Four-time Tony Award nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger grew up idolizing Scout Finch, the overall-clad rebel at the center of Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird , and now, as a grown-up, shes finally getting to play her.

At an early workshop for the play, adapted for the stage by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, Keenan-Bolger, 41, was brought on as a stand-in to read as Scout before an age-appropriate actor would eventually assume the role.

But Keenan-Bolger, who made her Broadway debut as an aspiring sixth-grade spelling bee champion in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, understood how slight but effective modifications to her voice, posture and demeanor could bring out her inner child. By the end of the reading, everybody was convinced a change was in order.

And so the plays central trio of children, who narrate the well-worn story, is now portrayed by adult actors in the production currently running at the Shubert Theater.