Rosa Lee Scott Papers

Rosa Lee Scott, actress, director, theatre technician and elementary school theatre educator, graduated from East High School in Cleveland, Ohio in January 1958. In her senior year, she acted in her first play, A Murder Has Been Arranged.

After graduation she began working at Karamu House, Cleveland, Ohio's multicultural arts center originally created in 1915 as a settlement house. This center has always inspired and celebrated the African-American cultural heritage. Scott assisted in the Children's Theatre Program, under the tutelage of its Director, Ann Flagg, an award-winning arts educator.

Her artistic work in adult and children's productions from 1957-1962 included: props for Bullfight; actress in Death of a Salesman, Fairy Tale Wood (directed by Ann Flagg), Simply Heavenly, Our Town and Master Builder (with Ann Flagg); lighting and costumes for Gallant Tailor; and director of The Knight of the Funny Bone and The Princess Who Wanted the Moon. In 1962 she became the Assistant Director of the Children's Theatre Program at Karamu and a dramatics instructor.

In the summer of 1960, she attended the New York Encampment for Citizenship in Riverdale, New York. In September of 1962 she completed the Basic Training Course for the United States Air Force. While in the service, one of her duties was clerk typist with the Air Defense Command Chaplain's Office. She received an Honorable Discharge in July 1966. Following her discharge, she resumed work at the Karamu House.

She then attended Colorado College and graduated with a BA in Fine Arts/Drama in 1973. As one of the United States Delegates to the ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People, Association Internationale du Theatre pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse) Congress in Venice, Italy in 1970, she was asked to evaluate the performance of London's Young Vic Company. She was awarded a $6,000 grant from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to engage in creative drama study in England and France. In her senior year she studied mime, pantomime and commedia at the Ecole Jacque Lecoq in Paris.

From 1974 to 1976 she was a drama teacher at Takoma Park Elementary School in Takoma Park, Maryland in the Montgomery County Public Schools. Scott also taught at the Fillmore Arts Center in Washington, DC and presented arts education workshops for children as part of the aesthetic education program, CEMREL, later known as AAE (Alliance for Arts Education), at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. In 1977 she was a guest professor in mime and drama at Colorado College. Her last teaching position before her death from cancer on December 14th, 1982 was at the Norwood School in Bethesda, Maryland from 1979 until 1980.