Tim Sanford is the Artistic Director of Playwrights Horizons, a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. Beginning as a literary intern in 1984, Tim went on to serve for nine years as Literary Manager and two years as Associate Artistic Director, before assuming leadership of the theater in January 1996.
In his tenure he has produced writers as diverse as Edward Albee, Christina Anderson, Billy Aronson, Jon Robin Baitz, Annie Baker, Tanya Barfield, Neal Bell, Adam Bock, Keith Bunin, David Cale, Kirsten Childs, Julia Cho, Kia Corthron, Mike Craver, Brian Crawley, Lisa D’Amour, John Dempsey, Tom Donaghy, Bathsheba Doran, Richard Dresser, Christopher Durang, Kate Fodor, Scott Frankel, Amy Freed, Michael Friedman, Melissa James Gibson, Gina Gionfriddo, Jessica Goldberg, Daniel Goldfarb, Ricky Ian Gordon, David Marshall Grant, Kirsten Greenidge, David Greenspan, Joy Gregory, Rinne Groff, Adam Guettel, A.R. Gurney, Jordan Harrison, Peter Hedges, Jack Herrick, Amy Herzog, Michael Korie, Jonathan Kreisberg, Christopher Kyle, Leslye Headland, Tina Landau, James Lapine, Dan LeFranc, Kenneth Lonergan, Quincy Long, Craig Lucas, Wendy MacLeod, Gannar Madsen, Marlane Meyer, Chris Miller, Itamar Moses, Richard Nelson, Bruce Norris, Lynn Nottage, Kira Obolensky, Adam Rapp, Theresa Rebeck, José Rivera, Sarah Ruhl, James Ryan, Sarah Schulman, Christopher Shinn, Nicky Silver, Evan Smith, Kelly Stuart, Jeanine Tesori, Kathleen Tolan, Sarah Treem, Nathan Tysen, James Valcq & Fred Alley, Erin Cressida Wilson, Craig Wright, and Doug Wright.
Notable productions from his tenure include Floyd Collins (Lucille Lortel Award, Obie), Violet (New York Critics Circle Award & Obie), Lillian (Obie), Betty’s Summer Vacation (Obie), James Joyce’s The Dead (New York Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical), The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Obie), Lobby Hero, She Stoops To Comedy (Obie), Small Tragedy (Obie),Fabulation (Obie), I Am My Own Wife (Pulitzer Prize, Drama Desk Award, and Tony), Miss Witherspoon(finalist, Pulitzer Prize), Grey Gardens (Outer Critics Circle Award), Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie),Clybourne Park (2011 Pulitzer Prize, 2012 Tony Award) and Milk Like Sugar (Obie). Under his leadership, Playwrights Horizons received a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work."
He is a past President of The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and a contributor toDramaturgy in American Theater. He has a B.A. from Â鶹ƵµÀ and a Ph.D. in Dramatic Literature from Stanford University.