The Clown
2008
written and directed
by
Debra Cohen
TRT: 16 minutes
Ryan Clardy as Alvin
and
Maureen O'Boyle as Deirdre
The Clown is a wonderful short film about 2 long-time friends, Deirdre and Alvin. Deirdre stops by Alvin's apartment for a short visit, and when she walks into his living room she finds all his clown outfits and toys have been pulled out of long-buried boxes. As she waits for him to come out she plays with his clown stuff.
Alvin is in the midst of reliving his dream of joining the circus and becoming a clown.
The two friends connect on the level of their respective dreams for what they want in life, and find that they
go about realizing their dreams in different ways.
How do any of us bring our secret dreams out to the world? There is a bit of madness about our dreams, yet do we have a choice?
During Spring 2008, while I was in the Advanced Directing course at the New School, I morphed that screenplay into the short film, The Clown, developing the characters and their friendship further. I compacted action from several scenes and added new action as well. In the process the theme shifted focus a bit and I developed much of the dialog now in the film.
Last modified July 2012.