{"id":358505,"date":"2018-04-26T16:21:06","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T15:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/actress-sierra-boggess-quits-bbc-proms-west-side-story-amid-complaints-of-whitewashing-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2018-04-26T16:21:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T15:21:06","slug":"actress-sierra-boggess-quits-bbc-proms-west-side-story-amid-complaints-of-whitewashing-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/actress-sierra-boggess-quits-bbc-proms-west-side-story-amid-complaints-of-whitewashing-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Actress Sierra Boggess quits BBC Prom\u2019s \u2018West Side Story\u2019 amid complaints of \u2018whitewashing\u2019 \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.04\/thumbnail\/5ae1e120fc7e9365788b45ec.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Broadway star Sierra Boggess has withdrawn from a BBC Proms production of \u2018West Side Story\u2019 amid claims of \u201cwhitewashing.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The caucasian American actress was supposed to play the main character of Maria, a young Puerto Rican woman. The musical \u2013 based on Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy of Romeo and Juliet \u2013 is set to be a centerpiece of this summer\u2019s BBC Prom.<\/p>\n<p>After being urged by Twitter users to <em>\u201cstop taking roles from actors of color,\u201d<\/em> award-winning Boggess, 35, announced in a Facebook post that she would be stepping down. She claimed taking on the role would be a<em> \u201chuge mistake<\/em>\u201d as it would deny ethnic actors the<em> \u201cimportance\u201d<\/em> of seeing themselves represented on stage.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rmg4qG7GA60\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Ava Vidal, a comedian and writer, told RT\u2019s Bill Dod that Boggess made the right decision as roles for ethnic actors are already limited.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThere are not a lot of opportunities for ethnic minorities actors as it is, so having roles taken away from you, that are supposed to cast ethnic minorities, it\u2019s not very good,\u201d<\/em> she said, adding that performing a role<em> \u201cfrom somebody else\u2019s culture isn\u2019t really good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When asked if the pressure white actors are increasingly facing to reject ethnic roles amounts to yet another form of racism, Vidal dismissed the suggestion, saying: <em>\u201cThere is no institutionalized racism for black people, so that doesn\u2019t exist for a start.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A BBC statement said: <em>&#8220;We respect Sierra&#8217;s decision to withdraw from \u2018West Side Story\u2019 at the BBC Proms this year and will announce her replacement in due course.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you like this story, share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/425226-sierra-boggess-bbc-prom\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broadway star Sierra Boggess has withdrawn from a BBC Proms production of \u2018West Side Story\u2019 amid claims of \u201cwhitewashing.\u201d The caucasian American actress was supposed to play the main character of Maria, a young Puerto Rican woman. The musical \u2013 based on Shakespeare\u2019s tragedy of Romeo and Juliet \u2013 is set to be a centerpiece [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":358506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-358505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}