West Coast premiere of ‘Summer, 1976’ to bow on Vashon

It will feature well-known local actors Cate O’Kane and Dedra Whitt.

By Susan McCabe For Vashon Repertory Theatre • April 23, 2025 3:30 pm

The West Coast premiere of “Summer, 1976,” a play by acclaimed playwright and screenwriter David Auburn, is set to open next weekend at Vashon Center for the Arts.

Auburn is best known for his play, “Proof,” which won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Directed by Vashon Rep’s founder and artistic director, Charlotte Tienken, Vashon’s production of “Summer, 1976” will feature well-known local actors Cate O’Kane and Dedra Whitt.

In the play, Auburn spins a tale that begins over the course of one fateful summer, when an unlikely friendship forms between Diana, a fiercely iconoclastic artist and single mom, and Alice, a free-spirited and yet naïve young housewife. As the Bicentennial is celebrated across the country, these two women navigate motherhood, ambition and intimacy, and help each other discover their own independence.

The play, according to a review in The New York Times, is “a story of profound connection and awakening disquiet.” The New York production, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, opened in 2023.

In another review of the play, critic Robert Hofler, in The Wrap, called Auburn a “great storyteller who knows precisely how to elevate the language to turn ordinary lives and events into something significant and worth our rapt attention.”

Asked how he developed intimate dialogue for two women, Auburn said, “I try to imagine them as fully as I can, think carefully about their intentions and desires, and see where the writing takes me.”

With a few comic surprises, the plot twists around Auburn’s delicate insight into the unexpected ways friendships evolve, and the ways in which friends can also grow apart.

The production at VCA will have a pay-as-you-can dress rehearsal at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May, 1, and then open at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2. On Saturday, May 3, there will be shows at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. shows. Another 2:30 p.m. matinee, on Sunday, May 4, will be followed by a talk-back with Auburn, who will be in attendance.

To learn more about the play, listen to a conversation with performers Dedra Whitt and Cate O’Kane on Voice of Vashon, at tinyurl.com/2e8p9axd. Get tickets at vashonrepertorytheatre.org.