Evan Linder is a playwright and actor in Chicago. He is a founding member of The New Colony where he serves as Co-Artistic Director and he also teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago. For The New Colony, Evan created The Writers Room, an education program he leads for emerging Chicago playwrights. Since 2011, he has served as a volunteer creative writing tutor at the Jane Addams Resource Center in Ravenswood. Evan's first play produced in Chicago, FRAT, was named as one of the Best of 2009 in the Chicago Tribune, Windy City Times and New City. Other plays include 11:11, The Warriors, The Bear Suit of Happiness (published through Chicago Dramaworks), B-Side Studio and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche (published through Samuel French Inc). 5 Lesbians enjoyed an Off-Broadway run at the SoHo Playhouse in 2012-13 and has since been performed all over the US, in eight countries and translated into three languages. Evan was recently listed on Chicago Magazine’s Power List of Theater Scene Stealers. His new play "Byhalia, Mississippi" will receive simultaneous world premiere productions opening on January 8th, 2016 at companies in Chicago, Memphis and Charleston SC. The following week, theatres in Toronto, Boulder, Los Angeles and Birmingham will produce staged readings of the play before a live, online World Premiere Conversation is held connecting audiences and creative teams in all seven cities on January 18th, 2016. http://evanlinder.com