Mark Rylance Tony Acceptance Speech
The brilliant actor Mark Rylance won a Tony last night for his performance as Olivia in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”, directed by Dominic Dromgoole. In his speech he paid tribute to the actor Sam Wanamaker, reminding us that he was blacklisted in the 50’s by Joseph McCarthy and forced to move to London. And that he spent 25 years promoting the idea that the Globe Theater should be rebuilt. Rylance says “We are children of Sam Wanamaker’s vision.” Wanamaker said “Look what I showed them. I went and showed them how they can be truer to Shakespeare than they thought they could be.” And, Rylance concluded: “That is something you as Americans have given to us. Thank you for this beautiful award.”
Full Text of Mark Rylance’s remarks:
“Wow, I’m up first. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your generosity. We had such a ball playing Shakespeare here in this city. Both backstage and on stage too. I wanted to say a word about an actor called Sam Wanamaker, who was a New York actor who, in the 1950’s was blacklisted by Senator Joe McCarthy, and he and his wife Charlotte had to leave and go to London. And in 1969, Sam, who had seen a model of the Globe at the World Fair, was shocked to find that there was no Globe Theater in London, and he gave the last 25 years of his life, cajoling, harassing, encouraging many people to come and help him rebuild the Globe, many of them Americans, Benefactors, Actors, Scholars. And the work you are celebrating tonight, of Stevens and Pauls and all the wonderful nominees you’ve made in R2 Productions — and we are children of Sam Wanamaker’s vision. And I used to feel many times on stage, when I was playing the Countess Olivia or Richard III, Sam standing next to me there saying back to this community, ‘Look what I went and showed them. I showed them how they could be truer to Shakespeare than they realized they could be.’ And that is something that you as Americans have given us. Thank you ever so much for this beautiful award.”
see video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBe848Xqrc
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