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, 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, and Magic Theatre.
WRITING
His new work ORIENTAL, or 1001 Ways to Tie Yourself in Knots 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. ORIENTAL is based on 1001 Nights (A Retelling) which he co-created with Leila Buck under commission for Cal Shakes. His next play, Seven Hills of Istanbul, is a cycle of short plays with music. 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). His adaptation of Plautus’s The Braggart Soldier based on a translation by Deana Berg premiered at Custom Made Theatre Company in 2016.
LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCACY
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.
Evren has long been a leader in advocacy and organizing for Middle Eastern, North African, and Muslim creatives and stories: Since 2008, he has been an affiliated artist with Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, where he served as the Director of New Plays from 2015-2018. In 2019, he co-founded Maia Directors, a consulting group for artists and organizations engaging with Middle Eastern stories and beyond, and is a founding board member of Middle Eastern North African Theater Makers Alliance.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
Evren received the TITAN Award from Theatre Bay Area, and was named an inaugural National Director’s Fellow for the O’Neill, NNPN, the Kennedy Center, and SDCF and received a “Theatre Worker You Should Know” feature in American Theatre Magazine. He has served on selection committees for Theatre Communications Group, National Endowment for the Arts, Zellerbach Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, NNPN Showcase of New Plays, Magic Theatre, Playwrights Foundation, Playwrights' Center, Middle East America Initiative, and numerous ReOrient Festivals at Golden Thread Productions. Evren is a graduate of Princeton University.
About Me
EVREN ODCIKIN (he/him) is a Turkish-American director, writer, and arts leader based in New York City and San Francisco. He is the proud 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence at Golden Thread Productions and is a 2025 fellow for The Iris Lab at UC Santa Cruz. Over the last 20+ years, he has built a body of work that is heart centered, politically engaged, globally minded, and that centers 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.
