Olney Hosts 'PROOF' Starring Dawn Ursula

From Olney Theatre: Helen Hayes Award-winner Dawn Ursula will join acclaimed DC actors Craig Wallace and Aakhu Freeman in a revival of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama PROOF. Ursula had previously been slated to star opposite Jessica Frances Dukes in a production of Topdog/Underdog. That project was shelved late last month, when Dukes needed to withdraw. In its place, Proof will run in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, May 17 - June 18, 2017. Director Timothy Douglas, who was slated to direct Topdog, will take on that role for Proof.

"Empowering local artists by saying ‘yes’ to their dream projects is one of our top priorities," says Olney Theatre Artistic Director, Jason Loewith. "So, when I learned it was possible that Topdog might not happen, I started talking with Dawn and director Timothy Douglas about potential alternate projects. We arrived at Proof very quickly, and the opportunity to produce it with an African-American family at the center brings to light the universality of its themes.”

Ursula stars as Catherine, the bereaved daughter of a brilliant, but chronically mentally ill mathematician. Catherine worries that she has inherited her father's mental illness, but more central to the drama is whether she also inherited his genius. A penetrating mystery at the center of the play and the stellar cast will illuminate new ways in which family and lovers play into and defy each other's expectations.

Says Dawn Ursula of taking on the role, “I've always loved Catherine. This bright, fierce woman devoted to her father. Coming out of Dot at Everyman, playing another daughter caretaking a parent challenged with an illness, I feel an even greater connection to the devotion, the sacrifice, the fear, the humor, the love and the courage.” While this will be Dawn Ursula’s first turn on an Olney stage, earlier this season she worked with Artistic Director Jason Loewith on the co-production of Angels in America at Round House Theatre, where she played the Angel along with myriad other roles.

Craig Wallace will return to Olney Theatre Center, where he last appeared as Prospero in The Tempest, to undertake the role of Robert, the brilliant mathematician whose movements between sanity and brilliance are the polestars by which Catherine has lived her life. Longtime DC favorite Aakhu TuahNera Freeman, opening this week at Arena Stage in Jacqueline Lawton’s Intelligence, plays Catherine’s successful older sister Claire. Casting for the final role will be announced in a future release.

ABOUT OLNEY THEATRE CENTER

Olney Theatre Center is an award-winning, nonprofit, Equity theatre now in its 79th Season. Our mission is to produce and present extraordinary theatre and performance from our four-theatre campus for an ever-more diverse set of audiences in our community, and to educate the next generation of theatremakers to follow in our footsteps. We strive every day to unleash the creative potential of our artist and audiences, and in so doing, become Maryland’s premier center for theatre performance and education. In the past three years, Olney Theatre has had eight world or regional premieres, including Andrew Hinderaker’s Colossal (2015 Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical), and Jennifer Hoppe-House’s Bad Dog (2015 Steinberg Award nominee).Olney Theatre places a priority on engaging our community by ensuring that we remain affordable, accessible and inviting to new and returning audiences.

Located just north of Washington, D.C. in arts-rich Montgomery County, Maryland, Olney Theatre Center offers a diverse array of over 300 professional productions year-round. It is situated on 14 wooded acres in the heart of the beautiful Washington-Baltimore-Frederick "triangle," within easy access to all three cities, and is also home to National Players, America's longest-running touring company. Olney Theatre Center is led by Artistic Director Jason Loewith and Managing Director Debbie Ellinghaus. For more information, please visit olneytheatre.org.

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Photo courtesy of Olney Theatre