Katrina Clark and Liz Osborne, the stars of Proof at 1st Stage Tysons

Tired of hearing worn-out, offensive jokes about women being bad at math? Then 1st Stage in Tysons has the perfect Women’s History Month offering for you: Proof, from playwright David Auburn. Proof follows Catherine, daughter of a brilliant, but mentally ill mathematics professor at the University of Chicago who has recently died. When one of her father’s students discovers an earth-shattering original mathematical proof in the professor’s office, Catherine has to fight her own fear of mental illness and her sister Claire to prove the proof’s true authorship.

The play is a well-worn favorite of classrooms and college productions, but, as the theater industry continues to fight for gender parity, this female-centric play has new relevance during the annual month when we celebrate her-story, as it were. In that vein, DCist sat down with the production’s two female stars—Liz Osborn, playing Claire, and Katrina Clark, playing Catherine—to talk parity, sisterhood, and, of course, math.

March is Women’s History Month! How does it feel to celebrate with this female-centric play?

Liz Osborn: Any time women are represented in a real, fully-developed way in a script is exciting. So it seems particularly fitting to give voice to this flawed, funny, complex woman during Women’s History Month.

Katrina Clark: It’s funny, I never thought of Proof as a female-centric play. However, there is certainly a feminist undercurrent of a young woman facing obstacles, in part, because of her sex. There is also something to be said for the special relationship between sisters, which is an important aspect of the play. It’s been terrific to get to know such a dynamic female character.

Gender parity in theatre has been a major conversation in the last few years. How do Catherine and Claire fit into that debate?

LO: I guess I can piggyback off the answer from above— women, when represented in scripts, are commonly represented in a one-dimensional way. “The love interest: she’s beautiful but doesn’t realize it…”, “The sassy friend”, “the seductress”…the list goes on and on. In my opinion, that is the real debate we should be having in regards to gender parity in theatre. It isn’t just the physical representation of women in a play, but how those women are represented. Claire and Catherine are both very well-rounded, well-written, very real women with a very complicated relationship that isn’t cliche—Claire didn’t steal Catherine’s boyfriend in high school, you know? Claire has a real job, real responsibilities, and real love for her family, which of course, is complicated. This play also represents men and women equally (two of each).

KC: Technically, there is gender parity in Proof, in that there is a equal number of female and male characters. Overall, Catherine and Claire present great opportunities for actors to showcase well-developed female characters. On a larger scale, the conversation has to do with the want for better representation of women in all roles on- and off-stage. Last year’s DC Women’s Voices Theatre Festival was a great success to highlight playwrights that are women and I look forward to the torch being passed onto other artists working in under-represented arenas.

There’s a terrible stereotype that women are not good at math, but Proof centers on a female math whiz. Are either of you big math fans or has working on the show bumped up your math skills?

LO: Can I pass? Unfortunately, my own math skills don’t do much to correct the stereotype: although my mother-in-law was a math teacher and my sister-in-law has her Ph.D in Epidemiology, which has a lot to do with statistics, so I know many many women who are excellent at math. So there!

KC: I wouldn’t say I’m a math fan, though I still have my old notes from math class tucked safely away in storage. You know, for nostalgia. Okay, maybe I’m a bigger fan than I let on? Interesting anecdote: In early elementary school I took a placement test for high-achieving students. I have no memory of this. The story goes I scored remarkably well, but had to be placed at a lower level than my ability because I erased all my correct answers and circled incorrect ones. The principal, a woman, had a meeting with my mother about the strange circumstance, and the discussion turned to the disproportionate number of girls in advanced math classes. I’ll never know why I did what did, sabotaged my own chance for early success, but I do recall a fear of being different. In some ways, Catherine’s journey isn’t so different from this. The play has taught me more about the field of mathematics than math itself.

How has the process been developing your relationship as sisters?

LO: We have discussed our history and relationship prior to the first page of the show a lot. Their relationship has everything to do with the past so it was very important to establish what that looked like before diving into the actual world of the play as it is written. Truthfully, you could spend years trying to figure out all of the nuances of their relationship, because, as I have mentioned, relationships between family members, good or bad, are super rich. There are so many reasons why your relationships in your 20’s with people you have known forever looks the way it does. There is so much history. And it is never simple. Ultimately, they are two very different people who have come from the same place and handled life and developed in very different ways.

KC: Liz is an exceptional artist and a pleasure to work beside. The intelligence she brings into the rehearsal room and her giving energy make it very easy for me to play with her and make something unique to us. As someone without a sister of my own, I especially appreciate this opportunity to explore the sweet and sour sides of sisterhood.

Proof is a pretty well-established play, which even boasts an A-list film adaptation. What can audiences expect from 1st Stage’s production?

LO: Honesty, integrity, truth, simplicity. The play is well-established for a reason—the script is beautiful, so we are working hard to honor the script at it’s core.

KC: Foremost, audiences can expect a good night of theater! Alex Levy, our director and the Artistic Director of 1st Stage, has assembled a fine cast and endowed us with the room to bring our own understandings of the characters to life. Weaved in with the work of talented designers and awesome support, I haven’t seen the film, but I can guarantee this production will stand strong on its own.

Proof opens at 1st Stage in Tysons tonight, March 31. Tickets, $30, are available online.