Zurin Villanueva Wins Finding Yolanda Contest

Zurin Villanueva has won Arena Stage’s Finding Yolanda contest, and will play Yolanda in the theater’s upcoming production of Regina Taylor’s musical Crowns, March 27-April 26. Kenneth Lee Roberson will direct.

This Helen Hayes Awards winning musical is adapted from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. It tells the story of Yolanda, a young woman who faces a change in her life and through it finds her true promise and identity. Complete casting will be announced at a later date.

Originally from Brooklyn, New York where she attended LaGuardia High School for the performing arts, Villanueva is a senior Musical Theater major at Howard University. Her credits include The Stephen Schwartz Project. Other theater credits include Songs for a New World, Working, Hamlet, and A Chorus Line.

For more information, visit arenastage.org.