But as Grand Marshal of Arts First, Lithgow continues the traditions which he helped to invent 11 years ago—including the parade along Quincy Street.

“I insisted on the parade,” he says. “The first year, it was just the Harvard marching band, [Office for the Arts Director] Myra Mayman and me.”

Lithgow says that when Mayman looked embarrassed, he whispered, “Just keep marching!”

The parade now includes hundreds of participants from the College and the local community.

“I’m just going to be the usual goof ball at the head of the parade,” Lithgow says of his role as Grand Marshal of this year’s festival.

He says he never prepares much for his on-stage conversations with recipients of the Harvard Arts Medal.

Instead, he tries to let their personalities come out.

In past years, Lithgow has bantered with Bonnie Raitt ’72, Pete Seeger ’40 and Peter Sellars ’80, and he says he was always impressed.

“For the kids listening,” he says, “I know it blew their minds to hear that these people were not just talented, but really socially engaged. They were interested in so much more than themselves,” he says.

This year, he will mediate a conversation with Mira Nair ’79, who directed the film Monsoon Wedding.

Lithgow says his goal as Grand Marshal is “to try and be disarming as possible, to create the most inclusive atmosphere possible.”

Coming from a man who has played an array of villains, an awkward alien, a gossip columnist and a priest, the vision of art Lithgow promotes is indeed an inclusive one: it spans not only a range of roles and disciplines, but also of participants.

“The great bugaboo of Harvard is that it’s viewed as being so exclusive,” he says. “Part of the goal of the festival is to change that. It’s why we wanted to have the parade, and use all the Harvard buildings for the concerts, just to fling the doors open.”