In 1984 MERRY CONWAY received a Directing Fellowship from the NEA through Shakespeare & Company and began producing her own work with the creation of IN PRAISE OF FOLLY. In the following two years she created ELEMENTS OF RARE EARTH(1985) and TOWARDS TRICKSTER(1986). She taught movement and clown for fifteen years at university drama schools such as Carnegie-Mellon, Cal Arts, NYU, Brandeis, as well as drama schools in London. She was the Clown Master for Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, Ma. for several years. She performed as a theatrical clown for seven years, and continues her ongoing research of female clown and fool with several seasons on tour with Circus Flora, the one-ring circus based in St. Louis, and The Friendship Company, a group of mentally challenged adult performers, directed by Rebecca Perrin. Since 1992, she has served as acting coach for Anna Deveare Smith, working on her acclaimed pieces, FIRES IN THE MIRROR, ,stage and movie versions of TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992, and several versions of HOUSE ARREST. She has also served as the Comedy Consultant for LA Women’s Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night.