Bradley University Theatre Presents Proof

11/03/2014 2:57 PM

PROOF, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, and the second offering of Bradley University Theatre’s 2014-15 season, opens November 13 at the Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts. One of the most popular and steadily produced American plays over the last two decades, David Auburn’s compelling, big-hearted family drama marks an auspicious mainstage directing debut for student Danielle Dyksterhouse (BU ’15) a fifth-year double major in Theatre Arts and Business Management. 

“To the best of my knowledge, Danielle is the first Bradley undergraduate to direct a mainstage season production in the Meyer Jacobs Theatre,” says Theatre Arts chair and directing mentor, Scott Kanoff. “She has an exceptional theatre mind, prodigious skill, and a wisdom about people and relationships—all of which give me absolute confidence that her production of this landmark play is going to inspire our production team and delight our audiences.”

Joining the student cast is guest artist and popular Peoria actor, Charles Brown.

The Play

“Catherine, a young Chicago woman, dropped out of college to care for her brilliant but unstable father, an eminent mathematician. Now, following his death and on the eve of her 25^th birthday,  she must confront her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged older sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father who hopes to find valuable work in the late professor’s 103 notebooks.  Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult question of all: How much of her father’s genius—or madness—has she inherited?” (Dramatists Play Service)

The Playwright

David Auburn was born in Chicago and raised in Ohio and Arkansas. He graduated from the University of Chicago, served a one-year internship with Amblin Entertainment, and moved to New York City in 1992, where he spent two years in the Juilliard School’s playwrighting program, studying under Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang. His first full-length play, Skyscraper, ran Off Broadway in 1997. His short play, What Do You Believe About The Future? appeared in Harper’s Magazine and has since been adapted for the screen. Auburn is best known for his 2000 play Proof, which won the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He has adapted it into a film, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow and was released in 2005. His play The Columnist had its world premiere in a production by the Manhattan Theatre Club on Broadway, running from April 3, 2012 through June 3, 2012 and starring John Lithgow, with direction by Daniel Sullivan.  Auburn has also been awarded the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Following Proof, he wrote the screenplay for the movie The Lake House,, released by Warner Brothersin 2006. In 2007, he made his directorial debut with The Girl in the Park, for which he also wrote the screenplay.

New York Magazine wrote of Auburn, “When we think of the great American playwrights, we think of Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman and Eugene O’Neill, in earlier generations; Wendy Wassertein and Tony Kushner, Jon Robin Baitz and Donald Margulies today. They are always writing about big ideas and wrapping them in family squabbles that get us where we live. Welcome David Auburn to the club!”

The Director

Danielle Dyksterhouse is currently in her fifth year here at Bradley University.  She is double majoring in Theatre Arts and Business Management, and says she hopes to pursue a career “that will be the perfect combination of both.”  Previous directing and assistant directing credits include: New Faces 2012, Angels in America Part II (Cornstock Theatre), 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Eurydice, Clybourne Park, and Actor’s Nightmare (M.E.T. production).  Proof is her first Mainstage directing experience. 

Proof will run Thursdays through Saturdays, November 13-15 and November 20-22, at 8 PM, with Sunday matinees November 16 and 23 at 2:30 PM. Tickets are $14 for adults, $5 for freshmen, $7 for other students, and $12 for Bradley faculty, staff and seniors. For tickets call 309-677-2650.