Mother-Daughter Scholars Dr. Rosary O’Neill and Dr. Rory O’Neill Schmitt Celebrate Success in Ireland

Mother-and-daughter scholars Rosary O’Neill, Ph.D. and Rory O’Neill Schmitt, Ph.D. were recently honored to attain a Tyrone Guthrie Residency in Ireland as Irish-American writers in residence.

Rosary and Rory, who frequently collaborate in writing nonfiction and screenplays, are presently working on two nonfiction books. Their writing often centers on New Orleans, Louisiana, which is their native city. Their prior books include Kate Chopin in New Orleans (2024), Edgar Degas in New Orleans (2023), and New Orleans Voodoo: A Cultural History (2019). Concord Theatricals has published nineteen of Rosary’s plays, including Wishing Aces, Marilyn/God, Degas in New Orleans, The Awakening of Kate Chopin and John Singer Sargent and Madame X. While at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Rosary met with a director about her play about Irish author Samuel Beckett called Beckett at Greystones Bay, which she is hoping to stage at a theatre in Dublin.

While in Ireland, Rosary and Rory are writing a haunted history of New Orleans that is being published by Arcadia Publishing in 2025. They are also continuing develop their film about Kate Chopin’s life in New Orleans.

They discussed these projects via this exclusive interview.

MM: How did this opportunity present itself to you?

Rory O’Neill Schmitt (ROS): While developing the story of Kate Chopin in New Orleans into film, Rosary and I wanted to write in an idyllic place in the Irish countryside. Ireland was also the birthplace of Kate O’Flaherty Chopin’s father (born in Galway). We wanted to gain a better understanding of the roots of our protagonist. While in Ireland, we wanted to learn more about the Irish people and how Kate may have been influenced by her father’s heritage and culture.

While in Dublin, we are continuing to write about and research Impressionist era artists and their connection to New Orleans. We were thrilled to visit the exhibition Women Impressionists in Dublin and meet with the curator, Dr. Janet McLean. Edgar Degas and Kate Chopin (via Degas and Berthe Morisot) were closely tied to the Impressionists.

Rosary O’Neill (RO): This residency was a repeat opportunity for me – amazing as it seems. This time, I had a chance to go with my husband, my colleague Carol di Tosti, and my brilliant daughter, Rory. What a joy it is meeting all the Irish artists (we’re the only artists here from the USA) who come in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have to say, I really enjoyed being with the other artists. There are 15 (mostly women) artists – with backgrounds as varied as architecture, sculpture, painting and drawing, as well as novel writing, film screenwriting and radio-play writing.

Of course, there are so many things that inspire when you’re writing with your Tudor windows open overlooking miles of greenery and trees. You realize: “Oh wow, that’s why they call it the Emerald Isle.” Oh my, it rains or mists every day. So, there’s this whole idea of a misty life and of ghosts and all these huge forests, of trees that go on forever. You’re wrapped in this in this whimsical world that makes you want to write and create and be part of the legacy of Irish writers that have gone on for centuries.

It’s particularly magnificent to write with Rory because she’s so gifted, forward thinking, courageous and brilliant. And it’s like two heartbeats as one. I mean, we know each other so deeply and so profoundly that it’s like she writes what I dream, and we both kind of get on the same train.

What makes the residency even more magical is the fact that it was the estate of a very famous Irish theatre director, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, who founded the Guthrie Theater (the first regional theater in Minneapolis). This home was his summer estate some 400 acres. It has a huge manor house, with adjacent cottages and grounds and even a boathouse. You feel like you should be in a Chekhovian play, maybe The Seagull or The Cherry Orchard, because of expansiveness of the place. And the rooms have these mementos of Guthrie’s life, like huge portraits of his family, a Pekinese glass sculpture by the fireplace, photographs, bronzes, books of the family.

The view from Rosary O’Neill’s desk at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig (courtesy of Rosary O’Neill)

What do you most enjoy about being in Ireland right now?

ROS: For me, it’s been a gift to have uninterrupted writing and research time. We are writing our next nonfiction book on mysticism and ghosts and the Irish countryside is a perfect space to be inspired.

Ireland has a tremendous respect for writers, and I feel honored to be recognized as one here and welcomed into an Irish artist center. I come from Irish roots (both on my father’s and mother’s sides), and I wanted to connect with my own Irish heritage. When I landed in Dublin, I prayed and asked my Irish ancestors for support. I heard the words, “You are a writer, you are a writer, you are a writer.”

RO: It’s also thrilling to know that one theater director, Tyrone Guthrie, left this magnificent 400-acre estate to the country of Ireland for the use of artists across the world. That he would have the generosity to leave such an incredible estate for the use of artists is just astounding! We get to tiptoe through his manor and his grounds and see the influences of his childhood that may have led him to be such a generous man. Here, we all toasted him the opening night of the dinner!

What most excites you about this current writing project?

ROS: Having a contract from our publisher!

RO: We gained a book contract because of the diligence of Rory, my partner. We received our book contract on Ghosts in New Orleans while here in Ireland. So, I think Ireland and her fairies have brought us luck. It so much more fun to write knowing someone’s going to read what you write than not. These saturated periods of work together to create deeply is so important.

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig (courtesy of Rosary O’Neill)

What is coming up next for you?

ROS: There is an upcoming Faulkner Society event, Happy Birthday, Mr. Faulkner, where I will be recognized as a finalist for my poem “Naked Mermaid Talks to God” (September 2024). The indie television series that I produced with Duplass Brothers Productions, The Long Long Night, will be screened at the Ashland Independent Film Festival (October 2024), where I will be moderating a panel on independent filmmaking with Gary and Annie Lundgren, and Barret O’Brien.

Rosary and I have the global book launch of Kate Chopin in New Orleans in Paris at the Foyer d’International de Paris Jean Monnet. We will give a lecture and slide show presentation of our book (which builds on the Chopin play) at our signing. With Rachelle O’Brien, I will be exhibiting photography from our books in an art exhibition at the gallery of Foyer d’International de Paris, Sister Cities: New Orleans and Paris. We will also be leading workshops for French school children stemming from our books on Degas and Chopin (November 2024).

RO: This is the 125th anniversary of The Awakening, the magnificent novel of Kate Chopin. And to know that writing will never be silenced if God doesn’t will it. In the fall, we have a reception at the French Consul General’s in New Orleans to celebrate our film, inspired by the play Degas in New Orleans. The film be shot next year in Paris.

I mean what’s not to love about all this? God is so good. All we have to do is keep writing, keep praying, keep dreaming – and not get sidetracked with all the glorious distractions that are ancillary but that come with going to places like Ireland – but stay pen to paper like there’s no tomorrow. That’s the glory of Ireland: the green room of skies where you wait to write, the generous kind warmhearted gift of time.

For more information about the plays of Rosary Hartel O’Neill, visit Concord Theatricals in the US or UK.