David Auburn's PROOF Closes 2/20 at Tennessee Rep

Tennessee Repertory Theatre continues its 25^th season with David Auburn's Proof, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play, running at TPAC's Andrew Johnson through February 20.

"Proof is the kind of play directors live to work on: a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winner.," says Tennessee Rep Producing Artistic Director René D. Copeland.

"When a play wins both awards you can figure that not only is it of excellent quality as a script, but it has also been successful at winning over audiences. I love a smart, moving play that is also highly entertaining. The structure of it is clever, and it is one of those plays with many layers. The characters are fascinating; the dialogue is brilliant; the story is rich. This is a play that I have wanted to direct, and I am just delighted that the circumstances of the 25th anniversary have given me the opportunity to bring it back."

Veteran Nashville actor Chip Arnold takes on the role of Robert, the mathematician whose work is at the center of the play's action, with Anna Felix as his daughter, Catherine; Erin Whited as Claire, Catherine's estranged sister; and Eric D. Pasto-Crosby as Hal, one of Robert's former students.

In Proof - the play most often-produced by regional professional theatres between 2001 and 2009 - Catherine, a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions, the arrival of her estranged sister Claire, and the attentions of Hal - one of her father's former students. Hal hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that Catherine's father left behind. Over the weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father's madness - or genius - has she inherited?

Tackling the role of Robert Is a challenge that Arnold has enthusiastically embraced: "It never fails to thrill when an actor is told he has been cast in a role, but getting to play 'Robert' is such a gift.," says Arnold.

"When I read the play I was kind of stunned and awed by the story and the characters, and as a father of daughters I connected with 'Robert's' feelings for his daughters. My wife Kay asked me for a short description of 'Robert' and I said, 'He's tempermental, has two daughters, and he's a genius.' My wife responded: 'Well, you've got two out of three nailed.'"

Tickets are $41.50 (starting at $11.50 for students with valid ID, some restrictions apply). Tickets are on sale at the TPAC Box Offices (at 505 Deaderick Street downtown and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers at the Mall at Green Hills). Tickets are available by phone at (615) 782-4040 or online at www.tennesseerep.org.

David Auburn's Proof, produced by Tennessee Repertory Theatre, runs February 6-20.

Chip Arnold in Proof, photographed by Susan Adcock

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