Doug Cooney

DOUG COONEY is a playwright based in Los Angeles. His play, THE FINAL TOUR, was recently selected for developmental workshop with director Moises Kaufmann at the Sundance Theater Lab 2003. THE LEGEND OF ALEX, a youth musical, premiered at the Mark Taper Forum’s P.L.A.Y. and toured Los Angeles County. THE BELOVED DEARLY was produced by Lincoln Center Institute in a production directed by Elizabeth Swados.

Doug Cooney

As a playwright, Cooney has been produced at the Kennedy Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Dance Theater Workshop, the International Very Special Arts Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, among others. He has been awarded grants, commissions and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, A.S.K. Theatre Projects and the Ruth Simon Foundation.

Cooney has written screenplays for SONY Pictures and Nickelodeon and television scripts for the Disney Channel and the Discovery Channel.

He has also published several works of children’s literature including, THE BELOVED DEARLY, adapted as a novel for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2002 and released as an audio book by Full Cast Audio, I KNOW WHO LIKES YOU, and HUGO & FRITZ.

Cooney is also extremely active as a community-based artist in educational outreach programs. He is currently writing songs with elementary school students as a part of VOICES WITHIN for the Master Chorale of Los Angeles, writing plays with high school students in THE GRAFFITI PROJECT for Florida Stage and visiting classrooms as a teaching artist with the Playwrights Project.

As a performance artist, Cooney was a finalist for the CalArts/Alpert Foundation's 1998 Award for Excellence in the Theater. He recently premiered SO A LAWYER, A PRIEST AND AN ATHEIST WALK INTO A BAR, a triple bill evening with John McGivern and Rob Nash at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, sponsored by the Suitcase Fund of the National Performance Network. Last February, Cooney premiered another full-length solo-work, AN EYE FOR AN EYE, at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida – recreating a famous murder trial as a 1950’s television variety show. In LAND O’LEISURE, a solo piece about Florida tourism, Cooney appeared onstage with a live alligator. His signature piece, DANCING LIKE MY FATHER, was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. TOM & SALLY, a performance work built with Karen Stephens about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, toured extensively throughout the United States through the National Performance Network.

He attended the University of Virginia, the University of Florida and Trinity Rep Conservatory. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Writers Guild of America, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, ASSITEJ International, Circle Rising and Alternate ROOTS.