by Marie Smalley

A good storyteller conveys the human condition in all its glorious messiness. Its heartbreak and absurdity, its Murphy's Law moments, from the rational to the unhinged. That's all in television series The Proxy Mom. But it’s the overarching themes that resonate with me: motherhood, loss and helping oneself by helping others - and because I saw this firsthand.

When my sister and I were children playing together, she had a seizure and died. I couldn't save her. I watched my mother struggle to stay sane and find joy in life again. All she wanted was her child back in her arms. So I made it happen - sort of - for my protagonist Cecile.

This film is extremely personal. When my cat Shadow went missing, something inside me ruptured, and I relived a childhood trauma. This event and most of the characters we meet during the search are real - the things they said, the places I searched, Shadow's cause celebre status within the area, and finally, the denouement. Like my protagonist, I quit my job and returned to my first loves, performing and writing.

I have always thought of my life as a series of stories from the time I was a child. It was how I made sense of everything. In writing about this life- changing event, I set out to do the same.

A woman's quest to find her missing cat becomes an obsession that throws her life off balance and awakens repressed memories, forcing her to reconcile her past and the present. Inspired by true events.

A woman leads a double life as a proxy mother to young people in sticky situations in an attempt to heal after the sudden deaths of her husband and son, resorting to absurd and desparate measures to pull it off.

"An ensemble of intelligent characters that can appeal to wide audiences ... the leads are engaging ... a premise worthy of a series." Table Read My Screenplay

In addition to writing screenplays, my published works include “Comrades," in 2021, an essay for a NY Times subsidiary, and from my years in the NYC art world on the curatorial staff of The Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and The Takashimaya Art Gallery, I authored exhibition catalogs "Elemental Images,” “Quiet Light,” “Volume and Void,” and a reference book, “Painting and Sculpture in The Museum of Modern Art.”

Feature Film Script

Short Film Script

A 12-year old girl is jolted into adolescence by societal, cultural and personal upheavals in the summer of 1970, as construction begins on a nuclear power plant in her home town. Inspired by true events.

The pissed-off wife of an aging rock star takes to the beach to unwind, and starts a new collection that reflects her current state of mind.

(c) 2025 mariesmalley.com

My pilot script, "The Proxy Mom," is the WINNER of a 2025 New York Independent Film Award for Best Series Pilot Script, and was a Semi-Finalist in the 2025 New York Script Awards.

My feature screenplay "Searching for Shadow" is the 2025 WINNER of a Golden Pen Script Award, an Oniros Film Award, and a New York Independent Film Award, as well as a a 2025 Nominee for a New York Independent Cinema Award.