Tim Cummings
Encyclopedia
Tim Cummings is an American actor, novelist, dancer, and visual artist.
NOTE: This page was created by Mr. Cummings's representation as a means by which to delineate (for legal reasons, et al.) in the public domain the artistic works of this particular Tim Cummings from other artists with whom he shares the same name. It is not intended to be a promotional, marketing, or publicity tool.
, New York to James A. Cummings and Rosemarie Cummings (née Pollio) and is the youngest of 5 biological siblings and one half-sibling.
, 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 received a BFA w/ Honors from New York University.
While at NYU, he studied at The Stella Adler
Conservatory and The Experimental Theater Wing. 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.
Later he joined The Flea Theater
as a company member 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 1906. He also directed an original black comedy by playwright Kenny Finkle, called Transatlantica.
He Understudied a slew of A-List actors in a reputable Off-Broadway play The Guys
as well as the acclaimed Broadway revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
starring Edie Falco
and Stanley Tucci
.
Cummings was 27 years old and a company member of The Flea Theater
when he was cast to understudy Bill Murray
for the role of Nick, a Fire Captain who lost most of his men on 9/11 in Anne Nelson's The Guys which was written in response to the attacks. The play ran for over a year with a revolving cast of A-List actors including Sigourney Weaver
and Bill Irwin
, Susan Sarandon
and Anthony LaPaglia
, Swoosie Kurtz
and Tim Robbins
, Amy Irving
and Tom Wopat
. Cummings performed numerous times for each actor.
Tony-winning director Joe Mantello
saw Cummings perform the role and later cast him to understudy Stanley Tucci in the Broadway revival production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune starring Edie Falco.
In September 2006, Cummings returned to The Flea for the 5-year anniversary commemorative performances of the show.
In September 2011, Cummings returned to The Flea once again for the 10-year anniversary commemorative performances of the show http://broadwayworld.com/article/Tom-Wopat-Sigourney-Weaver-et-al-Set-for-the-Fleas-THE-GUYS-96-8-20110809
A move to Los Angeles found him doing more television and film work, while continuing to work extensively in theater. Cummings was nominated for his work in Lanford Wilson's Burn This. and for his work in The Laguna Playhouse world premiere production of Richard Dresser's The Pursuit of Happiness.
In 2008 he completed filming and post-production on the feature film Presence with the Los Angeles independent film production company Drifter Pictures.
-Spring 2009: Cummings starred in a boldly re-imagined—and critically acclaimed -- version of Molière's Tartuffe at The Theater @ Boston Court directed by Josh Chambers. The action took place in the San Fernando Valley in present day, and the concept behind the production was a modern day Jekyll and Hyde in that Cummings played both Orgon and Tartuffe (Tartuffe being a kind of split-personality or alter-ego of Orgon).
-Summer 2009: He appeared in award-winning theater director Jessica Kubzansky's production of Hamlet at Theater 150 in Ojai which was the theater's inaugural production as a professional Actors Equity Association theater. For his portrayal of a young, virile, domineering Polonius
, rather than the usual depiction of the character as an ornery old know-it-all, Cummings received rave reviews
-Fall 2009: Cummings portrayed Marc Hunter, a D-list horror film director in playwright Allison Moore's "horrifying comedy" SLASHER which played at The Zephyr Theatre on Melrose Avenue.
-Spring 2010: The Soltanoff/Findlay workshop for Center Theatre Group's (CTG) recently-awarded three-year, $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support CTG’s New Play Production Program; an expansion that will focus on the commissioning, development and production of non-text-based work, which is often underrepresented in the programming for large regional theaters such as CTG. “This is a great opportunity to widen the spectrum of theatricality. The Mellon Foundation’s grant will enable us to focus time and energy on a specific type of work that is experimental in nature,” said CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie;
-Spring 2010: Magic Framework, a dance-theater performance in collaboration with dancers Stacy Dawson Stearns, Jessica Emmanuel, and Tymberly Canale at Highways Performance Space;
-Summer 2010: The Winter's Tale at Theater 150 in Ojai, directed by Jessica Kubzansky, in which he played Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. Reference: See the Los Angeles Times write-up and the one from The Santa Barbara Independent.
-Fall 2010: Played George Finnegan (a role originated by a young Brendan Gleeson
) in "WAR" by Roddy Doyle
at Theatre Banshee, directed by Sean Branney. The production received stellar reviews, citing Cummings's work as a tour de force as well as powerful and compelling.
-Spring 2011: Played Casanova in "Camino Real" by Tennessee Williams
at The Theater @ Boston Court, directed by Jessica Kubzansky.
-Summer 2011: Played Dinny in "The Walworth Farce" by Enda Walsh
at Theatre Banshee, directed by Tim Byron Owen. In their reviews of the production, two acclaimed theatre critics—Les Spindle of the LADCC, and Dink O'Neal of the American Theatre Critics Association—hailed Cummings's performance as the tyrannical patriarch a "tour de force." Terry Morgan, also with the LADCC had this to say: "Cummings, an actor I've previously admired, has so completely inhabited his role that I didn't realize it was him until I'd looked at the program later on. His performance as Dinny is a great roaring thing, a dynamo of blazing anger, but Cummings also shows the defeated humanity within the monster, quiet moments of exhaustion where he regroups and refastens Dinny’s bad toupee."
-Summer 2011: Launched OctoSpark, a site for his visual art.
-July 12, 2011: Cummings published a book of short stories, "ORPHANS stories". Caroline Thompson
, writer of the globally-lauded classics The Nightmare Before Christmas
and Edward Scissorhands
(to name but a few) said of the book: “Cummings's 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.”
NOTE: This page was created by Mr. Cummings's representation as a means by which to delineate (for legal reasons, et al.) in the public domain the artistic works of this particular Tim Cummings from other artists with whom he shares the same name. It is not intended to be a promotional, marketing, or publicity tool.
Family
Cummings was born in Port JeffersonPort Jefferson, New York
The Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson is located in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the 2000 United States Census, the village population was 7,837...
, New York to James A. Cummings and Rosemarie Cummings (née Pollio) and is the youngest of 5 biological siblings and one half-sibling.
Education
Cummings graduated from Comsewogue High SchoolComsewogue School District
Comsewogue School District is located in Port Jefferson Station, on the North Shore of Long Island, in Brookhaven Town, Suffolk County, New York, United States....
, 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
Tisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
. He received a BFA w/ Honors from New York University.
While at NYU, he studied at The Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...
Conservatory and The Experimental Theater Wing. 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.
Career
After graduating, Cummings began performing as a company member in two of New York City's most reputable downtown theater & dance companies: Big Dance Theater and The Builders Association with whom he toured extensively, performing in festivals all across US, the UK, and Europe.Later he joined The Flea Theater
The Flea Theater
The Flea Theater, founded in 1996, is a theatre in the TriBeCa section of New York City. It presents primarily new American theatre, and provides a venue for film stars to act on a very small stage. It is the home of "The Bat Theater Company", an Obie Award winning resident acting troupe of...
as a company member where he performed in Mac Wellman
Mac Wellman
Mac Wellman is an American playwright, author, and poet. Wellman is best known for his experimental work in the theater which rebels against theatrical conventions, often abandoning such traditional elements as plot and character altogether...
's Sincerity Forever, Cleveland, and Three Americanisms as well as the Melodrama Billy the Kid written by Walter Woods
Walter Woods
Walter Woods was an American screenwriter of the silent era. He wrote for 76 films between 1915 and 1938...
in 1906. He also directed an original black comedy by playwright Kenny Finkle, called Transatlantica.
He Understudied a slew of A-List actors in a reputable Off-Broadway play The Guys
The Guys
The Guys is a play by Anne Nelson about the aftereffects of the collapse of the World Trade Center. In the play, Joan, an editor, helps Nick, an FDNY captain, prepare the eulogies for an unprecedented number of firefighters who died under his command that day...
as well as the acclaimed Broadway revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is a two-character play by Terrence McNally.It focuses on two lonely, middle-aged people whose first date ends with them tumbling into bed. Johnny is certain he has found his soul mate in Frankie. She, on the other hand, is far more cautious and disinclined...
starring Edie Falco
Edie Falco
Edith "Edie" Falco is an American television, film and stage actress, known for her roles in Oz as Diane Wittlesey, as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, and as the titular character on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie...
and Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci is an American actor, writer, film producer and film director. He has been nominated for several notable film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in The Lovely Bones...
.
Cummings was 27 years old and a company member of The Flea Theater
The Flea Theater
The Flea Theater, founded in 1996, is a theatre in the TriBeCa section of New York City. It presents primarily new American theatre, and provides a venue for film stars to act on a very small stage. It is the home of "The Bat Theater Company", an Obie Award winning resident acting troupe of...
when he was cast to understudy Bill Murray
Bill Murray
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
for the role of Nick, a Fire Captain who lost most of his men on 9/11 in Anne Nelson's The Guys which was written in response to the attacks. The play ran for over a year with a revolving cast of A-List actors including Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
and Bill Irwin
Bill Irwin
William Mills "Bill" Irwin is an American actor and clown noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He is known for his vaudeville-style stage acts, but has made a number of appearances on film and television and won a Tony Award for a dramatic role on...
, Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
and Anthony LaPaglia
Anthony LaPaglia
Anthony M. LaPaglia is an Australian actor. He is known for his role as FBI agent Jack Malone on the American TV series Without a Trace, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama...
, Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz
Swoosie Kurtz is an American actress. She began her career in theater during the 1970s and shortly thereafter began a career in television, garnering ten nominations and winning one Emmy Award. Her most famous television project was her role on the 1990s NBC drama Sisters...
and Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
, Amy Irving
Amy Irving
Amy Davis Irving is an American actress, known for her roles in the films Crossing Delancey, The Fury, Carrie, and Yentl as well as acclaimed roles on Broadway and Off-Broadway. She has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, and has won an Obie award...
and Tom Wopat
Tom Wopat
Tom Wopat is an American actor and singer. He first achieved fame as Luke Duke in the long-running 1979 television series The Dukes of Hazzard, along with John Schneider. He also played Jeff, one of Cybill Shepherd's ex-husbands in the TV series Cybill.-Life and career:Wopat was born in Lodi,...
. Cummings performed numerous times for each actor.
Tony-winning director Joe Mantello
Joe Mantello
Joseph Mantello is an American actor and director best known for his work on Broadway productions of Wicked, Take Me Out and Assassins, as well as earlier in his career being one of the original Broadway cast of Angels in America...
saw Cummings perform the role and later cast him to understudy Stanley Tucci in the Broadway revival production of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune starring Edie Falco.
In September 2006, Cummings returned to The Flea for the 5-year anniversary commemorative performances of the show.
In September 2011, Cummings returned to The Flea once again for the 10-year anniversary commemorative performances of the show http://broadwayworld.com/article/Tom-Wopat-Sigourney-Weaver-et-al-Set-for-the-Fleas-THE-GUYS-96-8-20110809
A move to Los Angeles found him doing more television and film work, while continuing to work extensively in theater. Cummings was nominated for his work in Lanford Wilson's Burn This. and for his work in The Laguna Playhouse world premiere production of Richard Dresser's The Pursuit of Happiness.
In 2008 he completed filming and post-production on the feature film Presence with the Los Angeles independent film production company Drifter Pictures.
- 2009 Credits:
-Spring 2009: Cummings starred in a boldly re-imagined—and critically acclaimed -- version of Molière's Tartuffe at The Theater @ Boston Court directed by Josh Chambers. The action took place in the San Fernando Valley in present day, and the concept behind the production was a modern day Jekyll and Hyde in that Cummings played both Orgon and Tartuffe (Tartuffe being a kind of split-personality or alter-ego of Orgon).
-Summer 2009: He appeared in award-winning theater director Jessica Kubzansky's production of Hamlet at Theater 150 in Ojai which was the theater's inaugural production as a professional Actors Equity Association theater. For his portrayal of a young, virile, domineering Polonius
Polonius
Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. He is King Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet...
, rather than the usual depiction of the character as an ornery old know-it-all, Cummings received rave reviews
-Fall 2009: Cummings portrayed Marc Hunter, a D-list horror film director in playwright Allison Moore's "horrifying comedy" SLASHER which played at The Zephyr Theatre on Melrose Avenue.
- 2010 Credits:
-Spring 2010: The Soltanoff/Findlay workshop for Center Theatre Group's (CTG) recently-awarded three-year, $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support CTG’s New Play Production Program; an expansion that will focus on the commissioning, development and production of non-text-based work, which is often underrepresented in the programming for large regional theaters such as CTG. “This is a great opportunity to widen the spectrum of theatricality. The Mellon Foundation’s grant will enable us to focus time and energy on a specific type of work that is experimental in nature,” said CTG Artistic Director Michael Ritchie;
-Spring 2010: Magic Framework, a dance-theater performance in collaboration with dancers Stacy Dawson Stearns, Jessica Emmanuel, and Tymberly Canale at Highways Performance Space;
-Summer 2010: The Winter's Tale at Theater 150 in Ojai, directed by Jessica Kubzansky, in which he played Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. Reference: See the Los Angeles Times write-up and the one from The Santa Barbara Independent.
-Fall 2010: Played George Finnegan (a role originated by a young Brendan Gleeson
Brendan Gleeson
Brendan Gleeson is an Irish actor. His best-known films include Braveheart, Gangs of New York, In Bruges, 28 Days Later, the Harry Potter films, The Guard and the role of Michael Collins in The Treaty...
) in "WAR" by Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He won the Booker Prize in 1993....
at Theatre Banshee, directed by Sean Branney. The production received stellar reviews, citing Cummings's work as a tour de force as well as powerful and compelling.
- 2011 Credits:
-Spring 2011: Played Casanova in "Camino Real" by Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
at The Theater @ Boston Court, directed by Jessica Kubzansky.
-Summer 2011: Played Dinny in "The Walworth Farce" by Enda Walsh
Enda Walsh
Enda Walsh is an Irish playwright born in Dublin and currently living in London. Walsh attended the same secondary school where both Roddy Doyle and Paul Mercier taught. Having written for the Dublin Youth Theatre, he moved to Cork where he wrote Fishy Tales for the Graffiti Theatre Company,...
at Theatre Banshee, directed by Tim Byron Owen. In their reviews of the production, two acclaimed theatre critics—Les Spindle of the LADCC, and Dink O'Neal of the American Theatre Critics Association—hailed Cummings's performance as the tyrannical patriarch a "tour de force." Terry Morgan, also with the LADCC had this to say: "Cummings, an actor I've previously admired, has so completely inhabited his role that I didn't realize it was him until I'd looked at the program later on. His performance as Dinny is a great roaring thing, a dynamo of blazing anger, but Cummings also shows the defeated humanity within the monster, quiet moments of exhaustion where he regroups and refastens Dinny’s bad toupee."
-Summer 2011: Launched OctoSpark, a site for his visual art.
-July 12, 2011: Cummings published a book of short stories, "ORPHANS stories". Caroline Thompson
Caroline Thompson
Caroline Thompson is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She wrote the screenplays for Tim Burton's films Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Corpse Bride...
, writer of the globally-lauded classics The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
and Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
(to name but a few) said of the book: “Cummings's 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.”
Other
- He is also a dance-theater artist and is a member of the Los Angeles based company The Outsiders.