PROOF — is a beautiful show — beautifully realized by an ideal cast, guided by a masterful director, Mary Job. Don’t miss this one, it’s intriguing and entertaining.

Don’t be apprehensive that the plot involves math. Math is a vehicle that carries the passion characters feel for their calling; it conjures up images of elegance and the various meanings of “proof.” (Be sure to read Mary’s director’s note, which includes these definitions.) 

I’m generally dumbfounded by what people find “elegant” in higher mathematics, but I’m impressed with the verbal elegance of the Pulitzer and Tony-Winning script. It adds and subtracts years as it reveals the answers and questions and clues, outside of chronological order, but just as we need to know them. (The program outlines these time shifts.) This play gives us four very real people, calculating their relationships to each other and to the future.
Doak Bloss relishes and inhabits the role of the brilliant but mentally unstable father in his various states of mind and reality/unreality. Cassie Little is excellent in the challenging role of his daughter, Catherine, who shares his brilliance, and perhaps his mental illness. Joe Dickson is perfect as the adorably geeky, passionate, awkward, pivotal character, student of the father, love interest of the daughter, door to the mathematical future. Shannon Bowen shines in the tricky role of the feet-on-the-ground sister trying to connect/help but not on the same wavelength.

Costumes/lights/sound (some great Chicago Blues, and Lansing’s Whiskey Diski - see program) are all well done — and the set was a very realistic brick-house back yard. (Set construction: Mark Mandenberg & Jeff Miller; set painting - super brick art by Kelley McNabb, LeAnn Dethlefsen and Mary Job.)

It’s also worth noting that the sometimes troublesome temperature in the climate-UNcontrolled, rustic, theatre in Fitzgerald park was also ideal tonight — AND there’s a beautiful quilt hanging in the lobby, with tiny math equations in the fabric, up for silent auction.

Fitzgerald Park in Grand LedgeFREE parking if you’re going to the theatre.I-96 to exit 93-A (M-43/Saginaw Hwy. West). Travel six miles to Jefferson St. (M-100) and turn right. Park entrance is on the left about l/2 mile.133 Fitzgerald Park Dr. Grand Ledge 48837 — if you’re doing GPS.

Adult$10
Senior (55+)$8
Student$6
Tickets available at the door and at:www.overtheledge.org

Married Alive! presents a musical foursome exploring many ins and outs of marriage, young and old and in between. It's two hours of songs and scenes performed by Rachel Mender, Ed Baker - and lots of Burks: Ethan Burk and Diane Burk on stage (mother and son, I'm guessing?) and Seth Burk (Ethan's brother, maybe?) at the keyboard as music director. Director Rick Dethlefsen has led these four troupers through a script that is funny, occasionally touching, and somewhat trite and sitcom-ish. Halfway through I thought to myself, "I bet this was written by a man," and that prediction proved correct. Sorry, Sean Grennan, I think some other scripts, such as I Do, I Do and I Love You You're Perfect Now Change do a better job of surveying the landscape of marriage.

The show is a demanding trip for four  performers. Welcome Ed Baker back on stage after a longish absence. Jean Burk beats Ed on the time-off score, on stage after 29 years. Ethan had some good songs, and Rachel brought her energetic presence and voice - but the singing, in general, was a little uneven. The script offers laughs, often in the sexist-joke genre - interspersed with some refreshing, fun videos, which I doubt actually came WITH the show, but seem to be added as "video garnish" perhaps provided by "sound and projection" Joe Dickson... and/or Director Rick?  Rick was also an entertaining addition as the voice of the race track commentary and other auditory-only characters.

Married Alive continues 8pm Thurs/Fri/Sat and 2pm Sun, through August 17 and the beautiful Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge. $12/$10 senior / $7studentwww.overtheledge.org

IN THE NEXT ROOM or the Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl is an exceptional piece of theatre at Over the Ledge, directed by the masterful Mary Job — who also designed an evocative, realistic Victorian set with surprising aspects (kudos to master carpenter Tom Ferris and projection by Joe Dickson.) Fabulous costumes by Lark Burger defined the era (1880's) with many costume changes including all their layers, corsets, garters, bloomers...

This adult "dramedy" concerns the early history of the vibrator, at the dawn of the electric age, as a doctors'  treatment for women's "hysteria." It is just funny enough to be entertaining rather than embarrassing to watch — but the characters are sincere and relatable. Their emotional pain, excitement, frustration, confusion and longing are the stuff of drama.

Amy Winchell is the energetic young wife and new mother with her proper gentleman/scientist husband, Jeff Magnuson, a physician who has a thriving business applying his electric device to "hysterical" patients, notably the repressed/depressed Erin Hoffman who is brought in by her uptight and frustrated husband, Doak Bloss. Artist Joe Quick is also a beneficiary of this exciting new invention. Relationships are complicated, including wet-nurse Gay Oliver and physician's assistant Gini Larson. Jealousies and attractions abound as each tries to make sense of the "music of their own bodies" and to feel their way toward intimate connections.

In the lobby, check out real, antique vibrator on display, along with its instruction booklet and posters for Victorian-era vibrators. Read "The Pathology of Female Sexuality" essay Mary Job wrote in the program.

In the Next Room continues through June 29, 8pm Thur/Fri/Sat and 2pm Sun. Bargain prices: $10 adult/$8 senior/$6 student.The Ledges Playhouse is inside Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge. Free parking for theatre patrons. www.overtheledge.org

A Wrinkle in Time (adapted by John Glore from Madeleine L'Engle's book) at Over the Ledge is a visit to another dimension. From the bright, balmy Fitzgerald Park we cross into a dark, black-lit expanse decorated with cosmic scenography (Abigail Grill) that extends beyond the stage and includes the audience in this mysterious world. A large backdrop screen shows shape-shifting projections and dramatic sound and lighting effects (Joe Dickson) complete the surreal environment.

The surreality continues with imaginative costumes (Alice Bristle) and puppet (Adam Carlson) which are inhabited by an energetic young cast. Ellen Wiese is the fearful/brave sister venturing off with her unusual brother Ian S. Henretty and friend, Brennan Hattaway, to save their father, Steve Ledyard, from the evil clutches of "IT". This necessitates a form of intergalactic time/space travel mode called "tessering," or wrinkling time, as a shortcut.

This is a young-adult-novel style adventure, a fantasy, but also raises real issues about love and self-sacrifice and being true to your own identity. It would be an exciting outing for younger audiences, but I would think twice about bringing preschoolers, as it could be too scary/confusing.

I was impressed with the extreme diversity of the multiple roles played by Amelia Rogocka and Grace Hinkley. You may easily be deceived that there are more actors on stage than are listed in the script. Director Ann Carlson has brought her fairy-tale imagination to this fun fantasy.

Continues through June 1 - 8 pm Thur/Fri/Sat; 2pm Sun.
www.overtheledge.org$10 ($8 senior - $6 student)
Bring a picnic and enjoy the park before the show; theatre goers do not have to pay for parking.