Photography
Minneapolis, MN
Evan T Cummings is the recipient of the Craig H. Neilsen Fellowship.
Evan T Cummings is a playwright, lyricist, educator and stage director based in New York City.
HIs playwriting explores communication and emotional bonds, the menace of loneliness and the impact of connection, the power of community and the failure of systems in American society, the danger and discovery inherent in growing up, and individual and shared experiences of disability.
His written works have been presented by New York Shakespeare Exchange, Luna Stage, Dalliance Theatre, and Roundabout Theatre.
Evan is a co-founder, playwright, and director with The World Wide Lab, a group of theatre artists that have produced director-driven works across the globe. Evan’s original play, IMPERIUM, premiered in Rome, Italy, in association with the Kairos Italy Theatre. He co-created the site-specific festival IN TRANSIT in Taipei, Taiwan. The company has also developed work at Lincoln Center, in Toronto and Thunder Bay, Canada, at The Watermill Center founded by the late Robert Wilson, and on the island of Syros in Greece.
As a member of the Roundabout Directors Group, Evan began development of a written and devised work based on the life and experiences of Christina Olsen, the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World.” Olsen, a neighbor of the artist in Maine, lived a disabled experience throughout her life, adapting to the farmhouse and fields around her. This in-progress work on Olsen’s life explores themes of solitude, the artist’s gaze, friendship, and innovation. Other writing in development includes a romantic comedy-drama, in verse and prose, that explores deafness, communication, and the search for connection, and a historical drama on the lives of Lew Wallace (a failed Civil War General and the author of Ben Hur) and his wife Susan, exploring authorship, the American West, fame, religion, and legacy.
Evan’s directing includes staged work with Lincoln Center, Roundabout Theatre, Queens Theatre, Geva Theatre, and the Stella Adler Studio. Workshops and development with: New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Fault Line Theatre, The Lark, Queens Theatre, The Private Theatre, The Tank, Luna Stage, New York Theatre Barn, and Prospect Musicals.
Recent new work development includes the song cycle SONGS FOR HANDS ON A THURSDAY with music by Jay Alan Zimmerman and lyrics from the poetry of Sarah Ruhl (concert with Prospect Musicals, November 2025) and WIZZIWIG by Amy Claussen (workshop with Queens Theatre and TBTB, May 2026), a dark comedy exploring visible and invisible disabilities in a college theatre department.
Evan served as Associate Director to Davis McCallum on the world premiere of Samuel D. Hunter’s Clarkston, and as Associate Director to Ashley Brooke Monroe on the Off-Broadway premiere of All of Me by Laura Winters, produced by The New Group and featuring stage and television actor Kyra Sedgwick. Other Assistant Directing with Pittsburgh CLO, Dallas Theater Center, Geva Theatre, LAByrinth Theater, and The Public Theater.
As an educator, Evan has developed and taught classes over the last decade for Queens Theatre and their “Theatre for All” initiative – one of the few nationally recognized programs offering arts education and training to d/Deaf and disabled professional actors, playwrights, and other generative artists. Since it's founding, “Theatre for All” has offered free training to hundreds of disabled artists, providing conservatory level training, industry connections, and greater visibility in the fields of television, film, and theatre.
Evan is an Advisory Board member for Queens Theatre’s “Theatre for All” program, an SDC Associate member and a graduate of the drama school at Carnegie Mellon University.