Auditions for David Auburn’s “Proof”
Auditions will be held for Proof, a play by David Auburn at The Village Players of Hatboro on the following dates:
- Sunday, October 28th at 3:00PM
- Tuesday, October 30th at 7:00PM
- CALLBACKS BY INVITATION ONLY on Wednesday, October 31st at 7:30PM
Cold readings from the script will be provided. Print and fill out the audition application ahead of time, and please bring ALL conflicts between the time of auditions and the opening of the show.
Show dates are March (2019) 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30. All actors who are cast MUST be available for all show dates, as well as tech week (Sunday, March 10th through Wednesday, March 13th) and benefit shows on weeknights throughout the run (which will be announced prior to the beginning of rehearsals).
Rehearsal days will be decided based upon actor availability.
Director: Kevin Christian
Assistant Director: Daniel Cochran
AUDITION APPLICATION OPTIONS:
You may bring a completed audition application by printing one out below or fill out the online audition form.
Synopsis
(Mystery/Drama) Catherine has inherited her late father’s mathematical brilliance, but she is haunted by the fear that she might also share his debilitating mental illness. She has spent years caring for her now-deceased father, and upon his death, she feels left alone to pick up the pieces of her life without him. Caught between a new-found connection with Hal, one of her father’s former students, and the reappearance of her sister, Claire, Catherine finds both her world and her mind growing increasingly unstable. Then Hal discovers a groundbreaking proof among the 103 notebooks Catherine’s father left behind, and Catherine is forced to further question how much of her father’s genius or madness will she inherit. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, David Auburn’s Proof is a passionate, intelligent story about fathers and daughters, the nature of genius, and the power of love.
Character Descriptions
2 Females & 2 Males. Ethnically diverse cast desired.
Catherine – (F, 25). A college dropout, she has spent several years at home caring for her mentally ill father. Their relationship, although sometimes antagonistic on the surface, was sustained by strong mutual affection. Although she is a highly intelligent woman, she has no direction in life. Catherine is worried that she may inherit her father’s illness, and the signs of mental instability are already there.
Robert (M, 50-60s) was a famous mathematician who has just died of a heart attack in his fifties. He is already dead when the play begins, but he appears in the first scene in Catherine’s imagination and returns in two later scenes, which flash back to earlier years. Robert was a mathematical genius. When he was in his early twenties, he made major contributions to game theory, algebraic geometry, and nonlinear operator theory. While he was still in his twenties, Robert was afflicted by a serious mental illness, which dogged the remainder of his life. He became so incapacitated that his daughter Catherine had to stay at home to care for him. Robert had a deep affection for Catherine
Claire (F, late 20s-early 30s) is Catherine’s twenty-nine-year-old efficient, practical, and successful sister. Unlike Catherine, she has inherited none of her father’s erratic genius. Instead, she has made a career in New York as a currency analyst. Claire and Catherine have never gotten along well. Claire feels responsible for Catherine’s welfare and wants her to move to New York, but Catherine resents what she sees as Claire’s interference in her life
Hal (M, 28) is a twenty-eight-year-old mathematician who teaches at the University of Chicago. He also plays drums in a rock band made up of mathematicians. Hal is a former student of Robert’s, whom he admires immensely, not only for the brilliance of his achievements in mathematics but because Robert helped him through a bad patch in his doctoral studies. Hal first met Catherine briefly four years earlier, and when he meets her again, he tries to make friends with her, and quickly becomes romantically involved with her.
Crew Members & Newbies
Audition nights are a perfect time to come out, meet the director, and express your interest in helping out backstage, be it in the role of a stage manager, lights & sound operator, concessions, or whatever else you might like to do.
They’re also GREAT for first-timers to come out and observe how things are done, maybe express interest in being a helper, or read for a part! We almost always cast at least one person who’s never been on stage before. You never know what can happen!
Questions? Please contact the show’s director Kevin Christian at kevin@thevillageplayers.com.