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| 'Proof’ adds up to dramatic challenges | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Martin Cizmar, Tribune | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| January 31, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
In fact, Stinson-Borg, who directs a production of the Pulitzer-winning play at Mesa Community College opening tonight, gets so excited about numbers she once tried to explain the proof on the play’s poster to the lead actress, Michelle Luz. Luz, a 20-year-old second-year theater student from Ahwatukee Foothills, just furrowed her brow and replied: “I hate math.” It’s a common reaction, Stinson-Borg says, but one she hopes won’t keep people away from the play. “It really is just a play about the characters,” says Stinson-Borg. “It’s real, things that could happen to anyone whether they’re a genius or not.” Though a revolutionary proof about prime numbers is central to the plot, “Proof” is really about how Catherine (played by Luz) deals with life after the death of her father, a mathematics genius whose mental illness forced him to abandon his career as an academic. Catherine gives up her education to care for her father and, though she has no advanced mathematics training, starts working on a proof herself. Hal, a former student of Catherine’s father, discovers a groundbreaking proof that Catherine says she wrote, a claim he’s skeptical about. Until the end, it’s unclear who wrote the proof central to the story, Catherine or her father, an ambiguity that advances the plot. For Luz, the math-hating actress, the play is a chance to follow her character through the travails of losing a parent, starting a relationship and battling with mental illness. David Auburn’s script, which won a Tony Award for best play in 2001 and was made into a 2005 movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow, requires a lot from her: falling apart one scene, falling in love the next. “There are some scenes that just beat me down,” says Luz. “She’s so bipolar, she’s so hot-cold.” Luz, who’s mostly done period pieces, enjoys the casualness of a contemporary college setting. Learning the lines for a play with only four speaking parts, and which has her character in almost every scene, was tough, she says, but getting into costume is easy. “I get to wear jeans and a T-shirt,” she says. “That’s pretty unusual for me in most plays I do.” If you go What: “Proof” When: 7:30 p.m. today and Friday. Also 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28- March 1 and 2 p.m. March 2 Where: Red Mountain Community College Community Room, 7110 E. McKellips Road, Mesa. (Feb. 28-March 2 performances at Mesa Community College Theatre Outback, 1833 W. Southern Ave., Mesa) Cost: $12 general admission, $10 faculty and staff, $10 senior citizens and alumni, $7 MCC students, children under 5 not admitted Information: (480) 461-7165 or mc.maricopa.edu Contact Martin Cizmar by email, or phone (480) 898-5695 |
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