David Hein & Irene Sankoff, Co-creators of “Come From Away”

AMANPOUR: Did you ever have any idea that this story would resonate so incredibly, powerfully?

HEIN: No. Well —

SANKOFF: We hope so.

HEIN: Yes.

SANKOFF: I mean, it’s a wonderful story and it’s extraordinary what these people did, welcoming all these people in. But I think, at first, we were mostly thinking the Canadian high schools will be forced to perform it.

AMANPOUR: Yes. School drama lessons.

SANKOFF: Yes. Exactly.

HEIN: Yes.

AMANPOUR: Exactly.

SANKOFF: Exactly. With Canadian contents. So —

HEIN: I think a testament though to this story. I mean, right now, it’s a story about people coming together despite their differences, about, you know, in response to a tragedy, responding with kindness and it’s, you know, certainly been a good story for us and it feels like it’s an important story to tell right now.

AMANPOUR: So, let’s just go back to the beginning. Just give me the sort of nuts and bolts around the story. We know, all of us who were around during 9/11, we know that the U.S. airspace was closed, that planes couldn’t come in, they couldn’t take off, there were planes already in the air circling where were they to go, they went to?

SANKOFF: They went to Canada.

HEIN: Yes.

SANKOFF: Over 200 planes were landed across Canada and 38 of those went to a town called Gander, Newfoundland and nearly doubled the population in an instance. And what was amazing is that not only did they accept the planes, not knowing who was on them, not knowing what to expect, but they let people off of the planes, into their community buildings, stop school for the entire time that the people were there and said, “You know what, that’s not good enough. You don’t look comfortable. Why don’t you come home with me and stay for dinner? And then, you know what, don’t go back (INAUDIBLE), just stay overnight here and I we’ll sleep in a guest room and wash your clothes for you while you freshen up in our shower.” Extraordinary. So, it’s something you would not even think of doing on a regular basis.

AMANPOUR: And it went on for a while, it wasn’t just an overnight trip.

HEIN: Yes, it was five days. And what’s incredible is what happened in response to that kindness is, you know, the mayor of the town said that on the first day they had 7,000 strangers of the tarmac, by the middle of the week they had 7,000 friends and by the end of the week, they said goodbye to 7,000 family members. And it’s really incredible, you know, because we talk a lot about what the kindness of what these people did but was also quite brave, you know, in the days right after 9/11, bringing people, strangers who they didn’t know who were on those planes into their homes and the result of that is this incredible community it was built. It was really wonderful.

AMANPOUR: And just to, again, emphasize, this was Canadian hospitality and Canadians coming to the rescue of their ally to the south and neighbor to the south, the United States. So, when it opened on Broadway, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was there.

HEIN: Yes, he was. And he brought a number of delegates from around the world and, in fact, he brought the president’s daughter as well.

AMANPOUR: Ivanka Trump?

HEIN: Ivanka Trump. And it was this — it’s incredible to have the prime minister of your country respond to a piece that you wrote to say, “This is exactly what we’re saying about cross border collaboration and working together and partnership.”