With rehearsals under way for Studio Theatre’s next production, the recent David Auburn (Proof) Broadway hit Summer, 1976, the Studio team is excited to be welcoming back two of DC’s favorite actors, Holly Twyford and Kate Eastwood Norris, under the direction of Vivienne Benesch.
Twyford was last seen at Studio just a few months ago as the charmingly inebriated mother-of-the-bride in the Tom Story-directed comedy At the Wedding, while Norris is returning to Studio for the first time since her appearance in 2017’s The Father. Both actresses have dozens of credits and accolades for their work in DC theater over the course of their careers.
“When we’re programming the season, we’re always looking to showcase great acting,” says Studio Artistic Director David Muse. “In Summer, 1976, David Auburn offers two nuanced characters, ripe for powerhouse performances. The writing is sharp and comic; the characters are defined by both their differences and their shared discontents. It’s a gift to actors, and Holly Twyford and Kate Eastwood Norris are gifts to the DC theater scene; I can’t wait to see what they do with this material. Under the assured hand of director Vivienne Benesch—a friend and colleague from her DC days—this jewel-box of a play explores a complex cultural moment and a lifechanging friendship, anchored by two stars of our theater community. Audiences will find a lot to love here.”
The play brings audiences to a very specific moment in American cultural history: 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 (Norris) looks down on faculty wife Alice (Twyford), but their young daughters’ friendship forces them together. Summer, 1976 traces each woman’s growing disquiet with the compromises they’ve made, and the transformative power of a friendship at the right time.
GENERAL INFO
Date: Performances start November 13, 2024
Location: Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW, Washington, DC
Cost: $40-$95 (discounts available)
Appropriate audience age: 13+ (adult themes, strong language)
Parking: Studio Theatre does not have its own parking garage; however, they do have parking partnerships with both Spot Hero and the Washington Plaza Hotel. More info on the Studio website (https://www.studiotheatre.
Buy tickets: https://www.studiotheatre.org/
ABOUT THE CAST
Kate Eastwood Norris (Diana) 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 (Alice) 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.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
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.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
David Auburn’s plays include Summer, 1976; The Columnist; The New York Idea; Proof (2001 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award); An Upset and Amateurs; and The Journals of Mihail Sebastian. Films include The Girl in the Park (writer/director) and The Lake House (writer). Recent stage directing credits include Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night at Court Theatre, Tennessee Williams’ Period of Adjustment at the Berkshire Theatre Group, and the world premiere of Michael Weller’s Side Effects at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. His short plays have been collected in the volume Fifth Planet and Other Plays. His work has been published in Harper’s, New England Review, and Guilt and Pleasure, and he was a contributing editor to the Oxford American Writers Thesaurus. Recently, David directed Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance at Berkshire Theater Festival. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow.
ABOUT STUDIO THEATRE
Studio Theatre is a longstanding Washington cultural institution dedicated to the production of contemporary theater. Over more than 40 years and 350 productions, the theater has grown from a company that produced in a single rented theater to one that owns a multi-venue complex stretching half a city block, but has stayed committed to its core distinguishing characteristics: deliberately intimate spaces; excellence in acting and design; and seasons that feature many of the most significant playwrights of our time. Studio is a values-focused organization that pursues artistry and inclusion, and brings characteristic thoughtfulness and daring to our efforts, onstage and off. The theater serves nearly 75,000 people each year, including more than 1,000 youth and young adults through community engagement initiatives. Founded in 1978, the quality of Studio’s work has been recognized by sustained community support, as well as 78 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in professional theater.
