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
Helen Q. Huang is an award-winning costume designer whose credits include Quixote Nuevo at Denver Center (Henry Award), South Coast Repertory, Seattle Rep, and Portland Center Stage; Soft Power at Signature Theatre (Helen Hayes Award nomination); The Chosen at Milwaukee Repertory Theater; Next to Normal at Round House Theatre; The Far Country at Berkeley Repertory Theatre; The Janeiad at The Alley Theatre; and Much Ado About Nothing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Helen is a professor of Costume Design at the University of Maryland, College Park. helenqhuang.com.
Jesse Belsky previously designed The Colored Museum, John Proctor is the Villain, Pipeline, Until The Flood, P.Y.G. or The Mis-Edumacation of Dorian Belle, The Remains, The Effect, Three Sisters, No Sisters, and Animal and co-designed White Noise at Studio. Regional credits include Lydia and Rough Crossing at Yale Rep and The Year of Magical Thinking at PlayMakers Repertory Company. Other DC designs include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at Ford’s Theatre; JQA and The Year of Magical Thinking at Arena Stage; Oslo and The Book of Will at Round House Theatre; Penelope, The Bridges of Madison County, and Sweeney Todd at Signature Theatre; Henry IV, Part 1; The Winter’s Tale; and Sense and Sensibility at Folger Theatre; and The Music Man, Labour of Love, and The Magic Play at Olney Theatre Center. Jesse holds a B.A. from Duke University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. He has taught lighting design at Connecticut College and UNC Greensboro. jessebelsky.com
Stefania Bulbarella is a projections designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina based in New York. On Broadway she worked on Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at the Manhattan Theatre Club (2024 Tony Nomination), which is now making its regional tour. Other theater credits include Space Dogs at MCC Theater (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nomination), Travels at Ars Nova, A Bright New Boise and The Watering Hole at Signature Theatre Company (New York); and Semblance at New York Theatre Workshop; amongst others. She received the HOLA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Design for Vamonos!. stefaniabulbarella.com
Kate Marvin is a sound designer and composer based in Brooklyn, NY. Recent works include David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face at the Todd Haimes Theatre, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Merry Me at New York Theatre Workshop, Wolf Play at Manhattan Class Company and Soho Rep in collaboration with Ma-Yi Theater (Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Sound Design), Jonah with Roundabout Theatre Company, the best we could [a family tragedy] with Manhattan Theatre Club, Dmitri Krymov’s Eugene Onegin at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Bekah Brunstetter’s The Game at Playmakers Repertory Theater, The Scarlet Letter at Two River Theate, Bulrusher at McCarter Theatre and Berkeley Rep, Fidelio with Heartbeat Opera, and Chimpanzee at HERE Arts Center, the Festival Mondial Théâtres de Marionnettes, and Barbican Centre. Kate is an Associate Artist with Target Margin Theater. MFA: Yale School of Drama. katemarvinsound.com
John Keith Hall has stage managed many productions at Studio including Exception to the Rule, The Colored Museum, At the Wedding, Espejos: Clean, Fun Home, English, Bad Jews, Choir Boy, Cock, Water by the Spoonful, Tribes, The Habit of Art, Torch Song Trilogy, 4000 Miles, In the Red and Brown Water, The History Boys, and The Road to Mecca. Other DC area credits include Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center, Signature Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. His regional credits include over 40 productions as Resident Stage Manager at the Barter Theatre as well as Shadowlands Stage, Virginia Musical Theatre, and Contemporary American Theatre Festival.
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