Oliver Samuels latest play, Puppy Love, will be staged in Hartford, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., Queens, NJ and Bronx from October 22-31 after successful performances across the UK, Canada, Guyana and several Caribbean islands. The show will come to Atlanta for a one night stand on Nov. 7.
Puppy Love is written by Patrick Brown and directed by Trevor Nairne. The cast consists of Oliver Samuels, Dahlia Harris, Earle Brown and Natalee Cole.
Like other Oliver Samuels and Patrick Brown plays, Puppy Love is for the entire family and this thrilling romantic comedy has won rave reviews in the British media.
The U.S. venues and dates are:
Friday, October 22, 8pm, Hartford, CT, Weaver School, general admission, $36 in advance.
Saturday, October 23, 8pm, Brooklyn, NY, Brooklyn College, reserved seating $48, $43 & $39.
Sunday, October 24, 6pm, Washington, D.C., University of the District of Columbia (UDC), general admission, $40 in advance.
Friday, October 29, 8pm, Queens, NY, York College Performing Arts Center, general admission, $45 in advance.
Saturday, October 30, 8pm, East Orange, NJ, Cicely Tyson Performing Arts School: general admission, $36 in advance.
Sunday, October 31, 6pm, Bronx, NY, Lehman Center @ Lehman College, reserved seating $48, $43 & $39.
Sunday Nov. 7th, 2010 @ 6.00pm, Clayton County Performing Arts Center, 2530 Mt. Zion Parkway, Jonesboro, GA
Writing about Oliver Samuels in The Gleaner newspaper, Keiran King says, Samuels enjoys an enduring popularity with the Jamaican people.
King is absolutely correct, states New York promoter Herman Hall but one can add, Oliver is adored by people across the Caribbean and wherever they have settled, especially in North America and Europe.
When Oliver went to Grenada a decade ago to participate in a fundraising drive to build a new hospital, Oliver was mobbed by shoppers when he visited the town of Grenville to purchase spices in the Market Place.
From Antigua to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Oliver has performed and it was not a surprise when Puppy Love had sold out audiences in a weekend of performances last April in Guyana.
A decade ago, Dahlia Harris made her debut in a Patrick Brown play and she immediately had an impact. Suddenly, Dahlia Harris, also a TV newscaster, disappeared from the international stage allowing fans to ask, What happen to Dahlia Harris? The answer was always simple. She is on stage in Jamaica starring in local productions by various theatrical companies. Ms. Harris is back touring internationally as the upper middleclass, educated and community spirited wife of Dick (Oliver Samuels) in Puppy Love.
Earle Brown is a veteran of the stage in Jamaica but his other responsibilities have prevented him from going on international tours. If Puppy Love was a Broadway production in the U.S., Brown would certainly have won a Tony Award. His character as Harry, the distraught father of Karen (Natalee Cole), is brilliant.
Ever since Natalee was a toddler she was acting and the family is not surprised that she has taken up the theater as her profession, one of her cousins in New York remarked. Almost every year Natalee Cole is listed on the Work Visa to perform in North America because she is an understudy and is expected to replace one of the featured actresses in the event the actress is sick or cannot tour. There were no problems so Natalee never toured. This time Natalee is not an understudy. She has a major role in Puppy Love and has impressed fans from the Bahamas to the U.K. It is a great challenge for Natalee who is still in her early twenties to play alongside the veteran Oliver Samuels.
2010, and the staging of Puppy Love in the tri-state, symbolizes 20 consecutive years of joint production and unity between Oliver Samuels and Herman Hall, publisher of EVERYBODYS, the Caribbean-American Magazine. The first Oliver show we presented was on July 21, 1990 and since then we have worked with Oliver each year sometimes presenting more than one production, says Hall.
I cant believe it is 20 years since working with Herman Hall. He is a promoter Im very, very comfortable with and trust very much. But, I must thank the fans because they are the ones who are responsible for 20 years of collaboration, Oliver states.
As a result, $400 will be given to a lucky fan at each of the six performances in celebration of the 20th anniversary (1990-2010) of productions between Oliver Samuels and EVERYBODYS Magazine. A lucky person in the audience at each show will get the $400.
The U.S. tour is presented by Hennessy. Co-sponsors include Grace Foods, Western Union, LIME (Cable & Wireless), Dennis Shipping and The Door Restaurant.
