Company of Fools Presents PROOF, Now thru 2/28

This February Company of Fools (COF) will present the critically acclaimed and award-winning play, Proof, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn. As part of The Center's BIG IDEA project The Brain, COF will present 14 public performances and one student matinee. Performance will run from tonight, February 11 through February 28, 2015.

Proof, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play, has been hailed by critics as a play that "combines elements of mystery and surprise with old-fashioned storytelling to provide a compelling evening of theatre...[a] smart and compassionate play of ideas" (NY Daily News) and "[a] wonderfully funny...ambitiously constructed work" (Variety).

David Auburn's compassionate and knowing play is about a young woman, Catherine, who, on the death of her father, must confront a number of long-denied feelings and fears. Catherine's father, Robert, was a brilliant mathematician who crossed the thin line from genius to insanity several years earlier, leaving Catherine as his sole caregiver for all her adult life. Now she must adjust not only to his death, but come to grips with her fear that his mathematical genius, which she has inherited, comes with a dreadful price and that she may be fated to the same mental degeneration and insanity as her father.

Core Company Artist, Denise Simone, directs this winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best New Play. The standout cast features local actor Keith Moore (Robert) as well as guest actors Hanna Cheek (who last appeared in COF's Other Desert Cities), Neil Brookshire (who last appeared in COF's Peter and the Starcatcher), and Cassandra Bissell (a Chicago-based actor making her COF debut).

Rounding out the creative team for Proof are Joe Lavigne (Set Design), John Glenn (Light Design), and K.O. Ogilvie (Stage Manager).

David Auburn was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 30, 1969, and studied political philosophy at the University of Chicago. His writing career began when he joined a comedy troupe as an extracurricular activity and began contributing sketches to the group's repertoire. Auburn graduated in 1991 and was offered a writing fellowship by Amblin Productions, a Los Angeles-based company owned by filmmaker Steven Spielberg. After the fellowship ended, he moved to New York, where he attended the Julliard School's playwriting program. He began to write plays in earnest and had several of them produced by small New York theaters. Along with his short plays and Proof, Auburn is best known as the author of Skyscraper, a darkly comedic play that ran off-Broadway in 1997. He wrote the screenplay for the movie version of Proof (2005), starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhaal, as well as for the movie The Lake House (2006), starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

Auburn debuted as a movie director in 2008 with The Girl in the Park, starring Sigourney Weaver, Kate Bosworth, and Keri Russell. His latest play, The Columnist, premiered at New York's Manhattan Theatre Club in April 2012.

Proof is generously sponsored by Linda and Bob Edwards and Judith and Richard Smooke. The sponsors of COF's 19th Season are High Country Fusion, Arrow R. Storage, Scott Miley Roofing and media sponsor The Weekly Sun.

This play is recommended for ages 13 and up.

Tickets are $35 for full price, $25 for seniors and Center members and $15 for students (18 and under). These ticket prices do not include the "Pay What You Feel" preview (February 11), 10 for $10, and Educator Night (February 22). There is also a SPECIAL GROUP RATE-groups of six or more receive $25 tickets!

Tickets may be purchased online at sunvalleycenter.org, by phone at 208.578.9122 or at the Liberty Theatre box office starting one hour prior to curtain. Company of Fools' box office is located at the Liberty Theatre, 110 N. Main Street in Hailey, with hours from 10am to 4pm, Monday through Friday. All seats are reserved, with the exception of our "Pay What You Feel" preview.

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