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Tim Cummings

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Tim Cummings
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Port Jefferson, New York

Tim Cummings (born 1973) is an American actor and author.

Early life

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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.[1]

Education

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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 then attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he received a BFA. While at NYU, he studied at The Stella Adler Conservatory and The Experimental Theater Wing.[2] 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 received his MFA in Creative Writing (Writing for Young People) from Antioch University Los Angeles, in June, 2018.

Acting career

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After graduating from NYU, 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.[3]

He later performed with The Flea Theater,[2] in Mac Wellman's Sincerity Forever, Cleveland, and Three Americanisms, as well as the melodrama Billy the Kid written by Walter Woods in 1903.[4]

He directed an original black comedy by Kenny Finkle, Transatlantica. He was an understudy in the Off-Broadway play The Guys and in the Broadway revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune'.[5]

Cummings subsequently relocated to Los Angeles to work in television and film in addition to theatre,[4] where he is best known for playing Ned Weeks in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, Patsy in The New Electric Ballroom by Enda Walsh, Mitch in Reunion at South Coast Repertory, and Mitchell in Daniel's Husband at The Fountain Theatre.

Cummings served as Associate Director of the Youth Program at The Ojai Playwrights Conference from 2011 to 2017.

Career in writing

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  • In summer 2025, Cummings' follow-up young-adult novel, The Lightning People Play, will be published by Black Rose Writing.[6]
  • In 2023, Cummings' debut novel, Alice the Cat, was published by Fitzroy Books, the Young Adult & Middle-grade imprint of Regal House Publishing[7]
  • In 2019, Cummings' essay, You Have Changed Me Forever, won lauded literary magazine Critical Read's Origins essay contest.
  • In 2018, he had numerous works (interviews, reviews, short stories, essays, poetry,) accepted for publications at several prominent literary journals and magazines: Lunch Ticket, Larb, From Whispers to Roars, Meow Meow Pow Pow, F(r)iction, and Critical Read.[8]
  • In 2017 he released an eclectic collection of stories, poetry, and dramatic writings, called Anthology: The Ojai Playwrights Conference Youth Workshop 2006-2016. It was written by several participants of The Ojai Playwrights Conference Youth Workshop.[9] He compiled and edited the collection in conjunction with his Master of Fine Arts program at Antioch University Los Angeles.
  • The summer of 2011 saw the release of a unique collection called Orphans, which incorporates short stories, poetry, screenplays, plays, a film treatment.[10]
  • He wrote the full-length play, Bully, which explores the epidemic of teens committing suicide for being bullied.[11]
  • He is a regular contributor at Los Angeles Review of Books where he writes reviews, interviews, and profiles.[12]

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Result
2000 Obie Award Jet Lag w/ The Builders Association (Marianne Weems) Won (Special Citation)
Obie Award For Big Dance Theater (Annie-B Parson) Won (Special Citation)
2005 LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Supporting Actor for Burn This Nominated
2007 Garland Awards Best Supporting Actor for The Pursuit of Happiness at Laguna Playhouse Nominated
2011 Ovation Awards Best Season (including Roddy Doyle's War & Enda Walsh's The Walworth Farce) at Theatre Banshee Nominated
2012 LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Comedy Ensemble for The Walworth Farce Nominated
LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Revival for Camino Real Nominated
2013 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Ensemble for Enda Walsh's The New Electric Ballroom Won
LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Supporting Actor for The New Electric Ballroom Won
2014 Broadway World Awards Best Lead Actor for The Normal Heart at The Fountain Theatre Won
LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Revival Production for The Normal Heart Nominated
LA Weekly Theater Awards Best Lead Actor for The Normal Heart Nominated
Ovation Awards Best Season (including The Normal Heart) at The Fountain Theatre Won
Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Lead Actor for The Normal Heart at The Fountain Theatre Won
2015 StageSceneLA Awards Performance of the Year for The Woodsman Won
2016 SAGE Awards (ArtsInLA) Best Lead Actor for Need To Know Won
2017 Ovation Awards Best Production for The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage Nominated
SAGE Awards (ArtsInLA) Best Lead Actor for The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage Won
2018 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Best Lead Actor for The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir for the Stage Won
2019 Critical Read Literary Magazine Origins essay contest for You Have Changed Me Forever Won
Pushcart Prize For You Have Changed Me Forever Nominated
Ticket Holders LA Awards Best Performance in a Play for Daniel's Husband Won
Ovation Awards Best Lead Actor for Daniel's Husband Nominated
2024 American Book Fest Best Book Awards: Finalist for Fiction Young Adult for "Alice the Cat" Nominated
Feathered Quill Book Awards Bronze Medal for Young Adult Fiction for "Alice the Cat" Won
National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist for Teen Fiction for "Alice the Cat" Nominated

Work

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Film

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  • Dead Serious
  • Bind
  • Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  • Kensho at the Bedfellow
  • Spirited
  • Something Strange
  • Presence
  • Sunken Warrior
  • Exit Interview
  • The Box
  • Making 'Three Americanisms'
  • The Guys
  • Morning Fall
  • The Gas Heart

Television

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  • Criminal Minds
  • GRIMM
  • My Two Fans
  • Rosewood

Stage

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2010–2019

2000–2009

1990–1999

1985–1989

References

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  1. ^ "James A. Cummings Obituary (2011) TC Palm".
  2. ^ a b Sibley, Graham (April 2014). "Tim Cummings". Footlights. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
  3. ^ Dulin, Dan (April 10, 2014). "Rolling Heart into a Hard Role". A&U Magazine. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
  4. ^ a b Escoda, Carla (September 18, 2013). "Tim Cummings' Passage to The Normal Heart". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
  5. ^ Cummings, Tim (September 6–12, 2006). "Five years later, still one of 'The Guys'". The Villager. Retrieved 2014-06-28.
  6. ^ "Author Tim Cummings at Black Rose Writing". 24 March 2024.
  7. ^ "Author Tim Cummings at Regal House Publishing". 30 April 2021.
  8. ^ "Tim Cummings Selected Published Works".
  9. ^ "LA Actor & Author Tim Cummings Launches ANTHOLOGY: The Ojai Playwrights Conference Youth Workshop 2006-2016".
  10. ^ "ORPHANS (2011 short story collection)".
  11. ^ "BWW Interviews: Actor Tim Cummings Opens up About THE NORMAL HEART".
  12. ^ "Tim Cummings at Los Angeles Review of Books".
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