GIRL CLOWN the film was the idea that just wouldn’t go away. You know, the kind that just keeps knocking and knocking on the door and won’t give up until you pay attention to it. I have been a writer since I was a child (plays, stories, etc.), and although I am an actress with a number of film roles to my credit, I had never written a screenplay.

I am also a professional children’s entertainer/clown  in New York City, and, in between acting gigs, clowning is what I do for a living. And, when I travel to a gig, I always wear my clown outfit in transit. 

So, when I first started going to gigs in the outfit, I noticed something interesting – people would always smile at me. Some would wave and even shout “hello!” from across the street. On the subway, a person would inevitably come over to sit down next to me and excitedly ask me questions. How did you become a clown? That must be a fun job! Did you make your own costume?…..

 

Now, I remind you, this is New York City, the land of people who are unfazed even by a major celebrity walking down the street. And yet, all of these normally “poker-faced” New Yorkers were breaking in to smiles and waves of friendliness at the sight of a clown. And so…this is how the idea for the movie was born.

After talking to a  friend about my idea, she encouraged me me to take a screenwriting class taught by Imelda O’Reilly, a writer/director/filmmaker and professor at Columbia.

That class was really great – I started to write my script, and ended up staying for a year and a half to finish it.

I also brought my script to my NYC acting class taught by Sande Shurin, where I got to have the class’ actors work and improvise on the film’s scenes and characters.

After over 2 years of work, lo and behold, I ended up with this screenplay called GIRL CLOWN!

And so, in my next post, I will write about how I started to learn about filmmaking and raised money to shoot GIRL CLOWN the film!

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