Playwright

Meryl Cohn

Meryl Cohn writes comedies about things that aren't usually funny: grief, secrets, and family.

“Cohn’s genius is drawing characters who manage to be simultaneously over-the-top and innately human.”— Cape Cod Times

Recent Another True Thing — readings with the Truro Playwright Collective and the Northampton Playwrights Lab, spring 2026

Provincetown TheaterSkylight TheatreN.Y. International Fringe FestivalOpen Fist TheatreWellfleet Harbor Actors Theater

01 / About

About

Her work includes comedies about grief, dramas that keep making you laugh, and at least one rock musical about a washed-up ’80s rocker.

Her plays have been developed, workshopped, and produced at the Provincetown Theater, Skylight Theatre, Open Fist Theatre, TOSOS, the New York International Fringe Festival and Encore Series, Smith College, Strident Theatre, Counter Productions, and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, among others.

Awards and honors include the ATHE Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, the Eventide Arts Kaplan Playwriting Prize, the Denis Johnston Playwriting Award, the Curve Magazine Playwriting Award, two O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semifinalist selections, Lark semifinalist recognition, Massachusetts Cultural Council finalist recognition, and Cape Cod Times Favorite Play recognition.

Before turning primarily to playwriting, Cohn spent years dispensing wisdom as Ms. Behavior, her syndicated humor and advice column, and wrote Do What I Say: Ms. Behavior’s Guide to Gay and Lesbian Etiquette. She founded the Northampton Playwrights Lab in 2006, belongs to the Truro Playwright Collective, TOSOS, and the Dramatists Guild, and earned her MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She lives in Provincetown and Northampton, Massachusetts.

02 / In Development

In Development

New work available for readings and development conversations

Another True Thing

How much truth can a room hold before every boundary gives way?

Five strangers enter a storytelling workshop led by Greta, a provocative writing instructor who pushes them to tell the stories they’re most afraid to tell. When they share more than they intend, revealing truth becomes scary, liberating, awkward, and sometimes volatile. As boundaries dissolve and intimacy deepens, the group confronts how unsettling—and sometimes transformative—it is to be seen.

Cast2026 reading cast · 5 actors · 4 women, 1 man

FormatFull-length · about 90 minutes

GenreComedy / drama

View play details Request the script Truro reading publicity

Reading history

Truro Playwright Collective reading, March 2026
Northampton Playwrights Lab Play-by-Play Festival reading at Northampton Center for the Arts, April 2026

03 / Plays

Plays

Susan Lambert as Jojo and D’Arcy Dersham as Michaela in The Fade-Away Advantage — The Fade-Away Advantage · Photo by Bob Tucker/Focalpoint

From the 2024 review

“The dialogue is snappy and clever and delivered with impeccable timing, and Cohn knows exactly when it’s time to move the audience’s emotional temperature.”

— ptownieRead the full review

The Fade-Away Advantage

How far would you go to keep a promise to a friend?

Cast4 actors · 3 women, 1 man

FormatFull-length · about 95 minutes

Top creditProvincetown Theater production, October 2024

GenreComedy / drama

View play details Request the script

A performer raises both arms in a charged comic scene from The Fade-Away Advantage — A charged moment from The Fade-Away Advantage

The Final Say

Whose story is it, anyway?

Cast6 actors · 4 women, 2 men

FormatFull-length · about 100 minutes

Top creditStrident Theatre production at Hallie Flanagan Theater, Northampton, MA, June–July 2019

GenreComedy / drama

View play details Request the script

A performer stretches both arms toward the lights in The Final Say — The Final Say in performance

Reasons to Live

The Silversteins gather for a wedding. It is their first time in one room since the tragedy no one will talk about.

Cast6 actors · 5 women, 1 man

FormatFull-length · about 105 minutes

Top creditSkylight Theatre and Open Fist Theatre co-production, Los Angeles, October–November 2014

GenreComedy / drama

View play details Request the script

A bride lies on the floor beside a red sofa in Reasons to Live — The Silversteins’ wedding day in Reasons to Live

And Sophie Comes Too

Three adult children finally tell their comatose mother the truth. Then she wakes up.

Cast6 actors · 5 women, 1 trans man

FormatFull-length · about 90 minutes

Top creditN.Y. International Fringe Festival, 2009

GenreComedy

View play details Request the script

Three adult children sit together, one holding a razor, in And Sophie Comes Too — Three siblings tell the truth in And Sophie Comes Too

Insatiable Hunger

By Meryl Cohn, Susan Goldberg, and Billy Hough

A washed-up ’80s rocker gets an unexpected shot at redemption with the family she once abandoned.

Cast2009 workshop cast · 9 actors · 6 women, 3 men

FormatFull-length · about 105 minutes

Top creditWellfleet Harbor Actors Theater workshop production, produced by Counter Productions, two-week run, 2009

GenreRock musical comedy

View play details Request the script

Lea DeLaria starring in Insatiable Hunger by Meryl Cohn, Susan Goldberg, and Billy Hough — Insatiable Hunger, by Meryl Cohn, Susan Goldberg, and Billy Hough, starring Lea DeLaria

The Siegels of Montauk

The truth about their father could shatter the Siegels, or finally set them free.

Cast6 actors · 5 women, 1 man

FormatFull-length · about 105 minutes

Top creditProvincetown Theater production, produced by Counter Productions, 2008

GenreTragicomedy

View play details Request the script

Four performers in a lively beach-house scene from The Siegels of Montauk — The Siegel sisters reunite in Montauk

Naked With Fruit

Four women who lost the same love try to build a family out of the wreckage.

Cast4 actors · 4 women

FormatFull-length · about 95 minutes

Top creditProvincetown Theater production, 2006

GenreComedy / drama

View play details Request the script

Three performers in conversation in a scene from Naked With Fruit — A scene from Naked With Fruit

Almost Home

When your mother chooses someone else, who chooses you?

Cast5 actors · 4 women, 1 man

FormatFull-length · about 90 minutes

Top creditProvincetown Theater production, 2003

GenreDark comedy

View play details Request the script

Black-and-white publicity portrait of a young woman reclining with an open magazine for Almost Home — Almost Home publicity photograph

Black-and-white publicity portrait of a young man by the Provincetown waterfront for Almost Home — Almost Home publicity photograph

04 / Press

Press

Read the TDF interview

Cohn’s script is simultaneously witty and meditative, sexy and absurd.

The Provincetown Independent · The Fade-Away Advantage

Non-stop funny, wickedly insightful, and infused with comic brilliance.

Provincetown Banner · Reasons to Live

Four Stars! Hilarious and very touching!

Time Out New York · And Sophie Comes Too

In her new play, Cohn mines grief for love, life-affirming moments—and humor.

Cape Cod Times · Naked With Fruit

Provincetown Magazine Q&A Northampton Playwrights Lab feature

05 / Awards

Awards

Eventide Arts Kaplan Playwriting Prize · 2015

The Final Say

Cape Cod Times · Favorite Plays of 2012

Reasons to Live

ATHE Jane Chambers Award · Runner-Up · 2012

The Final Say

ATHE Jane Chambers Playwriting Award · 2010

The Siegels of Montauk

O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist · 2008

Reasons to Live

Massachusetts Cultural Council Finalist · 2007

Naked With Fruit

O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist · 2006

And Sophie Comes Too

Lark Play Development Center Semifinalist · 2006

And Sophie Comes Too

Curve Magazine Playwriting Award · 2006

And Sophie Comes Too

Denis Johnston Playwriting Award

Smith College

Cover of Do What I Say: Ms. Behavior’s Guide to Gay and Lesbian Etiquette by Meryl Cohn

06 / Publications

Publications

The Siegels of MontaukLesbian and Queer Plays from the Jane Chambers Prize anthology
Monologue from And Sophie Comes TooBest Women’s Monologues 2011 · Smith & Kraus
AwakeEstrogenius collection
Breath and SparkA Meditation on Friendship · Gallery of Readers, 2017 · Illustrated by Donna Flax
Essays, articles, reviews, and interviewsThe Village Voice · The Washington Post · The Boston Phoenix · Bay Windows
Ms. BehaviorHumorous syndicated advice column appearing in more than a dozen newspapers
Do What I SayMs. Behavior’s Guide to Gay and Lesbian Etiquette · Houghton Mifflin, 1995

07 / Contact

Contact

Scripts are available on request, directly from the playwright. For scripts, production inquiries, and permissions, write to meryl@merylcohn.com

New Play Exchange profile