A Pulitzer Prize-winning play opens the 2024 season at The Pennsylvania Playhouse in Bethlehem.

In other news from the Lehigh Valley stage, the founder of a Christian theater group is stepping down.

The award-winning Broadway play “Proof” will be presented Jan. 26 to Feb. 11 at Pennsylvania Playhouse.

“Proof,” written by American playwright David Auburn, tells the story of Catherine (Gabrielle Hondorp), the daughter of a recently-deceased mathematical genius, and her struggle with mental illness.

The play opened on Broadway in 2001, winning three Tony Awards, including Best Play. The 2005 film version starred Gwyneth Paltrow as Catherine, opposite Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis and Jake Gyllenhaal.

In the play, it’s the eve of Catherine’s 25th birthday. Her father, Robert (Dale Beltzner), a math professor at the University of Chicago, died recently after a struggle with mental illness.

The troubled Catherine has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father. After Robert’s death, Catherine must deal with her own volatile emotions.

Meanwhile, Robert’s ex-graduate student Hal (Andrew Maldonado), who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that Robert left behind, discovers a paradigm-shifting proof about prime numbers in Robert’s office.

Catherine tries to prove that the work is her own. Hal and her estranged sister Claire (Brooke Harrsch) do not believe her.

The play’s title refers to the mathematical paradigm and to the play’s central question: Can Catherine prove the proof’s authorship?

Over the long weekend that follows, Catherine tries to demonstrate the proof’s authenticity, and finds herself in a burgeoning romance with Hal.

The play explores Catherine’s fear of following in her father’s footsteps, and her attempts to stay in control.

The play received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001.

Mark Stutz directs the Playhouse production. Set and lighting design and technical direction is by Brett Oliveira.

The cast and production staff will hold audience talk-backs after Jan. 27, Feb. 3 and 10 performances.

The Feb. 3 performance is “Pay What You Are Able.”

“Proof,” 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26, 27, Feb. 2, 3, 9, 10; 3 p.m. Jan. 28, Feb. 4, 11. Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Road, Bethlehem. 610-865-6665, http://www.paplayhouse.org/

Founder retires: The Players of the Stage board of directors has announced that Elizabeth Barshinger will retire in June after more than 20 years as executive director of the youth theater group. Davina Derickson will take over as executive director.

Barshinger, music director at Living Hope Presbyterian Church, Allentown, and her daughter Anna Barshinger Lauffer founded Players of the Stage in 2000 with 16 children putting on a recital for a senior Christmas show at the church.

Barshinger’s daughters Sharon Barshinger Noel and Marian Barshinger have also been involved with the theater troupe. Noel is artistic director.

“We thought it was a one-time thing, but slowly, over the years, it evolved into a thriving Christian youth theater,” Barshinger says. “Now 23 years later, it’s time for me to me to step away.”

In 2005, Players of the Stage began doing its shows as benefits for local charities. The group has raised more than $234,000, donated to Bright Hope Center, formerly Care Net; American Ministries to the Deaf; Bloom, formerly Truth for Women; HOPE Kids, and the Allentown Rescue Mission.

Shows have included “A Christmas Carol,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “The Miracle Worker,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Twelve Angry Jurors,” “Peter Pan,” “Doubt,” “Oliver Twist” and “The Outsiders.”

“It has been my joy and privilege to work with so many wonderful students, parents and staff,” Barshinger says. “I am excited to see Players of the Stage grow and go forward to build on the foundation that has been laid over the last 23 years.”

Players of the Stage produces its shows at Living Hope Presbyterian Church but hopes to someday have its own theater building.

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com