2014
• Imbewu Trust Scribe Award for Best Original Script, Four Small Gods, 2014
•Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award, South African National Arts Festival, 2013
• Most Promising Student Director Award, South African National Arts Festival, 2012

Publications

• Evans, Joanna. "The world trembles:" Borders and Borderlessness in the thought of Edouard Glissant. Women&Performance Journal. Forthcoming 2022.

• Evans, Joanna. Unsettled Matters, Falling Flight: De-colonial Protest and the Becoming-Material of an Imperial Statue. TDR/The Drama Review. Winner of the 2017 TDR Student Essay Contest.

• Evans, Joanna. The Year of the Bicycle. Junkets Press. 2016.