Andrea Scott’s play tells the story of a Toronto family in the lead-up to a Jamaica Independence Day celebration
Published: August 29, 2024
Andrea Scott has never forgotten the moment when her dreams of becoming a writer were quashed.
It was during a Grade 9 English class.
“I remember proclaiming something I felt was very literary and my English teacher shot me down so quickly,” says the University of Toronto Mississauga alumna and former instructor at U of T Mississauga. “It killed my desire to be a writer and I’ve never forgotten her.”
The death of Scott’s writing ambitions would prove to be premature. She just wrapped up a contract writing for Disney and recently her play Get That Hope, which tells the story of a family in the lead-up to a Jamaica Independence Day celebration, made its debut at the Stratford Festival.
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On Aug. 10, Scott made her Stratford debut with the world première of Get That Hope. She says she was inspired to write the play after seeing Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
“All I kept thinking was, ‘Why don’t we have plays like this about Black Canadian families?’” she says.
Scott is working on a new play called Truthfully Jackie about Jackie Robinson’s time playing for the Montreal Royals in 1946.
While she has seen success throughout her career, Scott says she has also faced challenges – including not being taken seriously enough.
“I’m a woman, I’m a Black woman, and I’m really tiny – like five feet tall. But I have this voice, and I try to use it to make sure people take me seriously,” she says, adding that her advice for budding writers is to not take criticism to heart.
“Reacting emotionally to something that was maybe constructive criticism won’t help you,” Scott says. “Also, write and write and write – and don’t close off any kind of source material that you can be inspired by. You never know where it might come from.”
Get That Hope runs until Sept. 28 in the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre.
Source: U of T News
Read the full story here.
Watch a teaser for Get That Hope here.