Cheryl Coons is a member of the National Council of the Dramatists Guild, the professional trade association for playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists, where she serves on the Steering Committee. Her work as a lyricist and/or bookwriter has appeared on the stages of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Northlight Theatre, the Drury Lane Theatre, the Marriott Theatre, and Pegasus, as well as theatres across the country and internationally, and is published by Music Theatre International. She is the recipient of the Joseph Jefferson Award, two Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, the Carbonell Award, and the ASCAP Foundation Harold Arlen Musical Theatre Award. She has been a featured instructor for the Kennedy Center National Playwrighting Intensive, the Dramatists Guild Institute, Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, and Chicago Dramatists. For eight years, she served as Program Manager for the Temporary Lockdown Ensemble of Storycatchers Theatre at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, working with young writers to develop their personal stories into original musical theatre works. Since 2019 she has been a voter for the Tony Awards and is grateful to serve our magnificent Chicago community on the Jeff Committee.
