Karen Olivo, whose acting career began in Polk County, is waiting to learn if she will receive a second Tony Award.
But Olivo will not return to the cast of “Moulin Rouge!” when Broadway productions resume after a delay of more than a year. Olivo, a graduate of Harrison School for the Arts in Lakeland, stunned the theater world with the recent announcement.
Olivo’s action is a protest against what she calls the theater industry’s “silence” toward allegations of workplace harassment against producer Scott Rudin.
“I could easily go back to the show and make a lot of money, but I still wouldn’t be able to control what I was putting out into the world,” Olivo said in a video posted on Instagram. “And what I’m seeing in this space right now, with our industry, is that everybody is scared, and nobody is really doing a lot of the stuff that needs to be done. People aren’t speaking out.”