Jonelle Allen

 

Down front to review the play for the Times, Kerr again had only good things to say about her performance. “It was almost as if he felt that I was his discovery,” remembered Allen. “In a way, I suppose I was.” The play was a smash outdoors in Central Park all summer long. It then moved indoors to Broadway for a run of 627 performances and ultimately to Los Angeles where it played at the Ahmanson Theatre.

In a way, I suppose I was

Jonelle Allen and Obba Babatunde

Love Boat

Jonelle Allen and Antonio Vargas – THE LOVE BOAT

Allen moved permanently to the west coast where her agents were determined to sell her as the new Diana Ross or Lola Falana.  She, on the other hand, wanted to be a fully-rounded actress and demanded that they find dramatic roles for her. She guest-starred on Cagney and Lacey, Hill Street Blues, The Trials of Rosie O’Neil, and many other hour dramas.

 

Cagney and Lacey 

Cagney (Sharon Gless, r.),  Lacey (Tyne Daly, l.) Elizabeth (Jonelle Allen)

Elizabeth (Jonelle Allen) Lacey (Tyne Daly, l.)

Cagney (Sharon Gless, l.) – Elizabeth (Jonelle Allen, r.)

All In The Family 

Jonelle Allen and Caroll O'Connor

Jonelle Allen and Carroll O’Connor  

 

 

She appeared in many diverse roles in a long string of movies of the week, from playing the right-wing district attorney to Peter Strauss’ presiding judge in CBS TV’s Penalty Phase to a 17-year-old lesbian opposite Susan Dey in another CBS movie, Cage Without a Key.

 

Cage Without a Key

Susan Dey and Jonelle Allen in Cage Without a Key (1975). Jonelle Allen plays a hard-luck detention school inmate whose only distinction is that of the leader of a clique of girls in “Cage Without A Key,” Columbia Pictures Television’s two-hour CBS Friday Night Movie.

 

Fat Chance

Fat Chance

HELLO DOLLY 

Jonelle Allen stars in the summer production of “Hello Dolly” at Saddleback College’s McKinney Theatre. (courtesy of Ken Kinder)

Jonelle Allen and Jim Whitson

 

Back Where You Belong

Jonelle and Carol Channing 

2011

 

Pages:

iforcolor

ARCHIVIST, EDUCATOR, HISTORIAN, and ARTiST
Dale Ricardo Shields is a 2017 winner of The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award®, 2017 and 2015 Tony® award nominee for the Excellence in Theatre Education Award, the 2017 AUDELCO/"VIV" Special Achievement Award, 2020, 2021, and 2022 ENCORE AWARD / The Actors Fund and winner of the 2022.

Recently, he won the 2022 Legend Award from his alma mater Ohio University.

He is the 2021 winner of the Paul Robeson Award, presented (jointly) by the Actors Equity Association and the Actors Equity Foundation.

Research Accomplishments:
His extensive professional credits as a Director, Stage manager, and Actor (Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and Regional) As an actor he has appeared on Saturday Night Live, Another World, Guiding Light, The Cosby Show, and the ITV television series "Special Needs" and commercials and film.

Professor Shields is a member of the Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the American Guild of Musical Artists performance unions and an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

He began his artistic academic career in New York City at Playwrights Horizon, The South Bronx Action Theatre, and Mind Builders, and then was invited to join the teaching staff at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival). He represented the United States for Theatre Young Audiences at the ASSITEJ Theatre Festival in London, England.

He has been a Professor and Visiting Artist at Ohio University, The College of Wooster, Denison University, Macalester College, Randolph- Macon College, Susquehanna University, and SUNY Potsdam.

He holds B.F.A and M.F.A, Degrees from Ohio University.

Website(s)

Iforcolor.org [Research]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Ricardo_Shields [Career]