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

Jonelle and Carol Channing

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ARCHIVIST, EDUCATOR, HISTORIAN, and ARTiST
Dale Shields is a professor of theatre, director, and actor (Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and Regional).
Research Accomplishments:
The 2017 winner of The Kennedy Center/Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award®, 2017 and 2015 Tony® award nominee for the Excellence in Theatre Education Award, and the winner of the 2017 AUDELCO/"VIV" Special Achievement Award. In 2020 He was also awarded The Actors Fund / Encore Award

On the web, he is the archivist and historian of Iforcolor.org and Black Theatre/African American Voices [Facebook] (theatre, music, and art). He has taught classes and workshops at SUNY Potsdam, Susquehanna University, Denison University, Randolph-Macon College, Macalester College, The College of Wooster, Ohio University, Wayne State University, and the Joseph Papp Public Theatre (New York Shakespeare Festival).

Education
B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from Ohio University.