Julia Weber
Staff Writer
Actor Matt Saldívar is no stranger to Chautauqua. In 2011, he came to the Institution for Michael Golamco’s Build when it was a New Play Workshop, and in 2024, he came to the Institution for a world premiere of Kate Hamill’s The Light and The Dark in the role of Agostino.
This summer, Saldívar returns to Bratton’s stage to perform the role of Frank Falzon, the chief homicide inspector in Emily Mann’s Execution of Justice.
At 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. today in Bratton Theater, Chautauqua Theater Company will perform Execution of Justice, continuing an extensive run of shows.
Execution of Justice is a documentary theater piece portraying the trial of Dan White, who was accused of murdering California’s first openly gay elected official, San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, and Mayor George Moscone. By compiling court transcripts, interviews, quotes and other primary sources, Mann meticulously reconstructed the trial, asking the audience to grapple with difficult issues through the perspective of a community torn apart by a horrific tragedy.
In college, Saldívar was introduced to Execution of Justice in a class about contemporary women playwrights and found it utterly transformational.
“I had never encountered a piece of theater like that before,” he said. “It was really mind-expanding because I learned about this history, its complexities, its political, social and personal significance. It really, really blew my mind.”
As he began his career in acting, Saldívar found his footing in political theater, working in Washington D.C. for a theater company run by the professor of his contemporary women playwrights class.
“Those were the events that really galvanized my commitment to being a theater artist, so this play holds a very, very special place in my personal history,” he said. “It’s amazing to be back here so many years later.”
As a seasoned actor, Saldívar sees the work of acting as discovering the character they are playing. While it isn’t always possible to discover the entirety of the character, Saldívar does believe actors can “begin to empathize, to really fill in (and) inhabit that person and their complexities, what drives them, compels them.”
In fiction, the work of discovering the character is largely between the actor, the playwright, the director and any fellow actors.
“It’s like being a painter or a composer,” he said. “You begin to build it, and it comes to life. It begins to take on a life of its own, and then you follow that life, and it begins to reveal to you as opposed to you filling it in.”
In documentary theater, though, it’s about portraying real people who lived through the plot of the play.
“It’s very particular because we’re dealing with not only people who lived, and in some cases are still alive, but in many cases, their very own words,” he said. “So, that’s a particular task or project — endeavor — to engage in.”
In the role of Falzon, Saldívar familiarized himself with the character by reading his autobiography, watching interviews and gathering as much information as he can.
“There’s a steadiness and a circumspection and a compassion in him that I found very, very moving,” he said.
He said that the play is a “composed” and “very balanced” piece, but that it is impossible for him to fully know his character because it is a nonfiction work.
“I can’t know the complete history; I can’t know 360 degrees of perspective, but the reality — the history that I do understand and that I regard as history — is an important part, obviously, of representing this person in this story,” he said.
Saldívar cited the increasingly polarized political climate as a driving force for his decision to be in the play. He said he felt it was a prescient play that could “remind ourselves that in times like these, we have to control ourselves and engage in constructive conversations, and not reinforce polarization and division because it leads to violence.”
According to Saldívar, two days before rehearsals began for the play, Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were fatally shot in their home in an act of political violence. In the wake of this violence, Saldívar saw the play as more needed than ever.
He said he sees the role of theater in our society as an artform that can address our most important issues and work toward positive change. For Saldívar, the theater can be a way of looking inward to ask difficult questions and move society forward.
“One of the reasons that this play was so compelling to me and so formative in my decision to pursue acting as a profession was because it gave a new sense of validity and importance to the theater for me — that it’s not always just entertainment or an emotional release, but that in the ancient tradition roots of theater, it’s an important part of society,” he said. “It’s a way of looking at ourselves and reaffirming for ourselves what we believe is important for the health of our society and for the positive advancement of our society.”
