The Booklist Interview: Katherine Kellgren.
Myrick, Ellen (author).
FEATURE.
First published April 1, 2009 (Booklist).
Katherine Kellgren is one of the freshest voices in audiobooks. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy, by L. A. Meyer, was recognized as a 2008 Odyssey Honor title, and the sequel, Curse of the Blue Tattoo, also read by Kellgren, is a 2009 Odyssey Honor title. Kellgren has not rested on Jacky’s berth, although her success with the series has kept the popular reader busier than ever. Booklist contributor Ellen Myrick recently interviewed Kellgren at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville.
BKL: How many Jacky Faber adventures have you recorded?KELLGREN: I’ve recorded four titles in the series. After Bloody Jack was awarded an Odyssey Honor, Listen and Live Audio bought the rights to the sequels. I’m so grateful because it means we can continue with Jacky’s adventures. Since audiobooks meant so much to me as a young adult, I find it especially thrilling that Bloody Jack received an Odyssey Honor award. I think it’s wonderful that ALA and Booklist are recognizing the value of audiobooks in this way.
BKL: Did you find it challenging to go back and pick up the threads when recording the sequels?KELLGREN: Because there are lots of recurring characters, I go to the old CDs and isolate the voices. I then put them onto my iPod and listen in the studio so I can remember what the characters sound like. It’s getting more and more fun as the characters build up.
BKL: What do you enjoy most about the series?KELLGREN: The books are so beautifully written, and Jacky is so strong and positive, and she goes through so much hardship that I often find myself thinking, “What would Jacky do?” She is a role model for me, even if she’s made of sterner stuff than I am.
BKL: How do you manage to shift so seamlessly between characters?KELLGREN: I mark my script with different colored highlighter pens and pencils. I had to buy marker pens for children because I needed so many colors for all the characters. Also, I did a lot of regional dialect work when I trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). That training helped me tremendously to do so many different accents.
BKL: Tell us a bit about your background and your accent.
KELLGREN: I am a New Yorker, but I spent 12 years in London. I had traces of my American accent from my childhood when I enrolled at LAMDA, and that was beaten out of me to the point that when I returned to the States, I had to go to a dialect coach to get back my American accent. I feel more comfortable doing multiple regional British dialects than American ones. I spend lots of time with dialect tapes. Barbara Rosenblat told me about a wonderful international dialect Web site that I find incredibly helpful.
BKL: How did you become interested in narrating audiobooks?KELLGREN: When I was a teenager, I was very obsessed with spoken-word recordings. I listened to plays, and I was a huge John Gielgud groupie—I was an odd child—I had a cassette set of Shakespeare speeches. I listened to Dame Edith Evans doing The Importance of Being Earnest. I find that voices from those recordings—which I still listen to obsessively—creep into audios I am doing. When my father became very ill, I spent a great deal of time reading to him. My goal was to get him to feel so comfortable that he could fall asleep. One time I noticed that both he and his home health care aide were sleeping. I thought it was time to take this public. When I moved back to New York, I started inquiring about audio work. The first book I recorded came about because they needed a last-minute replacement. They asked me to audition over the phone. I read from Out of Africa and got the job.
BKL: Do you consider yourself first and foremost an audiobook narrator?
KELLGREN: Yes, I do. I still like stage acting and television work, but I find audiobook reading so satisfying. I’m very proud to be part of this profession. I recently had a callback for an out-of-town part in a stage production, and I found myself incredibly worried that I might get the part because I really want to do the audiobooks I am scheduled for. That was a real moment of clarity for me.
BKL: Who are your audiobook inspirations?KELLGREN: Dame Edith Evans, of course. There’s that scene from The Importance of Being Earnest where she replies, “A handbag?” in that incredibly booming voice with 68 syllables. No actress can do that role in a major production without being compared to her.
BKL: What current narrators do you learn from and admire?KELLGREN: I’m mad about Jim Dale, Alfred Molina, Davina Porter—there are too many to name. I’m lucky enough to sometimes see them around when I’m recording, and it’s an education to listen to them. I listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and audio samples because it teaches me to be better at what I do.
BKL: What have you done recently that you’re looking forward to?
KELLGREN: P. J. Bracegirdle’s The Joy of Spooking: Book One, Fiendish Deeds is the first of in an imaginatively written trilogy for children. At the moment, I’m recording a series about Enola Holmes, Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister. I get very obsessed with Angie Sage’s Araminta Spookie series and can’t wait for the next book to come out!
BKL: Do you ever meet the authors after you’ve recorded their books?KELLGREN: I’ve been in regular contact with L. A. Meyer. His wife wrote to me after the first book came out and I ended up e-mailing them. Whenever I do another book in the series, I talk to him because quite often there are obscure references I can’t track down and sea shanties I can’t locate. He tells me how to pronounce certain characters’ names.