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By CategoryShoestring Theater Presents Proof
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Shoestring Theater Presents ProofA Tony Award Winning Production Makes Its Local Debut
2005-10-25
Article Written by: Charles Griffin
The community theatrical group at the Shoestring Theatre performs in a renovated historical black schoolhouse, according to a brief history available in the lobby. Let me be the first to tell you, folks, approaching this building on a dark, near-Halloween night is enough to raise goose bumps on anyone’s skin. It looks as if it ought to be haunted! Inside the converted wooden schoolhouse, cast photos from past productions line the walls, so if there are ghosts, they must be the spirits of the people who came to this old building to rebuild, repair and tread the stage, even if just for a moment.
Proof is the latest production to grace the Shoestring stage. Written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner David Auburn and directed by Clark Adams, this story takes place in a backyard in urban Chicago, and the audience is treated to shifts in time as a puzzle is slowly pieced together.
Michael LaCroix plays Robert, a mathematics professor and genius who did his greatest work in his early twenties and who, following the death of his wife, went insane. His youngest daughter, Catherine, played with every nuance of a fragmented and conflicted personality by Rachel Yadanza, has since been her father’s primary caretaker. As such, she has sacrificed her education and her chance at a normal life in order to make his last years better, but she secretly fears, as does her older sister Claire, that she may be prone to the same dementia as her father. Jessica McCormick plays Claire with an appropriate obsessive-compulsive intensity. It’s clear that she wants to take charge of her sister and protect her, but she can’t seem to express it correctly. As all sisters tend to do when together, these two push each other’s buttons all too well. Michael Osowski enthusiastically plays the part of Hal, a former student of Robert’s who wants to find a mathematic legacy in the numerous notebooks the professor filed during his declining years. It’s possible that Hal is just an opportunist looking for a ride on his professor’s work, but he could be, as he says, an admirer who wants to preserve Robert’s fame.
The “proof” in this case is in a notebook. A mathematical proof is a question, often hypothetical, that is answered by mathematical means. These can be perfectly clear to a genius but mystical or impenetrable to lesser minds. Of course, the genius that produces them can also border on madness. Throughout this play, the audience must discover the proof for itself—who wrote it, who is actually crazy and who’s not, who is real and who is pretending. You don’t have to be a mathematical genius in this case, though, because the proof of the play is the wit of the lines. The laughs that come with pointed irony to counteract a situation that would otherwise be depressing.
Tickets are moderately priced at $12 for adults and $5 for students, and you can call (386) 228-3777 for more information or reservations.
Here’s how to find the Shoestring Theatre. From I-4 take exit 116, following the signs toward Lake Helen. If coming from Daytona, you are looping around to W. Main, turning right, crossing over I-4 and turning at the first right, Church Street, after the bridge. If you are coming from Deltona, exiting I-4 loops you onto W. Main, and you must turn right and then left onto Church Street before you reach the I-4 overpass. No matter which way you are coming from, once you are on Church Street, take the second road to your left, West Washington Street. The theatre is located at 380 S. Goodwin Street, but parking is off W. Washington.
Remaining performances are October 26 through 29 at 8 p.m. and October 30 at 2:30 p.m.
More information about Shoestring Theatre
