Don Cummings

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Don Cummings (born August 3, ????) is an American playwright of more than fifteen plays, a screenwriter, fiction writer and essayist. He has also acted in over forty plays and independent features and was a recurring guest star on the sitcom, Dharma & Greg. As a composer and musician he performs at Largo in Los Angeles with the comedian Karen Kilgariff, formerly the head writer for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Background and education

Cummings was born in Bronxville, New York, and attended Suffern High School He received his BS in biology from Tufts University.

Career

Known for his unique voice and the way he writes such truthful characters, actors (and audiences) are consistently drawn to Cummings' work because of his ability to write so forgivingly, comically and deeply about being a human being.

Live Work Space has had an informal reading at The Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles and West Coast Ensemble.

A Good Smoke had its world premier in winter 2008 at The Chandler Studio Theatre in Los Angeles, produced by The Production Company. It was directed by Cummings and featured Barbara Gruen and Henry Wolfe Gummer. A Good Smoke is a dark comedy and an in-depth study of an adult family that faces the large problems of generational addiction, parental alienation and the feeding of a newborn baby. Who saves the baby is what this story is about. A Good Smoke was a semifinalist for The Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference 2008 season. Barbara Gruen received an L.A. Stage Scene Best Actress Award for her portrayal of the drug addicted Mom. The one act version of A Good Smoke was performed at The Moving Arts Theatre in Los Angeles and at The Turnip Theatre Festival in New York. A Good Smoke will next^[when?] be performed as a reading at the Public Theatre in New York City, starring Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer, Grace Gummer, Debra Monk, Joe Paulik and John Rothman. A Good Smoke reveals the power that exists in families even when they are functioning at their lowest level.

Piss Play Is About Minorities, So It’s Really Important ran at West Coast Ensemble in Los Angeles in fall 2007 as a part of a one act play festival. A thirty minute farce of urinary distraction, it mocks the topsy-turvy morality and power struggles between fallen politicos of "The Arts Council" and the crass greed of the "Unheard Voices" community. It was presented at the summer, 2009 Cringe Festival in New York with actor, David Youse.

The Fat of the Land, both comedic and serious, explores uncomfortable themes: the meaning of life as youth fades, the clash of conservative and artistic values, sperm donation, and the destruction of land by overdevelopment. The Fat of the Land had a workshop production in Los Angeles at West Coast Ensemble and was presented in New York City in Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Octoberfest directed by Billy Hopkins, featuring Henry Wolfe Gummer. It was produced in 2006 by The New Theatre at The Theatre District in Los Angeles. The Fat of the Land was one of fifteen finalists for the Kaufman & Hart Prize for New American Comedy awarded by Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Dan Alemshah received The L.A. Ovation Award for best featured actor in a play for his portrayal of the humorous, heartfelt transsexual role of Claudia Vestibule.

American Air, Cummings’ critically acclaimed one-man-show, was presented at Theater/Theatre, The HBO Workspace and The Powerhouse Theatre in Los Angeles, and in part at Soho Repertory Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York under the title What Do Men Live By? Thirteen characters, thirteen problems, thirteen reasons for life to change, all surrounding a flight that almost crashes, but thankfully, does not.

Stark Raving Mad is a monstrous, elaborate farce which reveals the underpinnings of our violent culture by avenging a covered up rape. It takes place over one long Independence Day barbecue followed by a thunderstorm. The raped mother begs to grind her ill begotten baby in a garbage disposal, but her loving family is there to save her and the baby as they plan their escape to a new life in New Hampshire. It was produced at The Tamarind Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Winner, a one act play about the destruction of earth by the greed of oil producers, was staged at the West Coast Ensemble as part of the one act play series, Forks in the Road to horrified audiences.

Feed the Children, a one act play, was presented at The Production Company’s Summer Sizzle, 2008 festival. Two past-their-prime dancers and a mute dressed like Nijinsky fight it out for a solo spot on the teacup stage at the North Hollywood fundraiser, FEED THE CHILDREN! Fighting like cats, not ready for prime time, they are replaced by Libby, the one flipper seal.

Open Trench, a collection of fiction and memoir pieces, is soon^[when?] to be published.

References

External links

• Don Cummings at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Don Cummings website
• Open Trench - Don Cummings' blog
• "Streeps set for 'Good Smoke'" - Variety article
• "Meryl Streep, Debra Monk and More Set for Reading of A Good Smoke" - Playbill article

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