Yale University has named Evan Yionoulis the next dean of David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre, university leaders announced today.
Yionoulis - a Yale alumna, Obie Award-winning director, and former David Geffen School of Drama faculty member - is now dean and director of The Juilliard School's drama division. She assumes the Yale role July 1, succeeding James Bundy, who has been dean for nearly 25 years.
"A widely influential leader in acting education, Yionoulis has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the student and faculty experience," Yale President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel wrote in a joint message to the university community.
Yionoulis has overseen a wide range of endeavors at Julliard, McInnis and Strobel wrote, including the transition to a tuition-free M.F.A., creation of a teacher development fellowship program, establishment of an initiative to help graduating actors prepare for film roles, and supervision of a multi-million-dollar renovation to foster greater connection within the drama community.
In addition to her leadership activities at Julliard, they said, Yionoulis has continued teaching every year, "remaining active in training and mentoring the next generation of theater professionals."
Yionoulis - who will formally be the Geffen School's Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean - is well known for her work as a director of new and classic plays at premier theaters, including Lincoln Center Theater, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Dallas Theater Center, among others.
She has collaborated with prominent playwrights, directing Adrienne Kennedy's "Ohio State Murders," which was recognized with the Lortel Award for Best Revival, and the critically acclaimed world premiere of Kennedy's "He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box." In 1998, she directed Richard Greenberg's "Three Days of Rain" at Manhattan Theatre Club, for which she won an Obie Award, and in 2003 she brought Greenberg's "The Violet Hour" to Broadway.
"Evan Yionoulis will be a visionary dean and artistic director - a leader with an inspiring commitment to the value of arts education and art-making," said search advisory committee chair Marc Robinson, who is dean of humanities in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a scholar of theater. "Her thoughtful, deeply attentive teaching and her many indelible productions promise a spectacular future at Yale. It will be a privilege to once again be her colleague."
In addition to directing others' works, Yionoulis has written and directed her own original pieces for stage and film, McInnis and Strobel wrote. 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."
Yionoulis returns to Yale "with a profound understanding of the David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre community" from her prior experience, McInnis and Strobel said.
From 1998 to 2003, she was the Lloyd Richards Chair of the Geffen School's acting program, expanding the curriculum and the faculty, and later held the role of professor in the practice of acting and directing. At Yale Rep, where she was a resident director from 1998 to 2018, she directed 14 productions, including William Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" and "Richard II," Henrik Ibsen's "The Master Builder," and Guillermo Calderón's "Kiss."
For more than three decades, she has served on the faculty of Yale Summer Session, most recently offering master classes at the Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors.
McInnis and Strobel called Yionoulis "a highly committed teacher and mentor," and noted that "she remains in touch with many of her former Yale students, who have gone on to accomplished careers in theater."
Herself a graduate of the Geffen School's directing program, Yionoulis "credits her training as formative to her understanding of the power of theater and the importance of ensuring that the next generation of theater artists, managers, and technicians have opportunities to develop their craft, expand their imaginations, sharpen their points of view, and increase their capacity to collaborate," the Yale leaders wrote. "Her experience as an undergraduate in Yale College - where she majored in literature with theater studies, participated in the Yale Dramatic Association, and became a founding member of Yale Musical Theater - profoundly influenced her career path. Her first full-length directing project took place in the Davenport College dining hall."
Yionoulis has received numerous honors and recognitions, according to the message, including a fellowship, a works-in-progress grant, and a statue award from the Princess Grace Foundation. She has also participated in curriculum reviews for major B.F.A. programs across the country and offered workshops on plays by Shakespeare, 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.
Yionoulis has also held leadership roles with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, serving as the organization's president from 2019 to 2025. Her book "Listening and Talking: A Pathway to Acting" was published in 2023 by Methuen Drama.
In returning to New Haven, Yionoulis joins her husband at the Geffen School: Donald Holder is a Tony Award-winning lighting designer and professor in the practice of design.
"I am tremendously honored to have been named the Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama and artistic director of Yale Repertory Theatre and for the opportunity to return home to Yale where I have had the privilege to study, teach, and collaborate," Yionoulis said of her appointment. "I look forward to working with David Geffen School of Drama faculty, students, and staff, as well as with partners across the university, to build on the School and Yale Rep's exceptional legacy, and chart an ambitious, vibrant, and impactful course into the future."
In their message, McInnis and Strobel recognized outgoing dean Bundy for "his remarkable dedication to the David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Rep communities for more than two decades," saying "his exceptional leadership has helped cement their legacies as world-class institutions committed to access, inclusion, and excellence."
Bundy will continue to teach at Yale.
McInnis and Strobel also thanked the search advisory committee, chaired by Robinson with support from Vice Provost Emily Bakemeier, and the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends who provided input.
