living room local
with
John Lithgow

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What Is the Role of Satire in Art and Politics?

WHEN: Sunday, September 27, 6pm MT

WHERE: John Lithgow’s living room (a secure one-click link to the private YouTube presentation will be sent Season 10 Members and ticket holders prior to this event)

ABOUT THE EVENT: Award-winning actor and writer John Lithgow will perform from his new book, Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown, and discuss the value of satire in today’s culture.

ABOUT JOHN LITHGOW: John Lithgow’s roots are in the theater. In 1973, he won a Tony Award three weeks after his Broadway debut, in David Storey’s The Changing Room. Since then he has appeared on Broadway twenty more times, earning five more Tony nominations, another Tony, four Drama Desk Awards, and induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame. His Broadway performances have included major roles in My Fat Friend, Trelawney of the ‘Wells,' Comedians, Anna Christie, Bedroom Farce, and the musicals Sweet Smell of Success (his second Tony), and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

In 2007 Lithgow was one of the very few American actors ever invited to join The Royal Shakespeare Company, playing ‘Malvolio’ in Twelfth Night at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 2008 he devised his own one-man show Stories by Heart for The Lincoln Center Theater Company, and has been touring it around the country ever since. Last year he played the title role in The Magistrate at London’s National Theatre. Lithgow returned to the New York stage this year first as 'King Lear' for The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park and on Broadway in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance.

In the early 1980’s Lithgow began to make a major mark in films. He was nominated for Academy Awards in back-to-back years, for The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment. Notable credits include, All That Jazz, Twilight Zone: the Movie, Footloose, Harry and the Hendersons, Shrek, Dreamgirls, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Campaign and This is 40. In 2014 Lithgow was seen on the big screen in Interstellar and Love is Strange,for which he and the film earned rave reviews and a Film Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead.

For his work on television, Lithgow has been nominated for thirteen Emmy Awards. He has won seven of them: two for Amazing Stories, one for Dexter, one for The Crown, and three for what is perhaps his most celebrated creation. This was the loopy character of the alien High Commander, 'Dick Solomon,' on the hit NBC comedy series 3rd Rock from the Sun. In that show’s six-year run, Lithgow also won the Golden Globe and two SAG Awards. More recently, his diabolical turn as the 'Trinity Killer' in a twelve-episode arc on Showtime’s Dexter won him his second Golden Globe and his fifth Emmy.

In 2011 Lithgow’s memoir, Drama: An Actor’s Education, presenting his life and career up to the age of 35. The book vividly portrays the worlds of New York, London, and American regional theater in the 1970’s, and relives his collaborations with renowned performers and directors of that era.

John Lithgow attended Harvard College, and studied at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art on a Fulbright Grant. He has been honored with the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, induction into The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Harvard. He was the first actor to deliver Harvard’s Commencement Address.

LEARN MORE: johnlithgow.com

MODERATOR: Lisa Kennedy

Lisa Kennedy writes on the arts, culture, race and gender, among other topics – and has for more than three decades. From 2003 to 2015, she was film critic for the Denver Post. In 2012, she added the theater beat to her duties at the Post. Before returning to the west, she held high-level editor posts at Out, Us and the Village Voice. A member of the National Society of Film Critics, she has been a juror for the American Film Institute’s Top Movies, Film Independent’s Spirit Awards and the Gotham Awards. She has also been a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism. In 2019 she was on Denver Mayor’s Excellence in Arts & Culture selection panel. She is now a commissioner on Denver’s Commission of Cultural Affairs. She’s been published in Variety, the New York Times, Essence magazine, American Theatre, Newsday, CNN.com and AARP.com, among other outlets. She is at work on “Icarus Ascending,” a memoir.

John Lithgow sat down with The Denver Post journalist (and Living Room Local moderator) Lisa Kennedy to talk satire, rhyme and playing villains.

READ The Denver Post article

LOCAL THEATER COMPANY is:

Pesha Rudnick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Artistic Director

Alison Palmer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Executive Producer

Nick Chase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Associate Artistic Director/Marketing Manager

Misha S. Zimmerman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Associate Producer

Max Silverman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Technical Director/Sound Designer

Erika Haase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marketing Associate

Jordan Lichtenheld. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Artistic Administrator

Ligature Creative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Design

Core Bookkeeping and Kathryn Augustine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Bookkeeper

YOUR RECIPES FOR DISASTER (OR HOPE):

How oppressive is our humanity
dipping us in cultural vanity;

This wetness stains our skin,
skin to sum (some) leaves sin.

- Laurie C.

As RBG still lies in State

You picked your Justice sans a wait
So when the votes say you must go
She’ll vote to keep your crown aglow

Knead danger into dough…

- Heather D.

Humpty Trumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Trumpty had a great fall;
All the KING'S horses and all the KING’S men
Couldn't put Humpty Trumpty back together again.
And a great cheer and sigh of relief went out around the world.

- Sophie W.

MIX MNUCHIN, POMPEO AND BARR IN A BOWL.
ADD DUMPTY. VOILA! SWAMP CASSEROLE

THIS CASSEROLE DISH IS NOT MY CRAVE.
MY HOPE- THE RECIPE - LAND FREE AND BRAVE.

- Elaine K.

ALL HAIL MACTRUMP, A ROYAL BUFFOON
WHO WEARS A TIN CAN CROWN
HAIR OF ORANGE, SKIN OF TANGERINE, EYES THAT DO NOT SEE, EARS THAT DO NOT HEAR, A VIRUS THAT YOU HAVE PLAYED DOWN MOUTH SPEAKING HATE, TONGUE LASHING AT THE WEAK,
HANDS THAT TREMBLE AND SHAKE, TOO MANY LIES
ALL HAIL THE CROWD SIZE SOON TO DISAPPEAR
NO FAKE NEWS OR HOAXES
RANTS OR TWEETS. TANTRUMS OR TAX FRAUD
WE SHALL SPEAK THE RUTH AND BUILD BACK BETTER
UNITE OUR NATION, INDIVISIBLE UNDER GOD.

- Mari H.

Gather together for a utube call
Find what we have in common to break down the walls......

- Mary S.

A Stable Genius, very sad, now wants
a stable, and a country its savants

- Rob W.

It’s been awhile since
I’ve felt a smile

- Amy H.

Now whisk the bad eggs to a frothy peak
to make a moral high ground truly weak

- Selena M. & Wesley S.

Add a pinch of truffle salt,
For with roast rump they find no fault

- Kate B.

Then the people did revolt
Only then did Dumpty bolt