Julia Weber
Staff writer
For time immemorial, artists have crafted stories to help people deal with the complexities of life. Often, plays, performances and stories are born out of fiction to navigate emotions and experiences; but sometimes, art can help individuals grapple with horrific, real-life events in order to cope and make change.
Written and directed by Emily Mann, Execution of Justice tells the story of the trial of Dan White in the aftermath of the assassinations of San Francisco Supervisor Board Member, Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay elected official in the state of California, and Mayor George Moscone. Execution of Justice takes the stage for a preview performance at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Bratton Theater. Frank Wood plays the prosecutor, Thomas Norman, in the play.
Wood has a decades-long career both on screen and on stage, clinching a Tony win for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1999 for Side Man. On screen, he has starred in “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Blue Bloods,” “Modern Family” and “Law & Order: SVU.”
For documentary works like Execution of Justice, Wood takes inspiration both from the play and from real life.
“More or less, I always start with the text the playwright has given (me),” Wood said. “The Norman on the page may or may not be the Norman in real life, and so that gives me some freedom to relax — to relax about the fact that I won’t know the man himself or represent him perfectly.”
He said that with documentary theater, having material to refer to in order to learn about a character can be helpful in giving actors confidence to understand the individual’s perspective and get a sense of their character in a way that fictionalized theater cannot. Though he takes the time to learn his characters from available resources, he said there comes a point when the actor must balance the real-life individual and the artistic demands of the play itself.
“I juggle the experience of hearing about the historical person and speaking as the person who is on the page,” he said.
Wood said the historical context of documentary theater illuminates his creative decisions when acting, but it ultimately comes down to the plot and characters the playwright has developed.
“Having the historical perspective on why the script is the way the script is is very helpful and useful, but I would say, for the most part, it’s digging into what the rhythms of the script are, what the rhythms of the character are,” he said.
Often, individuals will tell Wood about their own personal experiences living through these real-life events, he said, and he values hearing their perspectives but also recognizes the delicate balance between the nonfiction event and the narrative a playwright has developed as a piece of art.
“Engaging on the topic of the play, I love, and I love hearing people’s excitement about being brought to a certain subject because of the play,” he said.
Ahead of Execution of Justice’s run of performances at Bratton, Wood said he hopes people would “remind themselves of what they care about in their own town or city” in order to connect the play to events in their own lives. From his perspective, the most compelling part of the play is the “subjective telling of objective truth,” and he hopes audience members will bring questions that foster connections.
“Come with a question from (your) own life and see if this play engages that question,” he said.
