NEW YORK – Jamaican born Shevrado Oliver, the award successful movie and tv actor greatest identified for his roles within the tv sequence From Yard and the upcoming suspense function Behind Closed Doorways, will be part of Denise Hunt (How Stella Bought Her Groove Again), James Duke Walker and Gabrielle C. Archer within the forged of the Silver Anniversary Efficiency of David Heron’s romantic comedy drama Love and Marriage and New York Metropolis.
Oliver received a 2024 Accolade International Movie Recognition Award for his function in Behind Closed Doorways. He’ll make his New York stage performing debut on this manufacturing.
Playwright and producer Heron is reviving the present for its twenty fifth Anniversary. There can be a one-night-only efficiency on the Jamaica Performing Arts Middle (JPAC) in Jamaica, Queens on Sunday, June 22.
Caribbean American Heritage Month
The play can be proven as a staged studying. It is going to be a particular cultural occasion. This occasion celebrates New York Metropolis’s Caribbean American Heritage Month. The festivities happen throughout town each June.
A complimentary Caribbean Delicacies Reception from 5:30pm will precede the efficiency at 7pm.
Set in Manhattan within the late Nineties, Love and Marriage and New York Metropolis tells the story of two Jamaican {couples}. They marry only for inexperienced playing cards. Nevertheless, they quickly discover out that love can change every little thing. As soon as Cupid’s arrow strikes, no marriage is nearly enterprise.
Oliver will play the function of Damian Lewis, a swaggering, clever cracking photographer who marries his romantically inclined girlfriend, style mannequin Natalie Taylor (Gabrielle C. Archer) to assist her get her inexperienced card. Denise Hunt portrays Natalie’s greatest buddy, Jessica Rogers, a fiercely bold Wall Avenue stockbroker who is obtainable a serious incentive by Damian to marry his unemployed however heat hearted cousin Theophilus Wilson (James Duke Walker), a banker who arrives within the huge metropolis from rural Jamaica needing a contemporary begin -and a inexperienced card of his personal.
When the 2 {couples} transfer in to Jessica’s newly bought excessive rise condominium in Manhattan, their lives and relationships take dramatic and comedic turns as they uncertainly navigate their inexperienced card unions in the direction of the elusive American dream all of them need.
Love and Marriage and New York Metropolis Solid
Shevrado Oliver
Shevrado Oliver is already considered considered one of Jamaica’s quickest rising actors with a rising resume that spans each stage and display. Along with taking part in main roles in each From Yard and the upcoming Behind Closed Doorways, he has additionally appeared within the fashionable Jamaican tv sequence Thicker Than Water.
His Jamaican theatre credit embody Simply Like Women, Marriage Bizniz and Jamaica Candy.
Denise Hunt
Jamaican born Denise Hunt is an actress, mannequin and tv host who was final seen on the New York stage a 12 months in the past as Alice McBee- a personality based mostly on Shakespeare’s Woman Macbeth- within the American premiere manufacturing of Alwin Bully’s McBee, Heron’s 2024 Caribbean American Heritage Month presentation. She additionally beforehand performed the function of Natalie in a United Kingdom touring manufacturing of Love and Marriage and New York Metropolis.
She is greatest identified for showing reverse Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs in How Stella Bought Her Groove Again and was additionally the host of two of Tv Jamaica’s hottest leisure programmes- Rising Stars and ER- The Leisure Report for a number of years earlier than emigrating to the USA.
James Duke Walker
Like Hunt, James Duke Walker as soon as once more returns to the New York stage following his efficiency as Vere Duncan Jr, the son of a murdered Caribbean Prime Minister, in final 12 months’s manufacturing of McBee. Found whereas working as a unionized development employee in New York, Walker instantly landed a serious function within the Manhattan Repertory Theatre manufacturing Bro.
He has since carried out at The Apollo Theatre and at Manhattan Theatre Membership’s Metropolis Centre Stage in staged studying productions of Heron’s courtroom drama In opposition to His Will, produced by Malik Yoba.
His tv appearances embody The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Diabolical. He received Italy’s Oniros Movie Competition Award for Finest Appearing Debut for his first movie, Roadside Help.
Gabrielle C. Archer
Gabrielle C. Archer studied performing on the Stella Adler Studio. She has appeared in staged studying performances of Heron’s In opposition to His Will in addition to in different theatrical productions together with Freedom Flight at Mad River Theatre Works, The Retailer at The Castillo Theatre, Black Girls and the Poll at The Nationwide Black Theatre and Untamed- Hair Physique Perspective at The Black Spectrum Theatre.
Her display credit embody Beguiled, God’s First Title and Black Two Sugars.
Heron thinks that the play in 2025 will deliver again sturdy emotions of nostalgia. It’s going to additionally increase considerations concerning the present immigration debate within the nation.
“At a time when immigration coverage has emerged because the foremost problem in our nationwide consciousness, and when marriage to an American citizen nonetheless stays the best path to attaining everlasting authorized standing, the play appears much more related now than 25 years in the past,” he says.
“I’m concerned about seeing how the viewers reacts, and listening to what they need to say afterwards- each those that have seen it earlier than in addition to these experiencing it for the primary time. I really feel will probably be a night to recollect for certain.”
“Love and Marriage and New York Metropolis is Heron’s greatest worldwide success to this point. It premiered in Kingston, Jamaica in 1999. Since then, it has been carried out Off Broadway at The Billie Vacation Theatre in Brooklyn. It has additionally been proven in lots of US cities, throughout the UK, and in Toronto, Canada.”
Love and Marriage and New York Metropolis obtained eight nominations for the Worldwide Theatre Institute (Jamaica) Actor Boy Award. This award is much like Broadway’s Tony Award. Heron additionally earned the New York Metropolis Council Proclamation and Award for Excellence. He obtained this honor at New York’s Metropolis Corridor in 2006.
Tickets
Tickets for the Silver Anniversary Efficiency of Love and Marriage in New York Metropolis are now on sale. A restricted variety of tickets can be found at a reduction for early patrons till Sunday, Could 11.
Faculty and highschool college students who’re 16 and older can attend the manufacturing free of charge. This provide additionally contains theatre interns from the New York Tri-State space. That is doable due to tickets donated by occasion patrons by the Positive Factor Productions Free Pupil Ticket Initiative.
