Theatrical Outfit’s ‘Thurgood’ Puts Justice’s Life Onstage
Thurgood Marshall poses in his New York residence Sept. 11, 1962 after the Senate confirmation of his year-old nomination to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of America. The former counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, Legal Defense and Education Fund, had been serving under a recess appointment since last … Continued
Associated Press
Thurgood Marshall’s career took him from back-alley Baltimore to Howard University law school to his fight for equality in the South, and all the way to a seat on the highest court in the land. His story now is taking the stage at Theatrical Outfit in a one-man show called “Thurgood.”
Atlanta-based actor Geoffrey D. Williams is portraying the U.S. Supreme Court justice. Williams has previously appeared in shows at the Alliance Theatre, True Colors Theatre Company, Horizon Theatre and many other companies around town.
The show originally opened off-Broadway in 2006 with none other than James Earl Jones in the title role, and moved to Broadway in 2008 helmed by actor Lawrence Fishburne. The one-man show focuses on Marshall telling the story of his life and career.
“One of the lines in the play “is ‘The law is a weapon if you know how to use it,’” Williams told “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes, 
“There’s a story about Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall,” Williams said, “and [Marshall] said he used to have arguments with King all the time about his theory of disobeying the law. He said he didn’t believe in that. His approach was to use the law, not break it. And Martin would talk to him about Henry David Thoreau’s theory of civil disobedience, and he would have to remind him that Thoreau wrote ‘Civil Disobedience’ while he was in jail.”
Comparing Justice Marshall to other civil rights luminaries like King is a natural one to make, and Williams says that “Thurgood” mines the justice’s landmark cases for drama.
“My hope is one of the takeaways will be that people will start to pay more attention to their constitutional rights, regardless of how they’ve been interpreted by the courts,” Williams says, “so that when those rights are being violated, that they can say ‘no, but that’s not right,’ and use the law as their weapon to fight for what is right.”
“Thurgood” opens at Theatrical Outfit on Thursday, Sept. 29 and runs through Sunday, Oct. 16.
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