RALEIGH, N.C. — Acclaimed actress Evan Rachel Wood is coming home to Raleigh this summer to perform on the stage where she got her start.
Wood, the star of HBO’s science-fiction “Westworld,” will grace the stage of the Theatre in the Park alongside her father, Ira David Wood III, who is the current executive director.
The two Woods actors will play the father and daughter characters in an adaptation of “The Father,” a drama that follows the story of an 80-year-old man living with dementia. The play is scheduled Aug. 5 to 21.
Ira Wood, a native of Rocky Mount, announced his daughter’s appearance in a Facebook post Tuesday night saying the “cat is out of the bag.” It also was mentioned on Theatre in the Park’s Facebook page.
His oldest son, Ira Wood IV, is directing the play.
Evan Rachel Wood, 34, attended Cary Elementary School in the late 1980s and currently plays the character Dolores Abernathy on “Westworld.” Her performance earned her a Critics’ Choice Award in 2016 and nominations for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award.
The upcoming production of “The Father” isn’t the first time Evan Rachel Wood will be working with her father. Along with her brothers, Ira Wood IV, Dana and Thomas, she grew up active in the Theatre in the Park.
She has played the Ghost of Christmas Past in several productions of “A Christmas Carol” with her father, who has famously played the role of Scrooge since 1974. The production is presented each Christmas season.
Her first major role locally was Helen Keller in the production of “The Miracle Worker,” directed by her father, according to the Theatre in the Park website. In 2009, she was Juliet in “Romeo & Juliet,” as her brother, Ira David Wood IV, made his directorial debut.
She began her acting career in 1994 and starred in a number of television films and series. In 2003, she starred in the film “Thirteen,” played Anna Surratt in “The Conspirator” in 2010 and starred in “Charlie Countryman” alongside Shia LaBeouf and Rupert Grint.
From 2009 to 2011, Wood also had a recurring role in the second and third seasons of the HBO supernatural series “True Blood,” playing the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq.
Wood revealed that she was a survivor of sexual assault in 2016. She later revealed that Marilyn Manson, her then-fiance, was the alleged abuser. (Manson, who has not been charged with any crime, has said the claims made by Wood and other actresses are “horrible distortions of reality” and “misrepresenting the past.”)
In 2018, she testified before Congress supporting the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act and helped pass the Phoenix Act extending protections to domestic violence victims in California a year later.
She discussed her ordeal for a documentary, “Phoenix Rising,” which debuted on HBO in March. Manson has sued Wood for defamation over her allegations, NBC news reports.
‘The Father’ show
“The Father” was performed in France, and originated as “Le Pere,” a 2012 play written by Florian Zeller, a French playwright. The production was then adapted as a 2020 movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman. The movie earned Academy Awards at the 93rd ceremony in 2021.
This is the first year the play will be performed at Raleigh’s Theatre in the Park at 107 Pullen Road. The theater has served the community for over 70 years.
According to the theater’s website, its productions attracted more then 30,000 people last year.
In 2004, the Raleigh City Council voted to rename the building as the “Ira David Wood III Pullen Park Theatre” to honor Wood and his contributions to the local theater and arts scene.
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