Theatre
Bangsberg Hall 101
Phone: 218-755-3935
Fax: 218-755-4369
Mailing Address:
1500 Birchmont Drive NE #16
Bemidji, MN 56601
Ticket Prices: $6.00 students & senior citizens, $12.00 adults, BSU students admitted free with ID (This is a SAFAC sponsored event)
Proof is a play by David Auburn originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club on 23 May 2000. It then went to Broadway on 24 October 2000 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and was directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, with Mary-Louise Parker as Catherine, Larry Bryggman as Robert, Ben Shenkman as Hal, and Johanna Day as Claire. The entire original Broadway cast received Tony nominations for their performances, with Parker winning. Later during the Broadway run, Jennifer Jason Leigh (September 13, 2001 to June 30, 2002) and Anne Heche took over the lead role. Josh Hamilton and Neil Patrick Harris subsequently played the role of Hal.
The play won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play.
The play concerns Catherine, the daughter of Robert, a recently deceased mathematical genius in his fifties and professor at the University of Chicago, and her struggle with mathematical genius and mental illness. Catherine had cared for her father through a lengthy mental illness. Upon Robert's death, his ex-graduate student Hal discovers a paradigm-shifting proof about prime numbers in Robert's office. The title refers both to that proof and to the play's central question: Can Catherine prove the proof's authorship? Along with demonstrating the proof's authenticity, the daughter also finds herself in a relationship with 28-year-old Hal. Throughout, the play explores Catherine's fear of following in her father's footsteps, both mathematically and mentally and her desperate attempts to stay in control.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_(play) accessed 11/02/2011
We are committed to producing works that engage our students and audiences with political, social and philosophical issues while exploring the breadth of human experience.
While using productions as a method of educating our students in a professional process and a variety of performance styles and theatrical genre, we seek to educate ourselves and the campus and local community through the topics of the works we produce. Our production selection is driven by the University’s commitment to the signature themes and interdisciplinarity.
We believe that the production choices challenge the participants and the audience to critically evaluate the past and present in order to imagine a future that we can embrace – a future that we will create through responsible citizenship and stewardship of our shared environment, the ability to engage in new worlds of thought and to appreciate difference.