About the Play:

Good-bye to the Clown is a one-act comedy by Ernest Kinoy. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance; all ways of coping with the death of a loved one. In Good-bye to the Clown a nine year old girl must struggle to accept the death of her father and to relinquish the imaginary clown-friend that she has created as a way of dealing with the sadness. Particularly suitable for schools and play contests.

Good-bye to the Clown follows Peggy, a nine year old who cannot cope with her Fathers death. She is in trouble at school because she seems unable to distinguish between her imagination and reality. To distract herself from that harsh reality, she creates an imaginary friend, known simply as 'Clown.' At home, her mother becomes very upset at Peggy's insistence on the reality of the Clown, which the audience sees also. The real emotional meaning of the Clown becomes clear as Peggy slowly realizes that her father is dead... and that the Clown has been a substitute for him in her mind. With this realization the Clown is no longer needed, and he says good bye, never to be real to her again.

Good-bye to the Clown is especially recommended for school and contest use.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

About the Playwright:

Ernest Kinoy (1925-2014) was an American writer, screenwriter and playwright who wrote Broadway musicals, Hollywood screenplays and Emmy Award-winning TV episodes. He started his career writing for NBC radio and went on to write for many live dramatic television shows including: Studio One, Philco-Goodyear Playhouse, Playhouse 90, and DuPont Show of the Week. He won Emmys for writing the 1964 "Blacklist" episode of the CBS drama series The Defenders and for the second segment of the groundbreaking ABC miniseries Roots in 1977. He was nominated for three other Emmys, notably for the 1981 TV movie Skokie, based on a march of neo-Nazis in the Illinois city. Kinoy had been taken as a PoW during the Second World War.