The Village Voice once compared Samuels' works to such noted writers as Amiri Baraka and Ralph Ellison. He was accepted into the theater internship program at New Dramatists, where he studied with award-winning playwrights August Wilson, and Charles OyamO Gordon. He was later accepted into the prestigious playwrighting program at The Negro Ensemble Company, where he nourished his critically acclaimed play, “Don't Explain”, written in memory of the late jazz trumpeter, Lee Morgan, which went on to win seven ADELCO awards for excellence in African-American theater, including best play and playwright. Samuel was awarded Rockland County’s Executive Award by the Arts Council of Rockland for best literary artist in 1999. He is past Artistic Director of The Haverstraw Festival of New Play Readings, and current Artistic Director of a Rockland based Multicultural Theater Company. Some of the Author's New York area productions have played at: The Negro Ensemble Company; The Paul Roberson Theater; American Theater for Actors; Theater for the New City; The Nuyorican Poet's Cafe; Theater Four; Duality Playhouse; HERE Theater; Rutgers University; St. Thomas Aquinas College and Rockland Community College. Regional productions have played at: The Christina Cultural Arts Center (Wilmington, Del.); EXIT Theater in SanFrancisco and The Painted Bride and Bushfire Theaters, both in Philadelphia.