Evans studied acting, directing, and playwriting at the Hagen-Berghof Studios in New York City from 1969 to 1970, during which time he also taught English and Drama at Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey. Part of the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s, Evans had his first plays, the one-acts "Orrin" and "Sugarmouth Sam Don’t Dance No More" performed in 1972 at the Crossroads Theatre, a professional playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The following year, this became his Manhattan debut production, at the Theater de Lys.