Monday, July 10, 2017

Kathleen Anne Kenney's "Girl on the Leeside"

Kathleen Anne Kenney is an author, freelance writer, and playwright. Her writing has appeared in Big River, Coulee Region Women, and Ireland of the Welcomes, as well as other publications. She has had numerous short plays presented in Minnesota theaters and has published the play The Ghost of an Idea, a one-actor piece about Charles Dickens. Her play New Menu was a winner in the 2012 Rochester Repertory Theatre’s national short-play competition. She is currently at work on a novel based on her 2014 stage play, The Bootleg Blues.

Here Kenney dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Girl on the Leeside:
Though I didn’t have specific actors in mind when I wrote the novel, because most of the characters are Irish it was important to have that lilting, authentic intonation in the dialogue. So the voices in my head were those of Liam Neeson and Ciaran Hind for Uncle Kee.

For Katie I thought of Sinead Cusack, for Galway Gwen I definitely heard the voice of Fionnula Flanagan, and for Siobhan the lovely Saoirse Ronan. She was perfect in Brooklyn.

For a director, I’d love to have Kirk Jones or John Crowley who have directed Irish-themed films in the past.

And how wonderful it would be if it could be filmed in Connemara, completely on location!
Visit Kathleen Anne Kenney's website.

--Marshal Zeringue