June 19, 2006 -- The University of Wyoming’s Snowy Range Summer Theatre and Dance
Festival continues with David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama
about an enigmatic young woman haunted by the death of her father and her own uncertain
future.
“Proof,” directed by UW Theatre and Dance faculty member Assistant Professor Wolf
J. Sherrill, runs Tuesday, June 27, through Saturday, July 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the
Fine Arts Center studio theatre. Tickets cost $10 for the general public, $8 for seniors
and $5 for students. For tickets call the Fine Arts Center box office at (307) 766-6666
or go online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts.
The play is part mystery and part love story filled with revealing insights, startling
revelations and unexpected humor. The UW production features accomplished actor James
Harper, whose credits range from Judging Amy to NYPD Blue and Fraiser to Armageddon.
Joining him onstage are UW alumni Martha Slater and Rian Jairell.
“Proof” follows Catherine, the devoted daughter of a brilliant but mentally unstable
mathematician, as she tries to come to grips with her father’s death after years serving
as his caretaker. Now alone, Catherine faces her 25th birthday with trepidation.
When Catherine’s estranged sister, Claire, comes home to help “settle” family affairs
and their father’s ex-student, Hal, begins searching for a better glimpse of his former
genius teacher, a threatening secret comes to light. The secret threatens the sisters’
fragile kinship and Catherine’s budding relationship with Hal.
Sherill says in “Proof,” math and the mathematics subculture provide the backdrop
for Auburn’s “relationship-driven work.” He adds that the play really is about character
and finding solutions to life’s problems.
“Similar to a mathematical proof, the characters come together, divide, even become
fractions of themselves,” he says. “Do the numbers add up in human relationships as
well as mathematical ones? Which are easier to manipulate and control? These are questions
that I’m looking forward to exploring (with the play).”
Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006
