MENOMONIE - For several years James Miller just knew he wanted to bring the 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Proof" to Menomonie.

It wasn't just the buzz about the Tony Award-winning play. It was because the play was well-crafted and smart, Miller said.

Miller is directing the play for the opening show of the Menomonie Theater Guild's 51st season. The show opens Friday at the Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts.

The four-character play takes place on the back porch of a house near the University of Chicago where Robert, played by Stephen Collie, a once star faculty mathematician who has become delusional, filling notebooks with meaningless scribbles for years.

His eldest daughter Claire, played by Laura Oliver, fled to make her own life in New York. Youngest daughter Catherine, played Ricki Millevolte, remained to look after her "bughouse" father, sacrificing her own career plans so her father could stay in his home rather than be institutionalized.

During a brief remission of his insanity, Robert tutors a promising graduate student named Hall, portrayed by Dan Zabrowski, who goes on to become a math professor himself.

When an extraordinary mathematical proof is found among Robert's notebooks, the questions of genius and heredity take center stage as the ideas of love, responsibility, hidden motives and ultimately trust are explored.

"It's not a math geek play," Miller said. "It humanizes the world of a math professor. It's very well-crafted."

When he originally decided he wanted to direct the play, Miller encouraged Collie to audition. As a UW-Stout speech professor, Collie could relate to the part as an academic, and as a father of two sons and a daughter he understood the love of a parent, Miller said.

Collie said Robert is crazy and brilliant, and "Proof" grapples with the question all of us ponder: Who are we?

"I like the fact there are four full characters in this," Collie said. "They are all important to the show. The relationships coming from all of them are important.

"I've never wanted to bring a character to life as much as this one," Collie added. "I want him to be real. That's a challenge."

Miller said he chose Millevolte as Catherine because she was able to portray the dark emotions that Catherine has. Those emotions range from humor and sarcasm to depression, Millevolte said.

"As an actress it is a wonderful opportunity to go through these different emotions," the Colfax kindergarten teacher said.

Miller said he chose a simple set for the show. Everything occurs in a 12-foot-by-12-foot angled square on stage with some white wicker furniture on it.

"It's like an Elizabethan thrust stage," he said, noting he wanted the actors' abilities to shine through.

Powers can be reached at 715- 556-9018 or pamela.powers@ecpc.com.

If You Go

What: "Proof," presented by the Menomonie Theater Guild.

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday through Saturday and Nov. 12-14; 2 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 15.

Where: Mabel Tainter Center for the Arts, 205 E. Main St., Menomonie.

Tickets: $17, adults; $15, students and senior citizens.

Information: 715-235-0001.