It’s midsummer in the mid-seventies—the second wave of feminism is cresting somewhere while two very different women are thrown into one another’s orbit in college-town Ohio. Iconoclast artist Diana looks down on faculty wife Alice, but their young daughters’ friendship forces them together. Featuring two tour-de-force performances by DC favorites Holly Twyford and Kate Eastwood Norris, David Auburn’s (Proof) recent Broadway hit traces each woman’s growing disquiet with the compromises they’ve made, and the transformative power of a friendship at the right time.
Runtime: 90 minutes with no intermission.
Read the program.
Please note late seating will be determined at the discretion of House Management.
In the interest of welcoming people with a wide range of needs and life experiences, Studio offers a bit of information on what you will encounter in the play. Use this information as it is helpful to you.
Summer, 1976 is generously underwritten by Sheryl and Rick Donaldson & Dr. Mark Epstein and Amoretta Hoeber.
David Auburn is a playwright, screenwriter, and director. His plays include Summer 1976, The Adventures of Augie March, Lost Lake, The Columnist, and Proof (2001 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award). Film work includes The Girl in the Park (writer/director), Georgetown, Proof, and The Lake House. He is Associate Artistic Director at the Berkshire Theatre Group, where he has directed Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Dracula, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Petrified Forest, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Anna Christie, and A Delicate Balance, among other plays. Other directing credits include Long Day's Journey into Night (Court, Chicago); and the Off-Broadway world premiere of Michael Weller’s Side Effects (MCC). A former Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in New York City.
Vivienne Benesch is thrilled to make her Studio Theatre debut, returning to DC after directing Love’s Labor’s Lost for the Folger Theatre in 2019 (Helen Hayes nomination) and acting at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Major Barbara and Henry V many moons ago. A director, actor, educator and producer, Vivienne is currently in her ninth season as Producing Artistic Director of PlayMakers Repertory Company in North Carolina. From 2005 to 2016 Vivienne served as Artistic Director of the renowned Chautauqua Theater Company and Conservatory in western New York. Most recent directing credits include the world premiere of Bekah Brunstetter’s The Game at PlayMakers and the premiere of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles on Broadway for the Roundabout Theatre Company starring Debra Messing and at the Detroit Public Theatre. She is a proud recipient of the prestigious 2017 Zelda Fichandler Award, an OBIE Award, and a graduate of Brown University and NYU’s Graduate Acting Program.
Kate Eastwood Norris is an actor as well as a director and educator at university and graduate levels. Her acting credits include The Father and Animal at Studio Theatre, and numerous productions at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (where she is also a company member), Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Portland Center Stage, Wilma Theater, Arden Theatre Company, Florida Stage, Gulfshore Playhouse, Two River Theater, Syracuse Stage, PICT (Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre), the Humana Festival of New American Plays, Delaware Theatre Company and the American Shakespeare Center. Kate has also made guest appearances with the Baltimore and the Alaskan Symphonies as an actor/narrator. She received two Helen Hayes Awards, Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award, and The Anderson-Hopkins award for her acting. She holds an MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University and an M.A. in Humanities and Creativity from Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Holly Twyford returns for her fourteenth show at Studio Theatre, and her ninth collaboration with Kate Eastwood Norris. Previous Studio productions include At the Wedding, The Steward of Christendom, The Desk Set, The Road to Mecca, Contractions, and Cloud 9, all of which earned her Helen Hayes Awards nominations, and The Shape of Things, for which she received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress. Holly has performed in over eighty productions in theaters in the Washington, DC area including Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Signature Theatre. She has been nominated for multiple Helen Hayes Awards and is a five-time recipient. She was honored with Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence for her portrayal of Anna in Harold Pinter’s Old Times. Holly is proud to be a charter member of Studio Theatre’s Cabinet, a Ford’s Theatre Associate Artist, and a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow.
Tonya Beckman has previously appeared at Studio Theatre in The Internationalist and The Long Christmas Ride Home. DC credits include work at Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, The Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Theater J, Constellation Theatre Company (Helen Hayes Lead Actress nomination for The Skin of our Teeth), Mosaic Theater Company, 1st Stage, Solas Nua, and Imagination Stage. She is also a company member at Taffety Punk Theatre Company, where she recently completed a run as Lady Macbeth. Regional credits include the Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Fulton Theatre, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Totem Pole Playhouse, The Public Theatre (Maine), The Purple Rose Theatre Company, and The Human Race Theatre Company. Tonya is also a member of the theatre faculty at George Washington University. tonyabeckman.com
David Auburn: Beyond Proof
"It Takes a Village" - Collective Childcare Models
Summer, 1976: Headlines and Events
The Work of Paul Klee
A Note from the Dramaturg, Adrien-Alice Hansel