Cheryl West

See also: Cheryl West (Outrageous Fortune character)

Cheryl L. West (born 1965, Chicago) is an American playwright.

Life

West holds a degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She worked as a social worker and taught before turning to playwriting. In 1990 she moved to Seattle.^[1]

She won a National Endowment for the Arts Playwrighting Award for 1995-96. Also making a successful foray into film, her play Before It Hits Home has been optioned by Spike Lee; and she has been asked to pen a film adaptation for Home Box Office and write an original screenplay for Paramount Studios. She had been commissioned to write a dramatic adaptation of Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son.

A film version of Holiday Heart premiered on Showtime in 2000 starring Ving Rhames and Alfre Woodard.

Awards

• Before It Hits Home Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Co-winner, 1990, AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Play, 1991, Helen Hayes Charles McArthur Award Winner, Outstanding New Play, 1992
• Jar the Floor, Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Best Play, 1995

Works

Plays

• Before It Hits Home. Dramatists Play Service, Inc.. 1999. ISBN 9780822213222. http://books.google.com/books?id=OdR7utvlZyAC&dq=Cheryl+West&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=1R4A01EvlK&sig=WpQR_vQ3IzYG8Az3Ile2Qtvw7aA&hl=en&ei=FjYXSvSgJcLktge5863bDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7. 
• Jar the Floor. Dramatists Play Service, Inc.. 2002. ISBN 9780822218098. http://books.google.com/books?id=tZU31N_BIFwC&dq=Cheryl+West&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=rwxGOrfS9U&sig=KNUrYv3B13GZX9F9ks0gR1ROxzA&hl=en&ei=FjYXSvSgJcLktge5863bDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4. 
• Puddin 'n Pete - 1993
• Holiday Heart - 1994
• Play On! - 1997
• Birdie Blue - 2005 ^[2]
• Addy: An American Girl Story.

Teleplays

• Diary of a Single Mom (1 episode, 2009)
• Life Raft (2009) TV episode (writer)
• Glitter (2001) (story)
• Holiday Heart (2000) (TV) (play) (teleplay)
• Play On! (2000) (TV) (writer)

References

1. ^ http://www.seattlepi.com/theater/305684_fanf02.html
2. ^ http://www.thelmagazine.com/newyork/birdie-blue-by-cheryl-l-west/Content?oid=1134790

External links

• cheryl l. west, women of color women of words
• Cheryl L. West IMDb