Azudi Onyejekwe joins cast of Latte Da's VIOLET

CASTING COMPLETE FOR THEATER LATTÉ DA'S VIOLET
AS AZUDI ONYEJEKWE JOINS THE CAST

Preview February 26; Opening February 27;
Playing through March 21, 2010 in the Dowling Studio

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) Theater Latté Da today announced that Azudi Onyejekwe will join the cast of Violet in the role of Flick, the young black soldier who teaches Violet (played by Children's Theatre Company childhood star Britta Ollmann) about beauty, courage and what it means to be an outsider. A recent graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, Onyejekwe makes his Twin Cities theater debut in the production, directed by Peter Rothstein and featuring a score by Tony Award nominee Jeanine Tesori, the composer whose music brought Tony Kushner's book and lyrics for Caroline, or Change to life. Onyejekwe's musical credits also include Pippin, Into the Woods, Jesus Christ Superstar and, most recently, Once On This Island at the Cortland Repertory Theatre in upstate New York.

Violet, based on The Ugliest Pilgrim, a short story by Southern writer Doris Betts, won the Obie Award, New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical when it premiered Off-Broadway in 1997. Set against the backdrop of the Deep South in the early days of the civil rights movement, Violet is an uplifting musical about a physically and emotionally scarred young woman, and her journey to find a cure.

Single tickets start at $18 and are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at http://www.guthrietheater.org/.