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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Actor's
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Summit</st1:place></st1:City> shines in
award-winning play </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Father
and daughter team have leads in David Auburn's 'Proof.' <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hudson</st1:City></st1:place> company's excellent
production moving and credible </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Published
on Sunday, Jan 13, 2008 </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Proof is a play about
math only in the way that The Wizard of Oz was a play about tornadoes. Math is
what drives three of the main characters in David Auburn's 2001 Tony
Award-winning play, but it's not the point of the drama. In the Actor's
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Summit</st1:place></st1:City>'s
excellent new production, a family sorts itself out, not through mathematical
proofs but through honest, often raw, dialogue,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Friday night, director
Wayne Turney led one of the strongest shows I've seen by the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hudson</st1:City></st1:place> company. Despite a
few rough spots that will presumably smooth out as the production continues, the
cast cohered admirably well.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
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<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">A table and chairs in
front of a pair of doors simulates the porch of the family home in <st1:City
w:st="on">Chicago</st1:City>'s <st1:place w:st="on">Hyde Park</st1:place>
neighborhood. Actor's Summit's co-artistic director and founder, A. Neil
Thackaberry, has immersed himself in the role of Robert, a math whiz and
professor at the University of Chicago who peaked early, then declined into
mental illness. Robert's mind for numbers has lost its edge, but he can still
deliver poetic zingers about life — even after his death.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P>
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style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Constance Thackaberry,
Neil's daugher, is occasionally self-conscious in the role of Robert's daughter,
Catherine, a promising mathematician who quit school at Northwestern to take
care of her father in <st1:place w:st="on">Hyde Park</st1:place>. Catherine's
malaise smacks more of bratty 20-something attitude than the clinical depression
the playwright has specified. Yet elements of her portrayal are excellent.
Thackaberry makes you feel her conflicting emotions about her controlling,
annoyingly perfect older sister, Claire (Alicia Kahn), who comes to visit the
family home on <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Chicago</st1:place></st1:City>'s South Side for Robert's
funeral.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The actors create a
credible kinship between Catherine and Robert, setting them apart from the
practical Claire.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
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<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Keith Stevens brings
an intentionally awkward and endearing charm to the character of Harold Dobbs, a
former grad student of Robert's at U-C. Hal inadvertently pushes Catherine into
a defining moment when, while searching in the house for work by Robert, he
discovers a mathematical proof Catherine claims as her own. (In a flashback that
reveals U-C graduate <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Auburn</st1:place></st1:City>'s writing at its funniest, Robert
introduces Harold to Catherine by saying, ''Hal's in the infinity program.''
It's a telling detail about a university where I remember many doctoral students
being referred to as ''lifers.''<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Constance
Thackaberry's Catherine seems quick enough to have written her own
groundbreaking proof. In this performance, there wasn't much tension over the
question. More edge in the air would further sharpen this production, but it's a
fine one nevertheless.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Proof won not only the
2001 Tony for Best Play but the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for drama for playwright
David Auburn, whose family has long ties to the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Akron</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>. (Proof was also produced as a
movie, released in 2005.) Most recently, the son of Mark and Sandy Auburn wrote
and directed the movie The Girl in the Park, starring Sigourney Weaver and
released in 2007. Let's hope more plays are in store from this gifted
writer.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Elaine Guregian can be
reached at 330-996-3574 or <A
title=http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/mailto:eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com
href="http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/mailto:eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com"
target=_blank><SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com</SPAN></A>.</SPAN></P><BR></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Start the year off right. <A title="http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489" href="http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489" target="_blank">Easy ways to stay in shape</A> in the new year. </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>