Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Proof is an elegant and engaging story of passion, genius, and family bonds. Catherine has inherited her late father’s mathematical brilliance, but does she also share his madness? When one of his graduate students discovers a groundbreaking proof among the professor’s notebooks, Catherine must face the legacy her father has left behind.
The cast of Proof features Michael Braun (Hal), Kristen Bush (Catherine), Jessica Dickey (Claire), and Michael Siberry (Robert).
The creative team includes three-time Tony Award winner Eugene Lee (set designer), Jennifer von Mayrhauser (costume designer), Stephen Strawbridge (lighting designer), and Mark Bennett (sound designer).
About the play, Ms. Mann said, “I knew I wanted to select a contemporary American play because I thought it would complement the rest of the season. When I thought about plays from the last 15 years that I loved, Proof immediately came to mind. We have never produced it at McCarter and I felt that I had a special connection to the play, being a University of Chicago faculty child myself and having had a very close bond with my father. I went back and read the play and it leaped off the page at me. It’s such a good play. It’s so sparely, beautifully written and the motor is sort of unusual for a relationship play. It almost feels like, not exactly a detective story, but there is suspense involved in a way that’s really interesting to me and deeply imbedded in the character relationship.”
David Auburn’s plays include The Columnist with John Lithgow (Manhattan Theatre Club/Broadway); The New York Idea (adaptation; Atlantic Theater); Proof (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award); An Upset and Amateurs (EST Marathons); and Skyscraper. Films include The Girl in the Park (writer/director) and The Lake House. Recent directing credits include Michael Weller’s Side Effects for MCC Theatre and A Delicate Balance for the Berkshire Theatre Festival. His short plays have been collected in the volume Fifth Planet and Other Plays (Dramatist Play Service). His work has been published in Harper’s, New England Review, and Guilt and Pleasure; and he was a contributing editor to the Oxford American Writers Thesaurus. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he lives in New York City.
Michael Braun (Hal) most recently appeared in Lincoln Center’s production of War Horse on Broadway. With The Bridge Project, he performed The Winter’s Tale and Uncle Vanya, directed Sam Mendes, at BAM, world tour, and London’s Old Vic. His other credits include The Front Page, On The Razzle, The Indian Wants the Bronx, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Liddy Plays, andBloody Mary (Williamstown Theatre Festival); The Breach (Seattle Rep); Lulu and All's Well That Ends Well (Yale Rep). Film: Incoming, Dare, Igby Goes Down. TV: The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie,Law & Order, Awkward Situations for Men. MFA: Yale School of Drama. He is a member of The Actor’s Center Company and is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award.
Kristen Bush (Catherine) has appeared in The Common Pursuit, directed by Moises Kaufman (Roundabout Theatre); Kin, directed by Sam Gold (Playwrights Horizons); Isaac's Eye and Photograph 51(Ensemble Studio Theatre); and, King Lear with Kevin Kline (The Public Theater). Her regional credits include Saturn Returns (South Coast Rep); Passion Play (The Goodman Theatre); The Violet Hour(The Old Globe). Film/TV: Liberal Arts, directed by Josh Radnor; Synecdoche, New York, directed by Charlie Kaufman; Ashborough (NBC/ Chiller); Elementary, Law & Order: SVU, The Good Wife,Blue Bloods, Suits, Person of Interest, Unforgettable, Medium, Numbers, NCIS, and the post-Hasselhoff Knightrider. Ms. Bush trained at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Jessica Dickey (Claire) made her Broadway debut in the Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Wit starring Cynthia Nixon. She is best known for her one-woman show The Amish Project, which had its world premiere at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater after a run at Cherry Lane and the New York Fringe Festival. Her other credits include the Off-Broadway revival of The Fourposter (Keen Company);Detroit (Playwrights Horizons), Three Sisters (Denver Center); Our Town (Dallas Theatre Center); Magnetic North (Portland Stage Company), and multiple productions with the Huntington, George Street Playhouse and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Television/Film: the Lifetime movie Amish Grace, the indie film Dogs Lie, several episodes of Law & Order, The Education of Max Bickford, and the pilot Cop Shop.
Michael Siberry (Robert) returns to McCarter Theatre where he was seen in Candida, and Emily Mann’s production of Uncle Vanya with Steven Skybell and Amanda Plummer. His many theater credits include Man and Boy with Frank Langella, Death Takes a Holiday opposite Rebecca Luker, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession with Cherry Jones,(all for Roundabout Theatre); The Merchant of Venice with Dustin Hoffman (Broadway); When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theater); Spamalot (Broadway and National Tour); Journey’s End (London); The Frogs (Lincoln Center Theater); A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Jemma Redgrave (London); The White Devil with the Sydney Theatre Company (BAM); House and Garden (National Theatre of Great Britain); Chicago (London); The Sound of Music opposite Rebecca Luker (Broadway); Nicholas Nickleby with the Royal Shakespeare Company ( Broadway). His numerous television credits include Rosemary and Thyme, The Grand, Silent, Witness (BBC); Jeeves and Wooster; and House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey. Mr. Siberry is an alumnus of England's Royal Shakespeare Company.
Emily Mann (Director/Resident Playwright) is in her 24th season as Artistic Director of McCarter Theatre where she has overseen over 125 productions. Under Ms. Mann’s leadership, McCarter was honored with the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater in 1994 and celebrated the 2013 Best Play Tony Award win for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang – a play commissioned, developed, and premiered at McCarter. Most recently at McCarter, Ms. Mann directed Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance and the world premiere of The Convert by Danai Gurira (also at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago and CTG in Los Angeles; six Ovation Awards, including Best Director of a Play and nominated for thirteen; also nominated for three Jeff Awards for Best Production),Phaedra Backwards by Marina Carr, Sarah Treem’s The How & The Why, and Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I (also at Playwrights Horizons). In spring 2012, Ms. Mann directed A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway with Blair Underwood, Wood Harris, Nicole Ari Parker and Daphne Rubin-Vega. Her plays include Execution of Justice, Still Life, Greensboro (A Requiem), Meshugah andAnnulla, An Autobiography. Ms. Mann wrote and directed Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations); NAACP and Joseph Jefferson Awards; Peabody and Christopher Awards for the screenplay. Her last play, Mrs. Packard, was the recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award and was published by TCG. A winner of the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award and The Edward Albee Last Frontier Directing Award, Ms. Mann is a member of the Dramatists Guild and serves on its council. She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Princeton University and was named the 2011 Person of the Year from the National Theatre Conference.
Ticket Information and Performance Schedule
Tickets for Proof start as low as $20, and can be purchased online at
www.mccarter.org, by phone at (609) 258-2787, or in person at the McCarter Theatre Ticket Office, located at 91 University Place in Princeton.