[KATHRYN NEWTON, CISFEMALE, SHE/HER] who’s that? oh it’s {KENNA GIARDI}. i hear they’re {SIXTEEN} and a {JUNIOR} at {CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL}, have a voice like {EMILY ROBINSON} and are part of {VOCAL ADRENALINE & GOLF}. they’re known to be {GENTLE & ADAPTABLE} and {INDECISIVE & EASILY CONTROLLED}. some people say they remind them of {UNRULY WAVY HAIR, BELTING AT 1AM, SHOOTING FOR THE STARS, & THE SCREECHING OF A MOTHER'S HARMFUL WORDS}. only one way to find out!
BASIC INFORMATION
full name: Kenna Jade Giardi
nickname(s): K, Ken, Kenny
age: Sixteen
date of birth: June 15th
hometown: Lima, Ohio
current location: Lima, Ohio
orientation: Pansexual
religion: Christian
political affiliation: Democrat, but if she were 18 Kendra would force her to register as a Republican
occupation: Student/Vocal Adrenaline Slave
living arrangements: Lives w/ parents
language(s) spoken: English
FAMILY
father: Phil Giardi
mother: Kendra (Del Monico) Giardi
sibling(s): Kyle, Josh, and Max Giardi
EXTRA
sun: Gemini
moon: Cancer
rising: Aquarius
likes: Crop tops, singing, learning new skills, meeting new people, falling in love, musicals, abba, bucket hats, lavender scents and flavors, tea, butterflies in her stomach, looking at life with the glass half full, kissing in the rain, 80′s music
dislikes: When her mom is mad at her, red meat, when it gets too cold outside, bitter coffee, kaden fabray, new directions (by va association), thunderstorms, rap music, that vocal adrenaline doesn’t let her have choir room gas induced sequences
MUSICAL THEATRE REPRITORE
Les Misérables - Young Cosette (Lima Playhouse, 8th grade)
The Addams Family - Wednesday Addams (Carmel High School, freshman year)
Cinderella - Ella (Carmel High School, sophomore year)
Newsies - Katherine Plumber (Carmel High School, junior year)
Into The Woods - Little Red Riding Hood (Lima Playhouse, junior year)
HEADCANONS
Kenna Giardi was born as the youngest and only daughter to Kendra and Phil Giardi on July 15th, 2025. While she wasn’t the only child, it sure seemed like she was since her triplet brothers were already 22 by the time she was born. This subsequently led Kendra Giardi to using Kenna as her very own Barbie doll.
Growing up in a house like the Giardi’s really meant three little things. One, never ask to get vaccinated. Kendra was convinced it made her older sons stupid so that was out of the question for darling Kenna. Two, always look pretty. Kenna couldn’t find a suitable guy to take care of her and her parents if she was ugly, could she? And never go to William McKinley High School. That was just a part of Kendra’s diabolical plan.
Kendra had an idea. Albeit it a bit terrible. She thought that if Kenna went to a different school, then she could employ Kenna to tear down New Directions and thus tearing the Schuester family apart. Don’t question it because it doesn’t really make sense, but regardless, Kenna ended up in the Carmel school district and getting into Vocal Adrenaline and simply… she loved it. It’s where she found an actual love for performing. Even if Kendra was hoping to tear down another glee club, at least Kenna was able to do something she enjoyed.
While she was younger, Kenna quickly learned to take everything her mom said with a grain of salt. Kenna completely follows whatever her mom says. If it means forgoing any kind of argument or yelling, she’s more than happy to just follow along to whatever Kendra has in mind. That’s why Kenna loves being away from her house. That way she can actually be herself and feel free without worrying about displeasing her mom.
Even though it may seem like Kenna takes a beating whenever its given, she has a very competitive streak. She’d never say out loud that she hates the New Directions or the Canaries or even the Warblers, but she enjoys winning because winning means making Kendra happy and winning gives her an extra edge to getting out of Lima and getting a full ride to NYADA... or at least showing someone she has enough talent to get out of Lima.
DAVIS: we need to make sure the school nurse and a fresh pack of puke bags are ready for VA practice later. amber is going to pitch perfect upchuck all over the place when she realizes she's been stabbed in the back.
DAVIS: i'll handle ivy.
KENNA: done and done. leaving 5th period right now to grab some.
KENNA: so nurse and doggy bags. should i leave and pick up eggs?
KENNA: that's too overdone isnt it? okay, operation destroy ivy st. james and new directions? a go! happy to be a part of the team.
DAVIS: i'm gonna go talk to him before rehearsals, wanna come with?
DAVIS: no seriously what the fuck are we going to do if she transferred? like we'll be fine but this cannot happen without something being done.
DAVIS: you don't double cross VA.
KENNA: you don't even have to ask
KENNA: i dont know but we have to do something, right? do you think this was her idea all along? like did WE fuck up? i cant think of ND doing something to us. i'll puke
If there was one thing that Davis had become most proud of in his high school career, it was his friendship with Kenna Giardi. Sure, most people saw her as more of an underling to him than anything, but Davis saw a true friendship with the girl. While he wasn’t sure it was a friendship that he would have the attention span to maintain after he graduated and moved along with his life, he was certainly going to try to at least send her flowers on every single birthday. She was a kind soul, especially towards him, and while he might not have shown it very often, he treasured her. However, it didn’t stop him from laughing at her accusation about the New Directions. “You’re kidding, right? Julien Schuester would never have the balls to do something in retaliation.” Truth be told, while he still barely respected the dude, Davis was starting to grow very subconsciously nervous about their obvious Nationals rivals. The New Directions were obviously good at charming the judges. “I’m going to sing for her,” Davis said with a simple rolling of his eyes before he was cozying up to Kenna and grabbing the books that were in her arms to carry them. See? Friends. “Duh.” The only way that Davis and Gigi had been able to communicate without yelling in the past was through song. It just worked for them. “I am singing Love on the Brain though so you decide if that heroic or psychotic.” While Davis was aware that his Valentine’s plans were rather similar to the New Directions performing those god awful Vocal Valentines, but he was ignoring that. “Do you think it’s a good idea? I figured it would be good to audition for Spring Awakening with my shit handled. Either in a good or bad way. I’ll need a mall trip if it’s bad though.”
🐞
“You never know. They could go completely primal at any moment,” Kenna pointed out. She didn’t think anyone from McKinley would ever retaliate against Carmel, but the sentiment still stood. They had to be prepared for catastrophe to happen at any moment, but Kenna trusted Davis’ judgement. She always did. Whether it was egging Julien, convincing Ivy to join Vocal Adrenaline, or even singing to Gigi, Kenna would be on board at the drop of a hat. They were friends and teammates and that was just the kind of thing they did for each other. Or well, Kenna did it for Davis. “Simple. Romantic. Gigi will like that,” she noted. She was unsure if Gigi liked romance, but she was a Crawford girl and they all liked to be showered in affection and gifts, that much was true. “Mmm,” she tapped her finger to her lips in thought before answering, “bordering on psychotic, but still heroic,” she beamed, but this had to go off without a hitch. It had to be perfect for Gigi and Kenna knew that. Davis knew that. They still had a while before school let out, but there was no doubt that neither of them really cared about that. "Come on, loverboy,” she nudged her head over to the side to begin walking towards the doors. “You’re gonna need decorations and shit, right?" She asked. “And you’re driving,” maybe Vocal Adrenaline kids could be normal sometimes.
Joey would spend too much at the Lima Bean, this much was true – not because the coffee was necessarily great, but where else was he supposed to get his coffee? Plus, he knew most of the people that worked there, so it was always a good time whenever he was there. This time he was there with Kenna Giardi – the two had been friends for not that long, but when it meant hanging out, Joey would do it with anyone. Usually Joey was pretty fast to get his order, but as he stood in line, he couldn’t help but to wonder if he should get something different this time around. As he stood next to Kenna, Joey looked over at the list of all of the things they could order, before turning to her with a small smile.
“Do you think if I order anything with almond milk, that it’ll take a long time? I don’t know how long it takes to milk all of those almonds…” Joey wondered, before Kenna snapped him back to reality and once they both ordered, they made their way towards one of the tables and sat down – he had no idea what to say, but he didn’t like being in silence. “So, are you going to tell me why you invited me for coffee? Or did you miss me that much? Because I haven’t been lost in the sewers lately like last time, so you could have just texted me anytime.” Joey said with a smile, before nodding his head at the other.
🐞
The Lima Bean was not Kenna’s favorite place by any means necessary and she didn’t even like coffee, but it was a neutral place for her to meet anyone who hailed from New Directions. That was where Joey came into the picture. After calmly explaining to him that the barista didn’t milk the almonds themselves, they finally got their orders and were over by a table. “Of course I missed you, we’ve both been so busy,” she explained. It was easy to pretend to be interested in talking to Joey. He always offered some sort of comic relief and luckily for Kenna, she knew exactly how to put on her best front. She could like the calm, friendly, rival. “I thought this would be better than like texting or Facetiming,” a pause. “Tell me, is there anything crazy going on at McKinley?” She asked, grabbing her drink and taking a sip of her raspberry iced tea. It may have been way too cold for the drink, but Kenna could overlook it for taste alone. “And I say this from a strictly non-Carmel place,” she joked, lying right through her teeth. “You know, it kinda sucks we both won our regionals. I don’t want to compete against you guys,” another lie. “Not because I’m scared or anything, but I don’t know, I hate the whole bad blood thing.”
𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: Wednesday, February 17th. Afternoon. Brief mention of the day before.
𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: Lima Community Theatre. Tibideux Theatre. Brief moment at the Giardi house.
𝐓𝐋𝐃𝐑: Kenna auditions for Ilse with Flowers from Hadestown despite originally wanting to audition for Wendla (a decision she was talked out of by her mom) which also features a bit w/ everyone’s favorite crazy sister, Kendra Giardi.
“Men are kind until they aren't,“ Kenna sang out as she paced around in the living room of her home, scribbling over her music sheet of Flowers that she had printed off at Carmel’s library, but something about the song she was singing just didn’t feel like Wendla though. The only issue? Kenna had settled on singing it when Bryan Ryan announced the spring musical. Now she was a night away from her audition time, absolutely despising the song she had picked out. Maybe she should have gone with something from Bare or Next to Normal for Wendla, that would have made more sense.
Letting out a sigh and a huff, a stressed out Kenna sat down on the couch, tossing the piece of paper away from her and put her head in her hands. After rubbing tired eyes, she glanced at the clock on the end table. 11 PM. And as if to make all the matters worse, Kenna could hear booming footsteps that only meant one thing. Her mom was up and pissed. “Kenna Jade, what on God’s green Earth are you doing right now?” The matriarch demanded, tightening the white robe around her body. Shit. Kenna was always meticulous when it came to auditions because there was one simple fact. Kendra Giardi hated whenever Kenna wanted to audition for musicals.
Most of the time, Kenna would keep things hush, breaking into Carmel late at night to practice her songs and monologues so her mother wouldn’t overhear and demand her not to do the musical and for the most part it worked because by the time Kenna had been casted, there was nothing more Kendra could really do.
“I’m auditioning for Spring Awakening,” Kenna’s voice was soft, timid. The way it always had to be if she wanted to please Kendra.
“Spring a-what-now? No, no, you’re not doing that, come on. Bed. Now.”
“No.”
“No?”
Kenna Jade Giardi had royally fucked up. If there was one word that was banned in their house, it was the word no.
“I just mean...” she was at a loss for words, “Davis is auditioning!” Kenna was pretty sure Davis was auditioning at least, she knew he would, but there had been no real talk about it. Between regionals and Davis’ own plan of wooing Gigi Stone, there hadn’t been much musical talk between them. “Wouldn’t you like to see us play leads?” She asked, cringing at her own words but Kendra loved the idea of Kenna getting a boyfriend and there was no suitable man for Kenna in Kendra’s eyes than Davis Goolsby, even if he was ‘a little fruity’ (a direct quote from the woman herself)
“Oh baby,” Kendra tsked. Here it was. The condescending message. Kendra moved closer to her only daughter, tucking a piece of her dry, curled hair behind her ear. “If anyone saw you as lead potential, Davis would have never had to get Ivy St. James on your team,” she was right. Kenna may have been talented, but she wasn’t lead potential and as much as she wanted to believe she had the same pizzazz as Ivy St. James, she didn’t. The words still cut through the teenager like a piercing dagger.
“Yeah,” Kenna whispered, “you’re right,” she could already feel her tears welling and she needed to step away as soon as possible. “Um, can I still audition though?”
“Sure.”
After that Kenna had made her true decision. She would audition for Ilse. The song and monologue she had already picked out coincided more with Ilse’s character than Wendla’s anyway. Ilse was still partially a lead and Kenna would be more than content with any role in the musical. It would be fine. Ilse was fine. Ilse had to be fine.
As 4pm rolled around the following day, Kenna was sitting in her seat, jitters upon jitters flowing through her body. She was a nervous girl. Sure, she could play everything calm, cool, and collected but there was always the fear of not getting the role she wanted and she was already skimping out on Wendla, she didn’t want to skimp out on Ilse either.
Tapping her flat clad foot against the tile flooring of the waiting room, Kenna tried to keep talking to people to a minimum, but that didn’t stop her from hearing that Ivy had auditioned for Wendla. That put her more at ease, Kenna would have felt terrible for going after the same role. It was easy not to do that when Ivy had been at McKinley, but community theatre was a different ball game. Maybe this was all just fate. Maybe she was meant to audition and play Ilse from the get-go.
“Kenna Giardi, they’re ready for you,” the facilitator called out from the door. With a smile, Kenna stood up, cracked her neck, and pushed her shoulders back with a calming breath leaving her mouth. She could do this.
Entering the familiar theatre was nothing new and that made her feel much more at ease. Kenna had three Lima Players gigs under her belt so she was nothing but familiar with Bryan Ryan and what he expected out of performers, especially ones he had trusted with roles in the past. “Hello, I’m Kenna Giardi. Today I will be performing a rendition of Flowers from Hadestown and I will be performing Lynette’s monologue from Assassins,” she took a pause to allow Mr. Ryan to absorb everything she had said, “if possible, I would like to be considered for the role of Ilse, but if you see me as a better fit for another character then I will be eternally grateful for the opportunity,” after that, she motioned to the accompanists on stage to begin her song.
What I wanted was to fall asleep, to close my eyes and disappear, like a petal on a stream, a feather on the air, lily white and poppy red.
As any good auditionist, Kenna might have made use of the stage with proper blocking and small bits of choreography, but with a song choice such as hers and character such as Ilse’s, she wanted to keep everything to a strict minimum. It was a key choice for her. She stood on center stage, beginning the soft words of Eurydice’s song, her hands darting to clutch her stomach. If she wanted to play Ilse, any role in the musical at all for that matter, she had to dig deep into her emotions.
Nothing gonna wake me now, flowers, I remember fields
Kenna coursed through the first verse with ease, her voice not one faltering or trembling. She allowed her eyes to tear up, whether that was from acting or how she truly felt, she wasn’t sure. Kenna would never know what it was like to be homeless and live some bohemian life among artists, but she allowed herself to imagine. An actor’s greatest attribute was being able to put themselves in a role without truly knowing what it was like. Some could have argued that having the personal connection was more important, but Kenna didn’t lead a traumatic life. She was just a normal teen in Lima, Ohio. That’s what led her to add a certain softness to her voice, to feign the innocence yet maturity of Ilse. Something Kenna herself lacked.
I remember someone someone by my side turned his face to mine and then I turned away
With the song pushing its close, Kenna looked up and closed her eyes as she finished the lyrics to the song, bringing her arms close to his chest. With one final breath, she pulled her head down and opened her eyes, proud of the song she had performed. With a rush of adrenaline and confidence running through her, she quickly moved onto her monologue.
While Lynette was a part of the Manson Family, Kenna couldn’t help but think of Ilse when she had stumbled across the monologue late last night because the two couldn’t be more similar. Lynette had been kicked out of her home by her parents when Charles Manson had found her and convinced her to join his cult. The same could be said for Ilse who was a homeless child, kicked out by her abusive parents, forced to join an artist’s colony. It seemed like the choice for Kenna’s audition.
The monologue went by quicker than her song, but Kenna made sure to focus on every pause, every movement of her arms, clutching her chest at one point as Lynette spilled out her explanation of love for the killer. Finished, Kenna gave a smile and a nod to Bryan Ryan, immediately regretting her choice for not preparing a dance combination. She assumed he didn’t want that, but now reflecting, maybe it couldn’t have hurt.
“Thank you, you’ll hear back on Friday,” the older man said. “Thank you so much,” Kenna announced, before making her way down the steps of the stage and out the theatre door. She did good. She knew that much. And hopefully it was enough for Bryan Ryan to see her as Ilse.
As far as Miles was concerned, he was a mismatched pairing with just about anyone in Lima. The pairing of him and Lima was an overall mismatch. So, Kenna’s disapproval and staunch comments about Nico bringing him to Candyland didn’t surprise him, but the undertones of jealousy definitely intrigued him. “She doesn’t concern herself with the monotonous opinions of those around her. Maybe that’s intriguing,” he suggested, before adding with a smirk, “there’s something appealing about a woman with confidence.” Not that he was insinuating she wasn’t confident. Quite the contrary, Kenna had already approached him twice in the short time he’d been in Lima and each time, it seemed as though she was wrought with confidence. He couldn’t disagree with her sentiments. He was out of Nico’s league. And maybe she was just feeding his ego, but that was the quickest way to get Miles completely invested in a conversation. He was already hanging off of Kenna’s every word, eager to see what compliment she would throw at him next. “Funny. Better than a Canary and a Titan? It really does seem like you have someone in mind,” he grinned, squinting over at her. As much as Miles enjoyed verbally sparring with other people, it was even better when he was met with someone who harbored similar conversational skills. Kenna was direct and enticing, and the way she had naturally coerced his signature smirk to radiate from his lips was inconceivably fascinating. “This doesn’t seem like your scene either. Maybe I’m not the only person slumming it tonight at events that are beneath me.” He raised an eyebrow at her as she shifted in her seat, before bringing his gaze down to meet hers. “I would have considered it,” he replied, sliding a little closer to her. “You don’t scare me. I might be intimidated by a girl who would’ve had the confidence to make a move, but you didn’t.”
🐞
“Couldn’t one argue that confidence and simply not caring are two different things?” Talking shit was not one of Kenna’s fortes. Maybe if she was around Davis and talking about the horrendous glee club that was dubbed the New Directions, it would be easier, but talking about a person she didn’t know was proving to be more difficult, even if she was slightly jealous over Miles’ choice in a date. “Perhaps I do,” she countered, resting her chin on her hand, “but you seem like you’re having so much fun, I wouldn’t want to cause any issues,” her words were uplifted a tone higher than her actual voice, letting him know she was only teasing. As much as this was a ploy to hopefully get some sort of intel, she did enjoy her talks with Miles, or at least the very few she had with him. He was talented and attractive and was everything Kenna did like in a guy, but there was a bigger picture to look forward to. As Miles moved closer, she chuckled and glanced away from him to where the restrooms were located, seeing Nico trailing out of the restroom. Kenna took that as her cue to leave, but not before she leaned forward, resting her arms on the table once again to get inches away from Miles. “Duly noted,” she pointed a finger over towards the restrooms and said, “But I think your confident girl is on her way back over here. Nice talking though,” she stood up from her spot and began walking back towards her table, but not before she turned back to look at him. “See you later, Miles.”
