By Gerald V. Paul

Debra Ehrhardt’s Award-winning, one Woman show Jamaica Farewell, which has played all around the U.S. for four years, has been picked up by Hollywood Filmmakers and is now set to grace Glen Gould Theatre, Toronto on August 28.

When Rita Wilson and her husband Tom Hanks came to see Jamaica Farewell in 2009, Ehrhardt thought she had some big fans.

“I could barely contain myself. I could not believe they were actually there! Eventually, Rita Wilson said that she wanted to make the play into a movie. It was like the American dream come true for me,” an excited Ehrhardt told The Camera.

The play tells Ehrhardt’s true story of her journey of “escape” from Jamaica to the U.S. When she was seventeen-year old secretary in Kingston, she and my passion for America bumped into handsome Jack Wallingsford over a bowl of oxtail soup on her lunch break. She agreed, with starry-love-stuck eyes, to smuggle a large sum of cash to a mysterious contact somewhere in Miami.

With an intriguing combination of comedy and drama, Jamaica Farewell has all the elements of a hit movie.

“I think you have a good story when people constantly want to know what happens next. Jamaica Farewell can go only one way…up….way….up!” enthused Ehrhardt.

For more information, visit www.jamaicafarewelltheplay.com