Wayne State University’s Studio Theatre presents Proof, by playwright David Auburn, opening at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, 2006. Proof, Auburn’s Broadway debut, is a family drama with four characters, each of whom is fully conceived onstage. Though they have their weaknesses, all four end up being eminently likable, an accomplishment that earned Auburn a Pulitzer Prize.

Performance Dates and Times Thursday, April 13 & 20, 2006 at 8 p.m. Friday, April 14 & 21, 2006 at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 15 & 22, 2006 at 8 p.m. (Left to Right) Lauren Shaffer as Catherine, Jeremy Kucharek as Hal and Whitney Green as Claire. Jeremy Kucharek as Hal and Lauren Shaffer as Catherine.  PHOTOS BY TINA S. BOYKINS

Catherine is a 25-year-old who dropped out of college some years before in order to take care of her father Robert, an eminent mathematician on the faculty of the University of Chicago who retreated into a sort of schizophrenic dementia, seeking messages in the Dewey Decimal System codings on library books. Catherine worries whether she has inherited her father\'s instability. Her sister Claire, who lives in New York, returns to Chicago for their father\'s funeral. The sisters are in conflict over the issue of responsibility for the care of their father. Catherine had pretty much stopped her life to be there for him, while Claire has generously footed the bills and offered to pay Catherine\'s way through school as well. Claire, too, somewhat presumptuously, but meaning well, is selling the house and wants Catherine to go with her back to New York. Proof is about family relationships and responsibilities, about love, guilt, vulnerability, trust, death and loss. It deals with the big issues, but it keeps them on a human scale and maintains a sense of humor in the process.

Proof premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club in May 2000 and opened at Broadway\'s Walter Kerr Theatre on October 24, 2000. Proof won the Tony Award for “Best Play” in 2001 and Auburn has been the recipient of the Guggenheim Foundation Grant, Helen Merrill Playwrighting Award, and Joseph Kesselring Prize for Drama. His other plays include Skyscraper, Fifth Planet, Miss You and The Next Life. His work has been published in Harper\'s Magazine and The New England Review. He was also a member of the Julliard playwrighting program.
Directed by PhD candidate Lisa Kander, the cast includes: junior Lauren Shaffer (Harrison Township) as Catherine, sophomore Jeremy Kucharek (Detroit) as Hal, senior Mike Targus (Detroit) as Robert and senior Whitney Green (Livonia) as Claire. Designers include sophomore Justine Brock (Berkley) as lighting designer, sophomore Theresa Hartman (Royal Oak) as costume designer and sophomore Cory Johnson (Grosse Pointe Park) as scenic/props designer.

Ticket prices range from $8 to $10. Discount tickets are available to all students, senior citizens aged 62 and up and WSU faculty, staff and Alumni Association members. For tickets and further information, please call (313) 577-2972 or visit the Wayne State University Box Office at 4743 Cass on the corner of Cass and W. Hancock. Performance information may also be obtained by visiting the company’s website at www.theatre.wayne.edu.