DIRECTING
Evren's productions have been named as a Critic's Pick for New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and San Francisco Chronicle; and have appeared on "Best of the Year" lists in San Francisco Chronicle, WBUR, KQED, Bay Area Reporter, and SF Bay Times. His credits include productions at Soho Rep, PlayCo, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie, A.R.T., Portland Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Prague Shakespeare Company, Marin Shakespeare Company, Venice Shakespeare Company, Northern Stage, Marin Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Center, InterAct Theatre Company, Cleveland Public Theatre, Profile Theatre, New Conservatory Theater Center, Golden Thread Productions, Shotgun Players, Crowded Fire, TheatreFirst (amongst many others), as well as workshops at New York Theatre Workshop, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, Geva Theatre Center, South Coast Rep, the Lark, Playwrights' Center, Kennedy Center, The Civilians, UCSB's Launch Pad, Playwrights Foundation, Prague Shakes, Utah Shakes, Marin Shakes, and Magic Theatre.
WRITING
ORIENTAL, or 1,001 Ways to Tie Yourself in Knots, originally conceived and written with Leila Buck under commission fro Cal Shakes, received a two-week workshop production as part of Golden Thread's 2025 Season with support from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation's New & Experimental Work Program and the 2025 Iris Lab Fellowship at UC Santa Cruz. Istanbul 1995, a play with music created in partnership with composer Avi Amon received a residency at the Mercury Store in 2026.
As a translator, his work includes Sedef Ecer's On the Periphery (world premiere, Golden Thread Productions and Crowded Fire Theatre Company, 2020) and the short plays Dream Seller by Zehra İpşiroğlu and The Day That Nobody Died by Ebru Nihan Celkan (commissioned by NYU Abu Dhabi).
Evren also adapts classics. He has directed his own adaptation of Plautus’s The Braggart Soldier based on a translation by Deana Berg at Custom Made Theatre Company in 2016 and his adaptation of William Shakespeare's As You Like It for Marin Shakes in 2026.
LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCACY
Evren has long been a leader in advocacy and organizing for Middle Eastern, North African, and Muslim creatives and stories. He is a founding board member of Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance. From 2019-2024, he was one of the co-founders of Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists and organizations engaging with Middle Eastern stories and beyond. He has had a longtime affiliation with Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East: He currently serves on their Board of Trustees; he was the 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence after being an affiliated artist since 2008; and he was on staff as the Director of New Plays from 2015-2018. He previously served as the Board President and Treasurer of Playwrights Foundation.
In 2023, Evren served as the Interim Artistic Director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival where he had been the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programming since 2019. At OSF, he led the programming of the 2024 Season, secured funding to "save" the 2023 Season, and helped guide the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the devastating Almeda Fire. At OSF, he oversaw the producing of five repertory seasons -- shepherding 32 productions of classics and new works, including the company's first holiday show, It's Christmas, Carol! He annually led an artistic core of more than 100 artists, and 10 full-time staff members. He is known for creating the first Resident Intimacy Director position in the American theatre in 2020, and his artist- and human-first approach has resulted in a revamped producing model that is less harmful and more sustainable; new work development and commissioning programs that expand beyond playwright-focused initiatives; and a reimagined negotiation and contracting process with more clarity, efficiency, and radical artist support.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Evren is a 2026 Creative Power Award recipient from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund. Previously he had been a 2025 Iris Lab Fellow at UC Santa Cruz and an 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence at Golden Thread Productions. Evren’s artistic work has been supported by the Rainin Foundation, Zellerbach Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, National Directing Fellowship, and Theatre Bay Area’s TITAN Award. He received a “Theatre Worker You Should Know” feature and his production of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's 410[GONE] was featured in American Theatre Magazine.
About Me
EVREN ODCIKIN (he/him) is a Turkish-American director, writer, and arts leader based in New York City and San Francisco. Over the last 20+ years, he has built a body of work that is heart centered, politically engaged, globally minded, and that commits to joy as resistance. As a Muslim and queer immigrant, he works every day to advocate for historically-excluded stories and voices in the American theater, and is committed to building his work with and for the communities it represents.
Evren is represented by
Ben Izzo at Michael Moore Agency.
