Timothy Crawford is an African American playwright, actor, director, and commercial model. Tim was profiled in a recent issue of Springfield Scene Magazine (Art Scene, Issue No. 6, Vol. 18) where it was revealed that he came to Springfield, from Washington D.C., for a six-month stint as Interim Director of Program Development for the Illinois Education Association in 2009 and has been a Springfield resident ever since.
Originally from Chicago, Tim received his theatre training and a BA degree at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he was a multi-year member of the fabulous Straw Hat Players summer theatre program. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar, but he’s not pretentious, so you don’t have to add “Esq.” when you write to him.
In Springfield, Tim has previously appeared on stage as the Announcer in Dracula - A Radio Play, as Roy Wilkins in Robert Schenkkan’s All the Way, and as “Hoke” in the Spencer Theatre Company’s production of Driving Miss Daisy, all at Hoogland Center for the Arts. He has also acted in training videos for the Bunn Corporation. He has been on the Union Theater stage at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in several readers-theatre events, including readings from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Tim is proud to serve the Springfield arts community as a Hoogland Center for the Arts Trustee and as the Board of Trustees’ Diversity and Inclusivity Committee chairperson.
As a playwright, Tim’s recent accomplishments include having his short play, The Consultant from Hell, his 10-minute play BLT Matters, his Nice One-Act You Got Here, Be a Shame if Anything Happened to It, and the first draft of his full-length play, The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves, performed as readings at the Valdez Theater Conference between 2018 and 2022. His Superhero Problems and Faith Lester is Married, Happily were performed as part of Anchorage Community Theater’s Virtual Short Play Festival in 2020. A 10-minute excerpt from The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves had a staged reading as part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival’s “Free Fall Baltimore” event in October 2021.
Before coming to Springfield, some of Tim’s credits include his one-act plays, Whatchu Mean We, White Man? and The Mor(al)e the Merrier, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Two-Day Meetings, which were performed in the Washington, D.C., area. He also directed sold-out performances of Unintended Consequences: Three One-Act Comedies by Al Lefcowitz and Timothy Crawford for the 2008 Capital Fringe Festival in D.C. He directed acclaimed Baltimore-area premieres of both Fences by August Wilson and All in the Timing by David Ives. Those choice opportunities were offered to him after he twice directed new plays as part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival.
In spring 2023, Tim will be directing a Hoogland Center for the Arts production of Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years, featuring Kathryn M. Harris and Patricia James Davis. This summer he plans to travel to the Valdez (AK) Theatre Conference for a reading of his new one-act play, No Champagne in the Champagne Room. As for projects beyond this artist-in-residency, Tim is fairly far along on his full-length, noir-ish mystery play, based on characters from his short play Fairly Accidental, and he is writing a screenplay for a short film based on his play Faith Lester Is Married, Happily, which he is also slated to direct some time in 2024.
