Dean and Artistic Director, Yale Repertory Theatre

We are pleased to announce that Yale University has selected Evan Yionoulis to serve as the next Dean of the David Geffen School of Drama and Artistic Director of the Yale Repertory Theatre, effective July 1, 2026.

Currently the Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of the Drama Division at The Juilliard School, Professor Yionoulis will return to Yale, where she began her career as a student and spent twenty years on the David Geffen School of Drama faculty. During her tenure at Juilliard, she has overseen and instituted a wide range of endeavors, including the transition to a tuition-free M.F.A., creation of a teacher development fellowship program, establishment of a film initiative to help graduating actors prepare for roles on film, and supervision of a multi-million-dollar renovation to foster greater connection within the drama community.

Professor Yionoulis is also known for her extensive work directing new and classic plays at prestigious theaters across the country, including Lincoln Center Theater, the Mark Taper Forum, and Dallas Theater Center, among many others. In addition to directing works by others, Professor Yionoulis has written and directed her own original pieces for stage and film. With her brother, composer and lyricist Mike Yionoulis, she released the short film Lost and Found, which premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival, and developed the multi-platform project Redhand Guitar.

Professor Yionoulis has received numerous honors and recognitions, including a fellowship, a works-in-progress grant, and a statue award from the Princess Grace Foundation. In service to the theater community, she has participated in curriculum reviews for major B.F.A. programs across the country and offered workshops on plays by William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Bertolt Brecht, and Suzan-Lori Parks, among others. She has also served as an adjudicator on award and program selection panels for the Tony Awards, the Obie Awards, the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright grants, and the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.  

You can read the full press release here.

Sheryl Ash and Ben Tobin led this search with David Grimes and Alaine Small.