Olivia Douglas is a native of Trinidad, a small island in the southern Caribbean bursting with cultural creativity. Trinidadians has given the world such musical gifts as calypso music, the limbo dance and the steelpan, which is widely acknowledge to be the only new acrostic musical instrument to be invented in the 20th century.



Olive lived for some time in England where she studied acting and performed in west end London. Her first performance was in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" followed by Roston's "Mr. Johnson." She left England for the U.S.A. where she learned to balance a life of work, acting and academic studies. In April 1963, she co-founded New Day Repertory Company with husband Rodney K. Douglas in which they served as Executive Director and Artistic Director respectively.

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To keep the creative juices flowing, Olive continued performing and was cast in a productions of "The Kidnappers" by Victor Noel at Lincoln Center. Other productions to follow included "Antigone" by Jean Anouihl at the Henry Street Playhouse; "The Gate Manhattan" in a church and at Manhattan Theatre Club; "Cry the Beloved Country" at Manhattan Theatre Club and the NYU Studio Theatre;  "Brand" by Ibsen, and "The Dark Lady of the Sonnet," by Bernard Shaw.

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Olive took a well-deserved hiatus from acting to concentrate on her academic studies, eventually earning a BA from Adelphi University and a MSW in Social Work from Fortham University. She sat on committees and boards of numerous organizations in Dutchess County including the boards of Mill Street Loft and YWCA of Dutchess County.

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A clinical social worker, Olive combines a familiarity with everything theatrical from acting to costume designing and creating, to extending hospitality to visiting actors, to recommending board nominees. She is highly skilled in audience development and reaches out to an extensive network throughout the Hudson Valley.