Proof, 2002-03 Season Archive

Terence Smith: David Auburn, how did you get in the business of writing plays?
David: I started in college. I didn't know I wanted to be a writer but I got into a student troupe that did comedy reviews. We did sketch reviews in the style of Second City kind of thing, and I started writing sketches, and I found out I liked doing it and I could do it. And the sketches kind of gradually got longer and longer. And pretty soon I had written a play. I kept going from there. I moved to New York and started trying to write plays and getting them put on in tiny theaters and eventaully I got into the Julliard play writing program which was a great kind of incubator—when you're starting out—it enabled me to write some plays and have them read by wonderful actors at Julliard. And, you know, just gradually developed enough material and met enough people that by the time I had written a full-lenth play, I could—somone could help me put it on.

Terence Smith: Did this play come easily or was it a long labor?
David: It was a little bit of both. The first draft came very fast and the whole plot and structure of the play was there from the beginning. I knew what was going to happen in the story and what was going to happen in every scene. So that came quickly. Then going back through it and really figuring out the relationship between the characters and sort of putting some meat on the bones of the play that I—the first draft that I had written that took a long time. I probably—it was probably about nine months or something like that before I had a draft that's substantially like the draft that is in performance now.

—excerpted from Online NewsHour, April 20, 2001

The Cast
Robert. . . . . Jason Puff
Catherine . . . . . Mary Shirazi
Hal . . . . . Carl Dillman
Claire . . . . . Natalie McComas

Production Staff
Director, . . . . . Paul Precer
Set and Lighting Designer . . . . . Tony Naylor
Costume Designer . . . . . Sharon L. Sullivan
Technical Director . . . . . Tony Naylor
Stage Manager . . . . . Josh Dixon
Production Stage Manager . . . . Jason Bivens
Scenic Studio Supervisor . . . . . Lynn Wilson
Sound . . . . . Candice Baker
Proof Art . . . . . Barbara Waterman-Peters
Publicity . . . . . Paul Prece
Box Office . . . . . Penny Weiner
Theatre Shop/Crew. . . . . Erin Forester, Jason Puff, Dustin Smith, Blake Austin, Monica Gutierrez, Katie Winsor, Todd Han, Lisa Thompson, Nikki Strong, Henry Talley