In Residence:
May 1 – May 20, 2021

Discipline:
Writer | Director | Composer

Country:
USA

About

It has been a great joy to return to Purnati for a second artist residency, in large part because the space has been instrumental to my creative and spiritual development over the years. During my stay in 2016-17, I wrote and directed a bilingual dance-drama based on a Javanese folk tale in collaboration with dancers and musicians from across the archipelago, with performances at Purnati and the Agung Rai Museum of Art. This year, having returned in the midst of a pandemic, I have refocused on two writing projects –– an essay collection and a screenplay. The collection, tentatively titled For An Audience of Gods, draws significantly on my experiences in Bali and Java, and considers ritual across cultural and historical domains. The screenplay, titled The Aviary, tells the story of an outsider who must navigate the wilds of her own subconscious in order to discover her true nature.  

Evan Silver is a hybrid writer, director, and composer staging encounters across theatre, music, video, and the literary arts. Raised in the vibrant city of Chicago by a banjo-playing printmaker and an architect, Evan gravitates toward stories of journey and transformation, drawing on ancient and contemporary mythologies to fabulate new ways of being and becoming in the world. Evan is fascinated by strangers, gods, birds, and the living universe, and has written and directed thirteen original theatre productions on three continents. Evan graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s in the literary arts, and holds master’s degrees in theatre directing and classical reception from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and King’s College, Cambridge. Evan has trained at Central Saint Martins, the Yale School of Drama, and with master topeng and wayang kulit artists in Bali. Evan is a Luce, Marshall, and Fulbright Scholar.