Joan Mankin

Joan Mankin (May 16, 1948 – September 26, 2015] was an actor and clown prominent in the San Francisco Bay Area, from the early 1970s through 2014. Mankin started her professional career in San Francisco in 1970 with a production of the San Francisco Mime Troupe's An Independent Female. Thereafter, she appeared in major roles in many Bay Area theater companies including the American Conservatory Theater, Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley Rep, San Francisco Playhouse and California Shakespeare Theatre as well as the feminist Lilith Theater in the late 1970s early 1980's, of which she was Artistic Director for two years. In 2006 she had a major singing role in the Los Angeles Ahmanson Theatre's production of The Black Rider: The Casting of Magic Bullets. One of her most notable personas was as 'Queenie Moon' a lead clown and juggler for Pickle Family Circus and Make-A-Circus. Besides performing she also taught theater arts and clowning in San Francisco at Clown Conservatory and in Northern California at Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. She also played a prominent role in the 1998 celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls 1848 Women's Rights convention, and her participation with a group of young women - with whom she staged an original play - became the subject of a film by Louise Vance. She also had a number of supporting television and movies roles.