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I gave the curtain speech for Proof last night, which meant I got up before curtain and asked people to turn off cell phones and begged them for money. I also stayed for the show. I was only vaguely familiar with the story, knowing it had something to do with mathematics. It's a nice story, if a trifle blue (I'm still shocked whenever I hear the F-word in a community theater production): a young woman and her older sister try to figure out what to do with themselves after the death of their father, a brilliant mathematician. The four actors did well enough, although I thought the young woman playing Katherine (the lead) a little weak. Her nose was bright red by the last scene, so she may have not felt well or been having allergy problems. Heaven knows that theater is dusty enough. There are some funny lines, and some places intended to be tender and moving. But I never felt attached or connected enough to the characters to feel genuinely moved; I don't think the actors were attached enough to their characters to move me. Scenes had two emotions: anger and pathos, with nothing in-between, which tells me it's a direction problem. Good actors do what the director tells them; excellent actors transcend their direction. These actors were good. They needed to be excellent.