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John William Tuohy lives in Washington DC

The following books are available free of charge with a

 

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The site also offers 1,149 posts on the mob across American.

We’re still building the site and add several hundred posts a month, by December of this year, the site will offer 1,800 posts.

 

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ORGANIZED CRIME

 

The Book of Prohibition Gangsters : From A to Z

 

Joe Petrosino’s War On the Mafia: The Mob Files Series

The Mobs Empire: The US Governments Time Line of Organized Crime

The Mob Files: It Happened Here: Places of Note in Chicago gangland

Shooting the Mob: Organized Crime in Photographs: Dead Mobsters, Gangsters and Hoods.

The New England Mafia. Illustrated.: With testimony from Frank Salemme and a US Government time line.

The Kefauver Organized Crime Hearings. Abridged

The Nutmeg Mafia.: An Informal History of Organized Crime in Connecticut.

The Mob, Sam Giancana and the overthrow of the Black Policy Rackets in Chicago.

The Book of Jewish Gangsters

Corleone: A Tale of Sicily

A brief History of Organized Crime on the New York Waterfront.

A Brief History of Chicago’s Mob Bosses Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana.

Al Capone: The Biography of a Self-Made Man.: Revised from the original 193 edition.

The Mobs Empire: Organized crime in Chicago

Mob History Magazine:  Mobster Across America: New England, New Jersey, New York, Cuba

Mob History Magazine: Prohibition Gangsters. Part 1

Mob History Magazine: Prohibition Gangsters. Part 2

Mobsters Brief Bio’s Volume 2: Four stories: The Murder of Rosy Rosenthal, Guns in the Sun. The Cohen-Dragna War. Killer, The Murky World of Joey Ep.

Mobster Brief Bio’s Volume 4: The Chicago Mobs Crooked Cops: Tubbo Gilbert, the World’s Richest Cop, William Hanhardt, the heartbreaker

Mob History Magazine. The Mob in the Porn industry: Reuben Sturman and Colombo’s

Bugsy & His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill

A Vocabulary Of Criminal Slang. With Some Examples Of Common Usages

 The Threat of Russian Organized Crime.

The Stolen years

When Capone's Mob Murdered Touhy. By John W. Tuohy

The US Governments time line of Organized crime192-1987. Illustrated

The Russian Mafia in America: With one hundred illustrations

The Salerno Report. The Mafia and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy: The report by Mafia expert Ralph Salerno Consultant to the Select Committee on Assassinations

The New York Mob: The Bosses

Early Female Criminals Of New York City

Early Gangsters of New York City.

The Mob Files: Whacked: One Hundred Years Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Outfit

The Mob Files. Chicago's Mob Bosses

The Mob Files. Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History.

The Mob Files Series. The Mob Across America

The Mob Files. The Mob in Hollywood

The Mob Files. The Mob in Vegas

The Mob from A to Z. Volume 1. Abatte to Bozic

The Mobs Empire Organized Crime in Chicago

The Mobs Empire : Department of Justice Chronological History of La Cosa Nostra in the United States 1920-1987

The Mobs Empire. New York Families Time Line. 1895-211: Abridged and Illustrated

The New England Mafia

The New York Mafia: The Origins of the New York The New York Mob: The Bosses

The Illustrated Book of Prohibition Gangsters

The Life and Times of Terrible Tommy O'Connor

The Life and World of Al Capone

The Mob and the Kennedy Assassination: Jack Ruby. Testimony by Mobsters Lewis McWillie, Joseph Campisi and Irwin Weiner

The Best of the Mob Files Series: Illustrated Articles on Organized Crime Vol. 1

The Best of the Mob Files Series: Illustrated Articles on Organized Crime Vol. 1

The Best of the Mob Files Series. Illustrated Articles on Organized Crime Vol. 2

The Best of the Mob Files Series. Illustrated Articles on Organized Crime Vol. 1: Select Feature Articles on Organized Crime from The American Mafia Collection

The Bioff Scandal.: The Mobs Shakedown of the Hollywood Studios

A History of Violence: An Encyclopedia of 14 Chicago Mob Murders 1st Edition

Organized Crime: 25 Years after Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate

Organized Crime. Volume 2: : Jewish–American Gangsters

Shooting the Mob: Organized Crime in Photographs. Dutch Schultz.

Shooting the Mob: Organized Crime in photos. Crime Boss Tony Accardo

The Book of American-Jewish Gangsters: A Pictorial History.

Shooting the mob. Organized crime in photos. Dead Mobsters, Gangsters and Hoods.

The Apache’s of New York:  Early Gangsters of New York City

Rattling the Cup on Chicago Crime. Abridged

Roger Touhy. The Last Gangster.: The true story of the bootlegger who took on the Chicago mob.

Shooting the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Shooting the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Mob Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee

Mob History Magazine : Gangsters by Gaslight

Mob History Magazine: Chicago Gangsters Last Days

Mob History Magazine: Chicago Mob Characters

Mob History Magazine. : Volume 1

Mob History Magazine. New York's Jewish Mobster

Mob History Magazine. The US Government’s Time Line of Organized Crime in New England: 1945-23. Special Edition

Mob History Magazine.: Volume 1

Mob Magazine Irish American Gangsters: Special Issue

Mob Magazine: Prohibition Gangsters: Special Issue

Mob Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos

Mob Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos.

Mob Testimony: Joe Pistone, Michael Scars DiLeonardo, Angelo Lonardo and others: The court testimony of FBI New York Undercover Agent Joe Pistone, Gambino Family Mobster Michael DiLeonardo, Cleveland Mob Boss Angelo Lonardo, Chicago Mob Cop Michael Corbitt

Mobster Brief Bio’s Volume 3: A trio of stories: Joe Petrosino’s War on the Mafia, Murray the Camel, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

The Mob and the overthrow of the Black Policy Rackets in Chicago.

The Mob Files: It Happened Here: Places of Note in Chicago gangland 19 to 2

The Mob Files: Mob Cops, Lawyers and Informants and Fronts

The Mob Files: Mob Wars. "We Only Kill Each Other"

The Mob Files: The Book of Jewish Gangsters Of The Midwest From A to Z

The Mob Files: The Illustrated Guide to the Mob in Vegas

The Mob Files: The Mob Across America

The Dutchman's Soliloquy.: A one Act Play based on the factual last words of Gangster Dutch Schultz.

More Mob Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos.

Jewish Gangsters of New York. From A to Z 19-2

Joe Petrosino’s War On the Mafia

Joe Valachi's Testimony on the Mafia. Abridged.

Mafia Testimony: State and Federal Hearing testimony on Organized Crime.: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, and Kansas City.

Gangland Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal. (Illustrated)

Gangs of New York City

Gangsters Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated

Glamour Gangster: : The Mob in Hollywood.

Chicago’s Mob Bosses: From Accardo to Zizzo

Brief Mob Bio’s Volume 5: A Trio of Stories:: The Eastman Gang, Joe the Boss, Hollywood’s Call Girl

Brief Mob Bio’s Volume 6.: The Mob, the Kennedys, and Frank Sinatra Jake Guzik, Capone’s Numbers Man

Brief Mob Bio’s Volume 7: Four Stories: Tony the Hat: The real founder of Las Vegas, The Gangster of Brighton Beach, Little Moey, Potatoes Kaufman Mob pioneer.

Brief Mob Bio’s. Volume 8 Terrible Tommy O’Connor. Chicago Gangster

An Illustrated Chronological History Of Organized Crime Volume 1. 1863-1949

An Illustrated Chronological History Of Organized Crime. Vol1. 1863-1949

An Illustrated Chronological History of Organized Crime. Vol. 2.

 An Illustrated Chronological History of the Chicago Mob. Time Line

 An Illustrated Chronological History of the New York Mobs 1895-2 Vol. 1

An Illustrated Chronological History Of the New York Mobs TimeLine 1895-2

And that's how it was, Officer : A short novel about disappearing gangsters

The White Moll: With Novel and film summary and author Biography.

 

*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

 


*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

Frigid NY Holiday Spirits seeks 10-minute plays
Run time should be around 10 minutes and no longer than 15 minutes
Feature 2-4 actors (no monologues)
Be a full piece, not an excerpt from a larger whole.
Be written in either English or Spanish
The piece should in some way connect with the theme described below.

The selected writers will receive an $80 stipend.

***

Theatre Noir Blanc is a new theatre company based in the city of Dallas, Texas. Our mission is to create, develop, and produce original works that explore the gay interracial experience–pushing boundaries, taking creative risks, and fostering an inclusive community that inspires a future generation of theatre-makers.

We are launching our inaugural season in 2026 and preparing for the 2027 season. Our goal is to produce four original unproduced full-length plays each season that explore our mission statement. The vision of Theatre Noir Blanc is to elevate these bold, untold narratives by national and international playwrights that reflect the richness and complexity of a diverse world.

***

The Decameron Project – Hollywood is seeking One-Minute Play submissions
The plays will be produced as a theatrical production in the Spring of 2026 in Los Angeles.
Please submit up to 5 plays.
We are encouraging first-time writers to submit works in standard play format.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***


*** ROCKY HORROR AT 50 ***

It’s been 50 years since The Rocky Horror Show first did the Time Warp (again).

While the mind flip of a musical remains searingly relevant in today’s cultural landscape, its journey from a 60-seat theatre in London to more cinema screens than could ever possibly be tallied hasn’t exactly been A to B to C. Now, for the first time, that journey has been preserved in the form of an endearingly personal documentary.

Titled Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, the 89-minute doc is directed by Linus O’Brien (son of Rocky Horror’s originating supernova Richard O'Brien), and features intimate archival recordings from Rocky Horror history, from its earliest whispers to its most raucous fan events. Interspersed are interviews with many of the stage show (and the Rocky Horror Picture Show) stars, including Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, and of course, Richard O’Brien.

“You know, it's strange,” Linus O’Brien laughs. Born in 1972, Linus was less than a year old when his father’s creation took the world by storm. He knows no life without it on the periphery. “It pops into my life at different moments. I’ve seen various stage productions since I was four. People ask me what it was like, but honestly? My dad was my dad and Rocky was Rocky. They're two very separate things. I knew my dad had this incredible job, but it was all very normal for me. Now, to revisit all of it and examine the history of Rocky 50 years on, and see it all with new eyes… It's a real, real privilege, is what it is. And I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity to understand it in a new way, now.”

More...
https://playbill.com/article/give-a-voice-to-the-voiceless-richard-obrien-on-50-years-of-the-rocky-horror-show-and-its-impact-on-the-queer-community

***

Fifty years have passed, but the actor Tim Curry isn’t sure he has ever forgiven the reception that “The Rocky Horror Show” received in its original Broadway production, which was also his Broadway debut.

“I try not to think about it,” he said the other day by phone from Los Angeles. “There’s not much point in paddling through old failures.”

Curry was back on Broadway the fall after “Rocky Horror,” in Tom Stoppard’s “Travesties.” But, wanting not to be reminded, he has never returned to the Belasco Theater on West 44th Street, where the musical spoof that would soon become a cult-film phenomenon started previews on March 7, 1975, opened on March 10 and lasted just a month.

On the heels of the show’s successes in London, where it began in 1973 in the tiny upstairs theater at the Royal Court, and then in Los Angeles, at the Roxy nightclub, it was the kind of Broadway fizzle that seems baffling in retrospect — not least because some of its cast overlapped with the movie’s.

More...
https://archive.ph/B4tMl

***

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was an absolute flop when it premiered in 1975.

The iconic, campy horror musical garnered horrible reviews from critics, and maybe rightfully so. Its plot makes little sense and is just plain weird. The film is an acquired taste, with dramatic musical numbers mixed with oddly-placed violence and other horrific content.

But years after it first hit the stage, fans still attend midnight showings in costume, where they yell the callbacks everyone seems to know by heart at the screen as if reading from a script. I personally love asking Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry, “Clue”) who his favorite “Star Trek” character is when he pronounces the word “spark” like “Spock.” Audience responses like these that play on the phrases characters say — in the film and accompanying shadow cast production — are my favorites. Whether you’re rocking a maid costume and frizzy red hair or a sparkly rainbow outfit and tap shoes, there is a place in the theater for everyone in the “Rocky Horror” community, and I’m ecstatic to be a part of it.

When I arrived at the University of Michigan, I had only the perspective of a small Episcopal high school with little Queer or gender non-conforming representation. About a year into my college experience, I chopped off my hair. I tried out new pronouns. A new name. And I realized that there is so much more to who I am than the person I pretended to be for so long. “Rocky Horror” was a formative part of that realization.

More...
https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/b-side/from-flop-to-the-top-the-community-of-the-rocky-horror-picture-show/#google_vignette

***

If you're going to The Rocky Horror Show in the park, it's not the time to sit there quietly and mind your manners. You MUST participate! Of course, you're not a Rocky Horror virgin. (And if you are, keep it to yourself, trust us.) But if you need a refresher on what to pack in your prop bag and when to use it, here's a guide. American Stage will do some of the work for you, selling several of these items in participation kits for $5 at the concession stand. (An asterisk denotes what's included in kit.)

Remember! Try not to throw things at the stage or people around you. Toss up.

Rice To throw at newlyweds Ralph Hapschatt and Betty Munroe at the beginning of the show. Many fans will bring rice, though there is concern it will harm birds that eat it (snopes.com says it won't, but you decide). It also can be slick onstage. American Stage's kit includes a bubblemaker instead.

Confetti or bubbles At the end of the I Can Make You a Man (the Charles Atlas song) reprise, the Transylvanians throw confetti as Rocky and Frank head toward the bedroom. Or you could blow bubbles instead — easier to clean up.

Newspaper* When Brad and Janet are caught in the storm, Janet covers her head with a newspaper, and you should do the same. Oh look, you have a good one in your hands. Take it!

More...
https://www.tampabay.com/features/performingarts/the-rocky-horror-show-a-guide-to-props-and-participation/1224353/

***

New York Times March 11, 1975
Stage: A Flashy ‘Rocky Horror Show’
by Clive Barnes

...The cast, apart from Tim Curry as the dire transexual villain from Transylvania, Frank 'n' Furter. and Mr. O'Brien himself, is different from the London cast. The show stopped on the way in Los Angeles, and this was almost certainly a mistake.
It is smarter, now, but nothing like so crazy or, if one were in a mildly tolerant mood, so endearing. It now looks flashy, expensive and overstaged. The cast is better, the lights are brighter, the noise is more loudly ampli-field. But jokes-sick jokes, silly jokes, or even dirty jokes-are rarely improved by shouting them' down a megaphone. More is often less-
Mr. O'Brien's original idea of a modest spoof was both sophomoric and ingenious, It was just a romp, but there was some nice fantasy in its solemn Vincent Pricc-style narrator solemnly turning the pages of a dusty volumne and in sepulchral tones telling of the fate and future of the young hero and heroine Janet and Brad, when one rainspet night their car breaks down and they ring the broken bell of an awfully gothic castle.

The idea of Frankenstein as a bisexual transvestite, with a baritone voice, fish-net tights and black lipstick, was also perversely attractive. One forgave the music that was bright but not especially original - hard-rock candy, bublbe-gum and popcorn - and the performances that were camp and dreadful.

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/11/archives/stage-a-flashy-rocky-horror-show.html

***

Spring 2026

The legendary rock-‘n’-roll musical takes on new life as a guaranteed party at the legendary Studio 54, staged by Tony Award®-winning Oh, Mary! director Sam Pinkleton. With 51 years of continuous productions, seen by over 35 million people around the world, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show features some of the most iconic musical show stopping classics of all time, including “Dammit Janet,” “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a Touch Me,” “Hot Patootie” and of course, “Time Warp,” the party floor-filler.

The Rocky Horror Show is the story of two squeaky clean college kids—Brad and his fiancée, Janet—on their way to visit their former college professor when by a twist of fate, their car breaks down outside a mansion. They meet the charismatic Dr. Frank-n-Furter, Riff Raff, Columbia, Magenta, Eddie, and Rocky. It is an adventure they would remember, for a very long time. Filled with fun, frolics and frocks, this is the show the Daily Telegraph calls “fresh. Subversive, and essential.”

More...
https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/get-tickets/2025-2026-season/rocky-horror

***

October 10 – November 2
The Bucks County Playhouse’s October tradition returns! “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show!” A musical that inspired the 1975 classic cult film, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” follows innocent couple Brad and Janet as they seek shelter at a mysterious old castle on a dark and stormy night, where they encounter transvestite Dr. Frank ‘N’ Furter, his “perfect” creation Rocky, and an assortment of other crazy creatures.

Third party websites may be selling tickets to “The Rocky Horror Show” that are NOT valid and will not guarantee admission to the show. The only authorized vendor for Bucks County Playhouse tickets is through our website. If anyone offers you tickets to the Playhouse at any price in social media, please reach out to the Box Office so we can investigate properly.

More...
https://bcptheater.org/shows/the-rocky-horror-show/

Join us

  

I’m John William Tuohy, I am one of the founders of this site. I’ve open a Substack for all of my organized crime stories. The cost is $5 a month. At the moment I have 719 stories on the site with another 2500 pending in the next 6 to 12 months.

There is also free access to 410 mob/true crime videos on Youtube.

Within the next 30 days, paying members will have free access to complete a books on organized crime and True Crime.  

Please take a look and consider joining.

https://johnwilliamtuohy.substack.com/sitemap

*** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***

 *** OPPORTUNITIES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS ***


Ghostlight Theatre Ensemble (GTE) is excited to invite all playwrights to participate in its 2026 Festival 10 event. This is GTE’s fourth such festival. It will feature a variety of 10-minute plays, both published and unpublished, that are written, directed and performed by Bay Area thespians. You may submit up to three plays. Plays should meet the 10-minute length requirement and be able to be performed in a small stage setting.

***

The Bite Sized Theatrical Spooktacular 2025

We are looking for original short plays (or other theatrical pieces) that are 10 minutes or less. This production is on Halloween, and we encourage any submissions that may resonate thematically, whether they directly relate to Halloween or not.

While we will consider anything and everything, we especially want to see submissions that are comedic or spooky, as this fits best with the tone of the evening!

***

Playwrights First open for full-length plays

Overall, we look for:
magination and originality in both style and subject or point of view.
Characters that intrigue and move us.
A compelling action revealing the human condition.
Theatricality inherent in the above.​

Rules:
One, single full-length play per playwright in English from anywhere in the world.
Not produced full-scale prior to submission. Readings, workshops, and college productions are acceptable.
No joint authorships, adaptations, translations, musicals, or shorts.​

​Award: $1,000 first place.

*** FOR MORE INFORMATION about these and other opportunities see the web site at https://www.nycplaywrights.org ***


*** PROOF ***

Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle will make their Broadway debuts next spring as a father and daughter united by math as well as mental health struggles in a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Proof.”

The play, by David Auburn, previously ran on Broadway from October 2000 to January 2003 — an unusually long run for a serious drama. In 2001 it won not only the Pulitzer but also the Tony Award for best play.

Set in Chicago, “Proof” is about a young woman whose father, a well-known mathematician, has died; she is juggling complex relationships with her sister and with one of her father’s former students. And those relationships are upended by the discovery of a mathematical proof of uncertain authorship in her father’s office. Reviewing an Off Broadway production in 2000, the critic Bruce Weber, writing in The New York Times, deemed it “an exhilarating and assured new play” and said that it “turns the esoteric world of higher mathematics literally into a back porch drama, one that is as accessible and compelling as a detective story.”

More...
https://archive.ph/iTroL

***

‘Proof’ was captivating and thought provoking, a triumph of the writing (David Auburn), direction (Joseph Houston) and an impeccable lead (Lucy Jane Dixon). ‘Proof’ is the story of a woman who took care of her genius mathematician father (David Keller) for years, as he deteriorated due to mental illness. When he dies Catherine (Lucy Jane Dixon) is left wondering if she has inherited her father’s illness along with his academic prowess. She must deal with her returning older sister Clare (Angela Costello) who wants her to leave the family home and a pushy past student of her father’s, Hal (Samuel Holland) wanting to go through her father’s work.

Auburn’s writing is clever and fast pace, creating moments of wit, hilarity and pain with equal impact. His work is astonishing in its ability to create comedic and heart wrenching moments that feel realistic and not at all staged.

More...
https://mancunion.com/2018/11/30/review-proof-by-david-auburn/

***

London theatre has a thing about prime numbers at the moment. They feature prominently in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and they also pop up in this revival of David Auburn's Broadway play, first seen in London in 2002 in a production starring Gwyneth Paltrow – a role she reprised on screen.

Here, Mariah Gale plays Catherine, a spiky and fragile 25-year-old who has abandoned her university course to care for her ailing father, Robert (Matthew Marsh), a maths genius who revolutionised his field before he was 25, but has suffered severe mental breakdowns since. The action begins on the night before her father's funeral, when Catherine's bossy, competent sister, Claire (Emma Cunniffe) – a currency analyst who's been paying the bills while Catherine provides the care – flies in from New York.

At base, this is a hokey family drama, and the fact that it won the Pulitzer in 2001 makes you think it was a quiet year. Auburn clearly wants this to be a story in which mathematical and emotional equations, intellect and feeling, collide. So he throws everything at it: ghosts, flashbacks, sibling rivalry, guilt, even an ambitious grad student, Hal (Jamie Parker), who knows that if he can find something startling in Robert's notebooks his own career will be made.

In the hands of a playwright such as Tom Stoppard, this might have been a fascinating and multi-layered piece. But the questions it poses (is the lack of prominent women in maths down to gender or prejudice? Are genius and madness really aligned?) never entirely add up, and most often it simply skims over the issues. Hidebound by its form and without much intellectual daring, Auburn's play lacks elegance, unlike the maths proofs it describes.

More...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/mar/21/proof-review

***

John Madden’s “Proof” is an extraordinary thriller about matters of scholarship and the heart, about the true authorship of a mathematical proof and the passions that coil around it. It is a rare movie that gets the tone of a university campus exactly right, and at the same time communicates so easily that you don’t need to know the slightest thing about math to understand it. Take it from me.

The film centers on two remarkable performances, by Gwyneth Paltrow and Hope Davis, as Catherine and Claire, the daughters of a mathematician so brilliant that his work transformed the field and has not yet been surpassed. But his work was done years ago, and at the age of 26 or 27, he began to “get sick,” is the way the family puts it. This man, named Robert and played by Anthony Hopkins, still has occasional moments of lucidity, but he lives mostly in delusion, filling up one notebook after another with meaningless scribbles. Yet he remains on the University of Chicago faculty, where he has already made a lifetime’s contribution; his presence and rare remissions are inspiring. Recently he had a year when he was “better.”

More...
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/proof-2005

***

''Proof,'' an exhilarating and assured new play by David Auburn, turns the esoteric world of higher mathematics literally into a back porch drama, one that is as accessible and compelling as a detective story. The play is fundamentally a mystery about the authorship of a particularly important proof, a mystery that is solved in the end; it is also, however, about the unravelable enigma of genius, and the toll it can take on those who are beset with it, aspire to it or merely live in its vicinity.

In that service, the play takes great pains to depict the study of mathematics as a painful joy, not as the geek-making obsession of stereotype but as human labor, both ennobling and humbling, and in so doing makes the argument that mathematics is a business for the common heart as well as the uncommon brain.

As directed by Daniel Sullivan and performed by an exemplary cast, ''Proof'' has the pace of a psychological thriller, and if its resolution tilts toward the sentimental, the characters deserve to be hopeful.

More...
https://archive.ph/e5pIV

***

David Auburn's ''Proof'' at the Manhattan Theater Club is a family play of ideas. With intricate twists and turns, it takes a dramatic and comic ride through the lives of a brilliant, deranged mathematician and his two daughters, one of whom has devoted herself to taking care of her father.

Although this is not Mr. Auburn's first play, it is his first major production and it has been a heady experience for the 30-year-old playwright. ''Proof'' opened last week starring Mary-Louise Parker and directed by Daniel Sullivan. For the author, the sequence of events was quick and stunning: from page to stage in less than two years, and then surrounded by praise from critics and theatergoers.

In his first extended interview, Mr. Auburn spoke modestly about his accomplishment. He said that he had written the first draft of the play very quickly and, accepting suggestions from his agent and friends, he painstakingly revised it. Then he submitted it to the Manhattan Theater Club. Last April the company had a reading with Ms. Parker playing the central role.
''She nailed it,'' he said. ''With no prompting and no direction, she surpassed all my expectations and was unafraid to be scary'' and to stress the critical edginess of her character.

More...
https://archive.ph/l05t8

***

PROOF Audiobook
10-minute preview - Anne Heche, Robert Foxworth,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_n7B7QLfuE

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