Actor John Lithgow described Donald Trump’s second presidency as “a pure disaster” for the arts in the United States. Lithgow, speaking after his best actor victory at the London Olivier Awards on Sunday, distinguished the takeover by Trump of Kennedy Center, the Washington DC national institution for the arts of the show. “Our administration has done shocking and destructive things,” he said, “but the one who cries me most is to take control of the Kennedy Center.”
The American president is now president of the prestigious cultural complex (which has been founded as a bipartite place funded by the government) and has installed new members of the board of directors and a new acting leader, the loyalist Ric Grenell. The board of directors had been selecting a successor from the outgoing leader Deborah Rutter, who announced in January his intention to resign after 11 years.
“Deborah Rutter was dismissed from her post as president – even if she had already resigned and was (several) months,” said Lithgow. “He is a very good friend of me. We co -chased a commission on the arts (launched by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2018) and spent three years discovering the state of the arts in America (was) in crisis. Well, it’s really in crisis now. First of all, there was Coronirus, now there is this.”
Lithgow was appointed best actor to the olive trees for his performance as Roald Dahl in the giant of the game of Mark Rosenblatt, which took place at the Royal Court last year and transfers to the west end this month. In his speech of acceptance, the actor – better known for the 3rd rock television comedy – said that this moment was “more complicated than usual” for relations between the United States and the United Kingdom, but that he personally thought that the special relationship was “intact”.
Lithgow described himself as “a curious type of hybrid English”, reflecting on the movies and television series he made in the United Kingdom and his appearances on stage, which included Twelfth Night with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2007 and the magistrate at the National Theater in 2012.
“I grew up with Shakespeare,” he said. “My father was a producer of Shakespeare festivals in Ohio. He was regional theater artistic director. I was in 20 pieces of Shakespeare at the age of 20 … I came and went to Lamda (London’s sister) after I don’t seem to talk about you to talk
While evaluating the current climate for the arts in the United States as “a pure disaster – really discouraging”, Lithgow said that “it gives us everything for which you are fighting and I think that the arts are animated by this. Right now, everyone is in shock. ” Once this shock has passed, he recognized that “bad times create good art”.
