UW Summer Theatre Continues with "Proof"

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).”

Photo

Summer Theatre -- UW Alumni Rian Jairell and Martha Slater rehearse a scene for the upcoming UW production of "Proof." The play is 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,"part of the University of Wyoming's Snowy Range Summer Theatre and Dance Festival, 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. (Photo by Donald P. Turner)

Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006