All Rise for Celia Keenan-Bolger: The To Kill a Mockingbird Star Talks Tonys, Motherhood & Why Theater Fans Rule

Celia Keenan-Bolger is a New York stage stalwart, a mother, an advocate for social justice and just as much of a theater geek as you are. She is also a 2019 Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winner, a former Tony Award nominator and four-time Tony nominee: she garnered a nod for her debut as Olive Ostrovsky in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She also received nominations for her role as Molly in Peter and the Starcatcher and for her heartbreaking turn as Laura Wingfield in the 2014 revival of The Glass Menagerie. Now, she is nominated for her performance as Scout Finch, one of literature’s most iconic characters, in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Broadway.com sat down with Keenan-Bolger at New York City’s Morgan Library & Museum ahead of the 2019 Tony Awards to discuss her career, family life and more.

Back when you made your Broadway debut, if someone told you that you would receive your fourth Tony nomination for playing an iconic character in a hit play, what would you have said?
“Well, then I don’t need to do anything ever again!” I have so much more than I ever dreamed I would have. I do think there is something so amazing about having wanted to do this for so long and the fact that it really has exceeded whatever expectations I could have imagined for myself.

The path of performing is never free from rejection or doubt. What have been some of the more challenging moments for you?
If you had told me around the time that I was doing The Light in the Piazza when Bart [Sher] was taking me for a ride in his Suburu in Seattle and said, “You know, you’re not going to do it on Broadway, but we will work together again. We will make a lot of great art together,” I don’t know that I could have ever imagined to be in a room with him now and have this body of work behind us. I’ve done the most growing when I have been faced with the hardest parts of this career. If you can make it through those times, they end up being really informative.

You’ve played so many interesting women. Is there a common quality that you feel you’ve given to or taken from them?
There is always going to be a part of myself that I’m not able to shut down, so that part of myself shows up in all of the characters. They all have some sort of backbone, and they all have some sort of empathy.

You and your husband John Ellison Conlee became parents in 2015. How has that transition been for you?
Being a mother in this business is both the most rewarding and nourishing aspect of my life and also the most depleting and exhausting. The day is long. It usually starts very early because that’s the time that I get with my son. I start at like 6:30AM and the show doesn’t come down until 11:00PM. I get home and am like, “Are there pretzels in the cupboard? 'Cause I’m wired.” Asking for help is something that I’ve gotten a lot better at. I am so lucky to have a husband and our caregiver and my brother and sister—we have a small army that takes care of William.

Has becoming a mother changed your definition of success?
I expected motherhood to take some of the pressure off of needing to be an actor. If I’m really honest, the exact opposite happened. When you have a child, you think, “This should become my whole world.” By default, it really can’t help but in some ways become that. But I also think what I didn’t expect was to realize how important working is to me and how much it fills me up. In motherhood, there were a lot of feelings of deficiency and inadequacy. When I would go to an audition, I was like, “Well, at least I know what I’m doing.” There was a comfort in that.

When you’re lucky enough to have time off, what do you, William and John do?
We really like Washington Square Park and going upstate. William is strangely into a hike. He does not like to walk two blocks in the city, but he can really rock like an hour and a half hike in the woods.

You inspire so many to want to be a part of the theater community. Who inspired you growing up?
There was this Sondheim celebration at Carnegie Hall that was on Great Performances on PBS. I watched that video—I can’t even tell you how many times. Patti LuPone’s performance of “Being Alive” and Liza Minnelli’s “Back in Business” and Betty Buckley singing “Children Will Listen”—I got a glimpse of the sort of work that I wanted to be doing and of these women who are deep, thoughtful actors.

Who inspires you to perform now?
I am endlessly inspired by every company I get to be a part of. On this one, it’s Will Pullen and Gideon Glick. Even on the days where I feel like, “Where will it come from?” All I have to do is check in with the two of them onstage, and I am buoyed to a place I could not get to on my own.

What has playing the role of Scout taught you?
There’s this balance that she acquires over the course of the play—these words that Atticus says over and over again of being able to walk around in someone else’s skin. But also, Calpurnia and Jem make sure that we understand that it’s not enough just to empathize with someone—particularly if we’re in a position of privilege. We have to do something about it as well.

Is it fair to say that this role has afforded you the opportunity to be part of the larger conversation we’re having right now politically?
I don’t think I ever imagined that the social justice thread of my life and the actor thread of my life would find themselves in a huge hit on the Shubert stage on Broadway. We are this commercially successful show on Broadway that is also asking real questions about racial justice and then giving an audience a place to spend three hours with 1400 other people and process those questions. There aren’t that many places that we have to be with one another and experience a story that we all have really strong feelings about and realize how much is still relevant. Being a part of that is one of the most moving experiences of my whole career.

You are celebrating your fourth Tony Award nomination. How does it feel this time around?
I can’t remember a year where there were so many wonderful plays on Broadway with so many wonderful actors. I feel very, very lucky and humbled to be among the nominees.

Have you ever written a Tony speech?
I have not in the past. I’ve like tossed things around in my head. It’s a tricky thing because you don’t want to be unprepared, but you also don’t want to jinx it.

You yourself have been a Tony nominator. What has that taught you?
Sometimes when you’re in a long run of a play, it’s easy to be like, “This audience seems sleepy.” I was so taken with how much every single audience seemed like they wanted to be there. New York Broadway audiences are really, really incredible, even when it doesn’t always feel that way being onstage.

You received the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite Featured Actress in a Play. How do you feel about your fans?
I’ve had people come and see shows over and over and over again, and what that requires—it’s really moving. I think theater fans are a very special lot.

What do you love most about being a part of the Broadway community?
Theater people are the best people. They are kind and generous and forward-thinking and collaborators. I don’t ever want to do a one-person show. Half the reason I come to work is to be with this community.

Photo Credits: Photographs by Caitlin McNaney | Styling: Sarah Slutsky | Hair: Morgan Blaul | Makeup: Rachel Estabrook
Video Credits: Videographers: Mark Hayes and Kyle Gaskell | Executive Producer: Paul Wontorek | Produced by Lindsey Sullivan | Shot at the Morgan Library & Museum