A self-described comedian-activist was among three protesters whose anti-fascism demonstration brought a Metropolitan Opera performance to a halt in Manhattan last week, according to the New York Post.
Davidson Boswell, 34, of Harlem, was charged with criminal trespass after shouting from his seat about the late billionaire arts donor David H. Koch, while two other activists stormed the stage at Lincoln Center around 9 p.m. Friday, police told the Post.
The pair on the stage unfurled banners as security rushed in and dropped the curtain, forcing a 20-minute pause in the performance.
Koch, who died in 2019, is the namesake of the David H. Koch Theater across the plaza, home to the New York City Ballet. His conservative philanthropy network has been linked to groups such as the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, the Post noted.
Project 2025 is a conservative policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation that calls for sweeping cultural and governmental reforms.
"The David Koch Theater — it's across the street!" Boswell shouted to the audience. "It's the same people, they fund it all."
Boswell later posted a video on Patreon titled "Spending the Night in Jail and Fascism Normalized in the Art World."
Sources told the Post the protest was carried out by a newly formed "comedic interventionists" group called Goofballs, working alongside activists from the environmental organization Climate Defiance.
The disruption interrupted a revitalized production of "Carmen" — staged at the U.S.-Mexico border in this adaptation — as one protester dressed in military fatigues and another in stagehand attire held signs reading, "We love Lincoln Center, but they're in bed with fascists," and "Koch funds Project 2025, and the horrors depicted on this stage."
Along with Boswell, police arrested Nate Smith, 37, and Aaron Toplin, 31.
In a statement to the Post, Boswell argued the production itself was meant to condemn ICE but claimed it was "hypocritical" for New York's arts institutions to criticize government actions while benefiting from Koch's donations.
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