Holly Twyford is a

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

-based American stage actress and director. She is a ten-time nominee and a four-time winner of the

Helen Hayes Award The Helen Hayes Awards are theater awards recognizing excellence in professional theater in the Washington, D.C. area since 1983. The awards are named in tribute of Helen Hayes, who is also known as the "First Lady of American Theatre." They ar ...

.Helen Hayes Awards
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Early life and career

Twyford grew up in

Great Falls, Virginia Great Falls is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 15,427, an increase of 80.5% from the 2000 census. History Colonial farm settlements began to form in the area a ...

.Horwitz, Jane (May 25, 1999). ackstage Page C.05. Publisher: The Washington Post She attended the School of Theatre Arts at Boston University's School of Theatre Arts before returning to the D.C. area to pursue acting.Tischler, Gary (January 26, 2003)
Performance
Publisher: The Georgetowner Before her theatre career was established, she worked as a bartender and in the costume department of the renowned

Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...

, where she would later star. Twyford has appeared in over thirty productions for organizations including

, the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare material ...

Shakespeare Theatre Company The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a Regional theater in the United States, regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. The theatre company focuses primarily on plays from the William Shakespeare, Shakespeare canon, but its seasons inc ...

Studio Theatre A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

, Source Theatre,

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a non-profit theatre company located at 641 D Street NW in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1980, it produces new plays which it believes to be edgy, challenging, and thought-provoking. ...

Theatre J Theater J is a professional theater company located in Washington, DC, founded to present works that "celebrate the distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy". Organization Hailed by ''The New York T ...

Olney Theatre Located in Olney, Maryland, the Olney Theatre Center offers a diverse array of professional productions year-round that enrich, nurture, and challenge a broad range of artists, audiences and students. One of two state theaters of Maryland, Olney ...

Round House Theatre Round House Theatre is a nonprofit theater company based in Bethesda, Maryland. History Round House began life in 1970 as “Street ’70”, a program of the Montgomery County Department of Recreation that provided educational outreach in the ...

and the now-defunct Consenting Adults Theater Company, where she earned her first Helen Hayes Award nomination in 1993. She commonly collaborates with director Joe Banno on offbeat productions of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

plays, including a 1999 version of ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'' at the Folger in which Twyford, along with three others, portrayed the protagonist as a fractured personality. Twyford's film and television appearances include ''Out of Season'', '' Pecker'', ''Falling to Peaces'' and a 1997 episode of '' Homicide: Life on the Street.'' Twyford is a lesbian and has been

out Out may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 * ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander * ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...

for her entire career.Shulman, Randy (April 7, 2005)
Stage Presence: Theatrical Bonds
Publisher: Metro Weekly She had been with her partner, an environmentalist, since 1992.Publisher: Metro Weekly
In a 2005 group interview with director Delia Taylor and playwright Jeanette Buck for ''Metro Weekly'', she said that she didn't feel her homosexuality had hindered her career, but that the necessity of coming out to coworkers when starting a new job "gets to be real tiring". In the same interview, she and her colleagues also discussed the paucity of female roles and the need for more female directors, playwrights and producers in both the theatre industry and Hollywood.

Helen Hayes Awards

References

*Horwitz, Jane. "Backstage." The Washington Post 25 May 1999, sec. Style: c05. *Shulman, Randy.
Stage Presence: Theatrical Bonds.
Metro Weekly 7 Apr. 2005. 9 July 2007. *Tischler, Gary.

The GeorgeTowner. 26 Jan. 2003. 9 July 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Twyford, Holly American film actresses American stage actresses Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni Living people Madeira School alumni People from Great Falls, Virginia Actresses from Washington, D.C. Year of birth missing (living people) Actresses from Virginia American lesbian actresses LGBT people from Washington, D.C. LGBT people from Virginia American theatre directors American women theatre directors LGBT theatre directors 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses