Cheryl Coons

Biography

Cheryl Coons serves on the National Council of the Dramatists Guild, the trade association of playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists. She was a featured instructor in musical theatre at the Kennedy Center National Playwrights Intensive in 2020. She has written lyrics and/or book for more than a dozen original musicals, including River’s End (ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Musical Theatre Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award, Theatre for the American Musical Award), At Wit’s End (Carbonell Award), Sylvia’s Real Good Advice (Joseph Jefferson Award), Female Problems (After Dark Award), and Phantom of the Country Opera, published by Music Theater International. Her work has appeared on the stages of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Northlight Theatre, the Marriott Theatre at Lincolnshire, Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, Florida Stage and Marin Theatre Company. Her original musicals have been developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center’s National Music Theatre Conference. She is a two-time participant in the ASCAP workshops in Los Angeles and Chicago. Two of her musicals were featured in the National Alliance of Musical Theatre's annual Festival of New Musicals. She created and teaches a series of musical theatre writing classes at Chicago Dramatists, where she was a Resident Playwright for 10 years, and currently serves on the Board of Directors. She has served as an animateur for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Chicago Voices program, a mentor/instructor for the Writing the Musical course at Northwestern University, and an instructor of musical theatre writing at Columbia College Chicago. She teaches two courses in musical theatre writing for the Dramatists Guild Institute and mentors musical theatre writers through the Institute’s Plays in Progress program. As a vocalist, Cheryl performed her original songs at Carnegie Hall in an evening hosted by Michael Feinstein. As a cabaret artist, she has performed at premiere Chicago venues including the legendary Pump Room at the Ambassador East, Davenport's, the Chicago Humanities Festival, and multiple appearances on WBEZ, Chicago's public radio affiliate.