Cherilyn Bacon is an American actor-singer who performs on stage, on camera, and voice-over, as well as a seasoned faculty member who has taught at the Orange County School of the Arts, the California School of the Arts, and Brigham Young University. She maintains a private voice studio in Woodland Hills, California while also continuing to be a working actor-singer.
She offers in-person and virtual lessons for students who travel great distances to her studio in Woodland Hills, California for lessons, coaching, and masterclasses in acting and singing. She also has a studio in Glendora, California for her students that live in the San Gabriel Valley, San Bernardino and Orange County.
Her students have performed professionally around the world and on Broadway. She also has a successful record training her students in audition techniques to land leading roles in their schools from Middle School to the university level. She also to consults on college submissions for prospective music majors in opera, musical theatre, contemporary commercial music and jazz.
Alexa Wildish, her private student while attending Orange County School of the Arts competed on the 24th Season of NBC’s The Voice, making it all the way to the playoff round. Alexa’s mother wrote, “Cherilyn, you have left a lasting impression on our daughter… You have exhibited the highest degree of professionalism that undoubtedly will contribute to the character and theatrical development of these talented teenagers.
“We especially appreciated the fact that you always put the students’ interests above all competing pressures or demands. The quality of the performances by First Act clearly reflected the skill, wisdom and experience of a mentor who has made a lasting impression on so many future entertainers.” –Debra and Daniel Wildish
More student-parent testimonials – From Orange County School of the Arts
From Singers on Stage on Broadway
PRODUCTION – MANAGEMENT – DIRECTION
Cherilyn developed, managed and produced SINGERS ON STAGE ON BROADWAY with one of NYC’s finest vocal teachers BILL REED, Artistic Director. It was one of the first summer musical theatre intensives of its kind, rated #1 in New York City by Backstage, located at Circle in the Square Theatre. It has become Circle’s summer musical theatre program. In 2022,
Cherilyn revived a post-COVID version bringing back some of the original faculty to provide an exclusive setting for talented aspiring performers to study with Broadway’s best and to perform a cabaret show at NYC’s Off-Broadway Triad Theatre.
PRIVATE VOICE STUDIO
Cherilyn brings her 40+ years experience on stage and in the studio to her private voice students where she teaches holistically – singing through technique and telling the story authentically, acting, song interpretation and movement/body language for the actor-singer. She goes beyond the studio to provide her pro-track student’s opportunities to perform, enter competitions and to experience the real-world of professional singing. They have performed leading roles from high school musicals to Broadway. She coaches for auditions, pageants, recording sessions, and college submissions. Her current pro-track students perform in quarterly Cabaret shows at Miceli’s in Universal City and other restaurant venues in the Los Angeles area.
BACKGROUND FOR VOCAL TEACHING
Her diverse background makes her uniquely qualified to specialize in vocal technique, combined with acting for singers, song interpretation, audition and studio technique, across the spectrum of styles, from contemporary rock-pop to Broadway and classical.
She has exclusive permission to teach the DAVID CRAIG ON SINGING ON STAGE technique from his protégé SARA LOUISE LAZARUS, her NYC mentor and coach.
CONSERVATORY – UNIVERSITY LEVEL TEACHING
She has received highest student-parent-colleague ratings and comments here, here and here from her students in NYC’s SINGERS ON STAGE ON BROADWAY AT CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE summer intensive program, from BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY’s Music Dance Theatre program, as well as from the nation’s top five-ranked ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS and industry critics.
She has taught Musical Theatre Repertoire and Technique to advanced students at OCSA’s sister school, the CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS, as well as Voice Technique and Coaching to the entry level students.
ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS & AWARDS
Cherilyn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Dramatic Arts from BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY, was a recipient of the prestigious MARY MARTIN SCHOLARSHIP from NORTHWOOD UNIVERSITY-DALLAS, with a certification in the Business of Theatre, was nominated for BEST ACTRESS OF THE YEAR for her leading role in a musical as Mary in Stephen Sondheim’s Southwest premiere and remake of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG Critics wrote: “Sondheim’s Broadway failure triumphs at Stage West….Cherilyn Bacon is phenomenal, as Mary, able to convey greater emotional depth and experience while appearing to get progressively younger throughout the show. She makes an astonishing transformation from the drunken, bitter critic of the opening scenes to the gifted girl of the closing.” —Dallas Times Herald
UNION MEMBERSHIP
Cherilyn is a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and Actors Equity Association (AEA). She has performed under most AEA contracts in musical theatre from Broadway National Tour-Off Broadway-Regional and Small Professional Theatre, Guest Artist, as well as on TV, voice overs, in concerts, commercials and industrials from coast-to-coast.
BROADWAY EXPERIENCE
Cherilyn has performed under the direction of several Broadway’s bests, including the incomparable music directors PETER HOWARD and JACK LEE, director TOM O’HORGAN (Hair), and choreographer GROVER DALE (Jesus Christ Superstar).
She has performed on stage with Metropolitan opera singer SHERRILL MILNES, and on the Broadway National Tour of PAL JOEY with Broadway-Hollywood stars JOEL GREY, ALEXIS SMITH, RON PERLMAN, KELLY BISHOP, RANDY GRAFF, JOHN LAMOTTA and more.
She has performed in industrials from NYC to San Francisco and recorded commercials and voice overs in major markets and overseas with the USO.
EARLY TRAINING AND PERFORMANCE HISTORY
Cherilyn anchored her diversified vocal technique beginning with three years opera training in Los Angeles from then 82 year-old Metropolitan Opera singer MARGARET ROMAINE BROWNING (Musetta, La Boheme). She graduated from Hollywood High School as the featured senior class soloist performing in her favorite venue: THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL. That experience inspired her to continue her goal of becoming a professional actor-singer.
For two consecutive summers, Cherilyn toured internationally with THE BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY YOUNG AMBASSADORS sponsored by the DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE-USO entertaining U.S. Troops with song and dance, and representing American Colleges and Universities.
She sang with THE SHERATONS a female trio, for 25 years. In their early years, they were featured on the LOS ANGELES BREAKFAST CLUB RADIO SHOW and on THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW at the Hollywood Palladium. They were offered the leading voice-over roles for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS.
They are featured on several songs with their children and families on THE CHILDREN”S SONGBOOK CD published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where Cherilyn also impersonates a child’s voice.
MARY MARTIN SCHOLARSHIP
Critics describe her leading performance in the Dallas premiere of the musical CASSANOVA, written by the brilliant Broadway composer Ralph Affoumado (Fu Manchu) as “an outstanding, professional performance.” — Ken Waissman (producer, Grease); “A wonderfully talented, highly dramatic actress.” — Hugh Wheeler, book/lyrics Sweeney Todd. “This girl can do anything!” – Jack Eddleman (director, NYC Opera).
REGIONAL THEATRE
For SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, a show she says requires “total vocal calisthenics,” critics describe her performance alongside Broadway’s Candy Buckley as “chilling and very effective,” “skilled and wondrously compatible,” “a wispy, affecting soprano” in a cast that “delivers a certified smash and shines!” – Dallas Morning News.
For her multiple roles in the unsuccessful Broadway try-out of THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS (Tom Key, Harry Chapin’s Cotton Patch Gospel) the Dallas Morning News critic wrote, “The saddest part of all this comes in seeing talented musical actors like Cherilyn … so completely wasted.”
In Dallas and NYC, Cherilyn was most closely compared to Broadway’s Betty Buckley for their similar Broadway belting styles. NYC casting director Barry Moss said, “She looks and sounds like Betty Buckley. No she IS Betty Buckley. No. She’s better than Betty Buckley!” After casting director Vinny Liff asked her to demonstrate her Betty Buckley style, he chuckled: “I didn’t mean be Betty Buckley; I meant ‘sing’ something Betty Buckley! You’re definitely a Lloyd Webber voice.”
Unlike most opera/classical-trained singers, Cherilyn has navigated successfully the diverse range of singing styles required in the Broadway-commercial music world and adapts her voice to each role she plays. From Laurie in OKLAHOMA! to The Narrator in JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOATand the comical antagonist character Velma in HAIRSPRAY, Cherilyn is comfortable crossing over from classical to traditional Broadway legit, belt, pop, rock and character.
She supported her husband through law school by singing the lead role Julie in the popular original Utah production of SATURDAY’S WARRIOR (written by Warner Brothers music director Lex de Azevedo) and performing and touring as a lead singer with SOUND JUDGMENT, a 70s rock band.
ONE WOMAN ACTS-CABARET SHOWS
She has performed in many industrials and concerts, demonstrating her skill with one-woman shows. As a guest artist at AMERICA’S FREEDOM FESTIVAL Awards Banquet, she celebrated in revue BROADWAY: MADE IN AMERICA, and performed a Cabaret act GERSHWIN, BY JOVE! with her musical director, PETER HOWARD and a Cole Porter revue A TOUCH OF COLE (Charles Repole, director; Mary John producer) and wrote the revue MOM’S THE WORD for American Mothers Association national convention at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel in NYC, Sara Louise Lazarus, director; Dennis Buck, music director.
Recently she created a Cabaret act entitled BROADWAY BABY, a collection of her favorite songs from the shows in which she has performed. She also recently performed Stepmother in Sondheim’s INTO THE WOODS Hale Centre Theatre (Salt Lake City) and Velma in HAIRSPRAY (Ziegfeld Theatre, Ogden, Utah).
Cherilyn was a member of the acclaimed MILLENNIAL CHOIRS AND ORCHESTRAS for six years from 2017-2022. This organization is not just a “choir” – it’s a mind-blowing movement across five states and 4,000 singers. It’s an experience of sheer perfection of sound and force of message through astounding film score-like arrangements from Juilliard and Cincinnati trained conductors-composers Brett and Brandon Stewart. She has sung in Carnegie Hall in NYC, Abravanel Hall in SLC and Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, California. In 2019, she narrated Rob Gardner’s LAMB OF GOD at Abravanel Hall for the Draper Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
LIGHT THE WORLD PROJECT
Cherilyn is in Los Angeles developing a project to elevate the music industry with more positive and inspiring songs across genres called Light the World Voice Choice. You can read more about it on that tab above.
THANKS …
Cherilyn gives credit to God who gave her a rough stone rolling, a lot of desire to overcome shyness, and mentors who have smoothed around the edges of that stone to make something presentable enough to compete successfully at the highest levels of the Broadway and music industry and to live all her dreams.
She gives credit also to the late MARGARET ROMAINE BROWNING (Met), NORMAN GULBRANDSEN, internationally-acclaimed classical voice professor at Northwestern University (Chicago Symphony Chorus); RAY ALLEN, musical director, Dallas Summer Musicals; EWAN MITTON (who found some coloratura in her) and BILL REED, emeritus vocal director at Circle in the Square Theatre School and to the grandfather of vocal therapy OREN BROWN (Juilliard) with whom she was able to work with for a short time before his death.
All of these great masters were at least 60+ years old and continued teaching until into their 80s or 90s. Their experience was a huge advantage. She draws from all of these great masters the best they taught her and wraps them into a perfect package for her students in her private studio.
Cherilyn has learned that nothing is “original” in this wonderful world of singing. There is no such thing as “the best teacher.” There are many excellent voice teachers from which to choose. It’s about finding a good fit, maintaining good communication, and working hard.
Most important, Cherilyn is the mother of five amazing grown adult children and a grandmother to eighteen incredible grandchildren. They are her most treasured, profound and lasting productions. Were it not for them, she would never have had so much richness of life experience from which to draw when singing and interpreting songs. However, she gives them all the credit for being the real mentors in her life – the ones who have smoothed the rough stone rolling along the journey where it really counts. Thank you Jimmy, Mark, Erik, Scott and Jennifer. You are my heroes.
