TRATE
Productions

Robyn Coles is the founder and president of TRATE Productions, a three-time Tony Award–winning production company. She has been an active voice in social justice, healthcare advocacy, and the arts for three decades.

She serves on the board of directors of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, and is a founding board member of the Black Economic Alliance, a 501(c)(4) organization devoted to advancing an economic agenda for Black Americans.

Robyn Coles is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Theatre Wing, where she has served as Gala Chair since 2022. She is a former board member of Spoleto Festival USA, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, and a founding board member of both the International African American Museum of Charleston, SC, and the American Conservatory Theater. She is also a founding board member of the San Francisco Opera Guild and a former trustee of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, including service on their finance committee.

Previously, she served as CEO of Computer Marketing Services and CEO of Scientific Supplies Network, a medical supply company. She is currently president of TRATE Properties, a real estate company and investment vehicle.

Robyn Coles holds a B.A. in Urban Affairs and Economics from Goucher College.

Evan Coles is a playwright, director, and poet whose work spans Broadway, film, and literary arts. He brings a rigorous creative perspective to TRATE Productions, shaped by years of collaboration with some of the American theatre's most celebrated directors.

On Broadway, he served as associate director on The Iceman Cometh, Gary, To Kill a Mockingbird, and August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. In film, he worked as assistant to the director on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Macbeth, and Rustin.

A dedicated literary artist, Evan previously served as editor of the Oral History Project at BOMB Magazine. He holds a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.F.A. in Poetry from Columbia University.