Tim Cummings

Tim Cummings (born 1973) is an American actor and writer.^[1]

Family

Timothy P Cummings was born in Port Jefferson, New York to James A. and Rosemarie Cummings. He has four siblings and one half-sibling. His father was a Lieutenant with the NYFD (Engine 82, Ladder 31) in the South Bronx for thirty years.^[2]

Education

Cummings graduated from Comsewogue High School, where he appeared in Brighton Beach Memoirs, Twelve Angry Men, Babes in Arms, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown and Bye Bye Birdie. He was also the president of the school's drama society, and received a scholarship to attend New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He later received a BFA w/ Honors from New York University. While at NYU, he studied at The Stella Adler Conservatory and The Experimental Theater Wing.^[3] He performed in productions of The White Album Project, Fornes's The Conduct of Life, Brecht's Threepenny Opera, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Shaw's Man & Superman, Durang's Naomi In The Living Room and Maeterlink's The Intruder.

Cummings is currently pursuing his MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles, slated to graduate in 2018.

Career

After graduating, Cummings began performing as a company member in two of New York City's downtown theater & dance companies, Big Dance Theater and The Builders Association, with whom he toured extensively, performing in festivals across US, the UK, and Europe.^[4]

He later joined The Flea Theater as a company member,^[3] where he performed in Mac Wellman's Sincerity Forever, Cleveland, and Three Americanisms, as well as the melodrama Billy the Kid written by Walter Woods in 1903.^[5]

He directed an original black comedy by playwright Kenny Finkle, Transatlantica. He understudied for the Off-Broadway play The Guys, as well as for the acclaimed Broadway revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which starred Edie Falco and Stanley Tucci and was directed by Tony-winning director Joe Mantello.^[6]

Cummings subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to take on television and film work in addition to theatrical roles,^[5] where he received favorable reviews and numerous awards for his performance as Ned Weeks in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart as well as his portrayal of Patsy in The New Electric Ballroom by Tony Award-winning Irish playwright Enda Walsh.

For the 2015 World-Premiere production of 'Need To Know' written by Jonathan Caren, KCRW's Opening The Curtain relayed that "Tim Cummings plays the neighbor Mark as a tightrope walk: balanced between stalker-creepy and oddly sympathetic. The play hinges on us not really being sure who this guy is and Mr. Cummings manages to stay one step ahead of us without telegraphing what's coming next. At the play's dramatic climax, he reveals the play's soul to be an impassioned plea for what it really takes to be an artist. His performance is worth the 90 minutes."

Cummings has served as Associate Director of the Youth Program at The Ojai Playwrights Conference since 2010.

Awards & Nominations

Work

FILM & TV

• Rosewood (tv)
• GRIMM (tv)
• Kensho at the Bedfellow (film)
• Spirited (film)
• Something Strange (film)
• My Two Fans (tv)
• Criminal Minds (tv)
• Presence (film)
• Sunken Warrior (film)
• Exit Interview (film)
• The Box (film)
• Making 'Three Americanisms’ (film)
• The Guys (film)
• Morning Fall (film)
• The Gas Heart (film)

STAGE

2010--Present

• Need To Know
• 2015 Ojai Playwrights Conference
• The Woodsman
• 2014 Ojai Playwrights Conference
• Nine Hours (Young Playwrights Festival at Blank Theatre Company)
• Reunion
• Skylight Theatre's SALUTE to Terrence McNally
• The Normal Heart
• 2013 Ojai Playwrights Conference
• 2013 Pacific Playwrights Festival
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Firebird (with the LA Phil)
• Eurydice (Ruhl play)
• 2012 Ojai Playwrights Conference
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The New Electric Ballroom
• Winterfest—47 Plays in 18 Days (Producer/Performer/Playwright)
• The Guys (10-year Anniversary performances)
• 2011 Ojai Playwrights Conference
• The Walworth Farce
• Camino Real
• War
• The Winter’s Tale
• Magic Framework
• The Soltanoff/Findlay Wkshp

2000--2009

• Slasher
• Hamlet
• Tartuffe
• The Diary of a Teenage Girl (3 wkshps)
• The Last Schwartz
• The Pursuit of Happiness
• The Guys (5-year Anniversary performances)
• The Outsiders Presents IV
• The Handlers
• Madelyn Kent’s Peninsula
• Constantly Distracted (Director)
• “IV”
• Lanford Wilson’s Burn This
• The Moonlight Sonata
• Patrick Marber’s Closer (play)
• Host
• The Seagull
• Madelyn Kent’s SHUFU: Iraqi Interview
• Mac Wellman’s Three Americanisms
• The Homecoming
• Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
• Transatlantica
• The Guys
• Billy the Kid
• No Mother to Guide Her
• Mac Wellman’s Cleveland
• Mac Wellman’s Sincerity Forever
• Centaur Battle of San Jacinto

1990--1999

• Jet Lag (1998-2000)
• Park
• Girl Gone
• A Simple Heart
• The Gas Heart
• Sugar Down Billie Hoak
• The Fairground Booth
• 20/21
• Distortion Taco
• Anus Mundi
• Mississippi Nude
• Leopold and Loeb are Dead Now
• The White Album Project
• The Conduct of Life
• The Threepenny Opera
• Terrence McNally’s Andre’s Mother
• Naomi in the Living Room
• Man and Superman
• Titus Andronicus
• Geography of a Horse Dreamer
• Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
• Intruder (play)
• West Side Story
• Brighton Beach Memoirs

1985--1989

• Bye Bye Birdie
• The Fantasticks
• Guys & Dolls
• Sweet Charity
• Twelve Angry Men
• Cinderella
• Grease
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Babes in Arms
• Free to Be You and Me
• The Sound of Music
• Snoopy! The Musical
• Bye Bye Birdie
• Alice in Wonderland
• You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown
• Frankly, Franklin

WRITING

• ORPHANS (short stories)

-- "Cummings' voice howls boldly, bravely, beautifully, wittily, cunningly, mellifluously into the literary wilderness. He guides us effortlessly to see/to be his characters. He accomplishes his sleights of hand with grace and believability and power. I admire him enormously." - Caroline Thompson

-- "It feels as though you've been transported to multiple worlds and back, leaving you breathless and panting. Through a variety of forms, Cummings gives birth to fascinating characters and stories. His writing is rich and lush, beautifully exploring the paradoxes of the real and the surreal. The only thing that I can compare it to is perhaps a Bosch painting." - Chris Corkum, 2011 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for XOXO Hayden

• Exit Interview (film)
• Reward (one-act play)
• Mundane (one-act play)
• Hellish (one-act play)
• HOST (full-length play)

References

External links

• Tim Cummings at the Internet Movie Database
• Tim Cummings at Broadway World
• Q&A with Tim Cummings: The Los Angeles Post
• GRIMM Successfully Juggles The Gross and Funny: AV Club