Award Winning Jamaican Actor Shevrado Oliver Joins Denise Hunt, James Duke Walker and Gabrielle C. Archer For David Heron’s Love and Marriage and New York City

New York, New York - Jamaican born Shevrado Oliver, the award winning film and television actor best known for his roles in the television series From Yard  and the upcoming suspense feature Behind Closed Doors, will join Denise Hunt (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), James Duke Walker and Gabrielle C. Archer in the cast of the Silver Anniversary Performance of David Heron’s romantic comedy drama Love and Marriage and New York City.

SHEVRADO OLIVER- Photo courtesy of From Yard ProductionsOliver, who won a 2024 Accolade Global Film Recognition Award as Lead Actor for his role in Behind Closed Doors, will be making his New York stage acting debut in the production. Playwright and producer Heron is reviving the show for its 25th Anniversary with a one night only performance at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC) in Jamaica Queens on Sunday June 22.

The play will be presented as a staged reading production and will be an exclusive cultural event in celebration of New York City’s annual Caribbean American Heritage Month festivities, held across the city each June.

A complimentary Caribbean Cuisine Reception from 5:30pm will precede the performance at 7pm.

Set in Manhattan in the late 1990s, Love and Marriage and New York City tells the story of two Jamaican born couples who marry strictly for green card purposes- only to discover that once Cupid’s arrow flies, no marriage is ever purely about business.

Oliver will play the role of Damian Lewis, a swaggering, wise cracking photographer who marries his romantically inclined girlfriend, fashion model Natalie Taylor (Gabrielle C. Archer) to help her get her green card. Denise Hunt portrays Natalie’s best friend, Jessica Rogers, a fiercely ambitious Wall Street stockbroker who is offered a major incentive by Damian to marry his unemployed but warm hearted cousin Theophilus Wilson (James Duke Walker), a banker who arrives in the big city from rural Jamaica needing a fresh start -and a green card of his own.

When the two couples move in to Jessica’s newly purchased high rise apartment in Manhattan, their lives and relationships take dramatic and comedic turns  as they uncertainly navigate their green card unions towards the elusive American dream they all desire.

Shevrado Oliver is already regarded as one of Jamaica's fastest rising actors with a growing resume that spans both stage and screen. In addition to playing leading roles in both From Yard  and the upcoming Behind Closed Doors, he has also appeared in the popular Jamaican television series Thicker Than Water. His Jamaican theatre credits include Just Like Girls, Marriage Bizniz and Jamaica Sweet.

Jamaican born Denise Hunt is an actress, model and television host who was last seen on the New York stage a year ago as Alice McBee- a character based on Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth- in the American premiere production of Alwin Bully’s McBee, Heron’s 2024 Caribbean American Heritage Month presentation. She also previously played the role of Natalie in a United Kingdom touring production of Love and Marriage and New York City. She is best known for appearing opposite Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs in How Stella Got Her Groove Back and was also the host of two of Television Jamaica’s most popular entertainment  programmes- Rising Stars and ER- The Entertainment Report  for several years before emigrating to the United States.

Like Hunt, James Duke Walker once again returns to the New York stage following his performance as Vere Duncan Jr, the son of a murdered Caribbean Prime Minister, in last year’s production of McBee. Discovered while working as a unionized construction worker in New York, Walker immediately landed a major role in the Manhattan Repertory Theatre production Bro. He has since performed at The Apollo Theatre and at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Centre Stage in staged reading productions of Heron’s courtroom drama Against His Will, produced by Malik Yoba. His television appearances include The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Diabolical. He won Italy’s Oniros Film Festival Award for Best Acting Debut for his first film, Roadside Assistance.

Gabrielle C. Archer studied acting at the Stella Adler Studio. She has appeared in staged reading performances of Heron's Against His Will as well as in other theatrical productions including Freedom Flight at Mad River Theatre Works, The Store at The Castillo Theatre, Black Women and the Ballot at The National Black Theatre and Untamed- Hair Body Attitude at The Black Spectrum Theatre. Her screen credits include Beguiled, God’s First Name and Black Two Sugars.

Heron believes that the experience of the play in 2025 will evoke feelings of great nostalgia as well as concern about the nation’s current immigration debate.

“At a time when immigration policy has emerged as the foremost issue in our national consciousness, and when marriage to an American citizen still remains the easiest path to attaining permanent legal status, the play seems even more relevant now than 25 years ago,” he says. “I’m interested in seeing how the audience reacts, and hearing what they have to say afterwards- both those who have seen it before as well as those experiencing it for the first time. I feel it will be an evening to remember for sure.”

Love and Marriage and New York City is Heron’s biggest international success to date. Since its world premiere in Kingston Jamaica in 1999, it has been performed Off Broadway at The Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn as well as in various US cities, throughout the UK and  in Toronto, Canada as well. Among other accolades, Love and Marriage and New York City received eight International Theatre Institute (Jamaica) Actor Boy Award nominations-the equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Award -and earned Heron the New York City Council Proclamation and Award for Excellence, presented to him at New York’s City Hall in 2006.  

Tickets for the Silver Anniversary Performance of Love and Marriage and New York City are now on sale, with a limited number being made available at early purchase discount prices until Sunday May 11.

College and high school students ages 16 and over as well as theatre interns from throughout the New York Tri state area will again be able to attend the production for free, thanks to tickets donated by event patrons through the Sure Thing Productions Free Student Ticket Initiative.

For tickets and further information go to loveandmarriagetheplay.eventbrite.com or contact Sure Thing Productions at 646 533 7021.

The Jamaica Performing Arts Center is located at 153-10 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, New York, 11432.