My delightful Tell Me Your Story Guest for July is actress/writer/documentary filmmaker Penny Peyser, best known for her parts in Rich Man, Poor Man, All the President’s Men, The Tony Randall Show, The Frisco Kid (loved it), Crazy Like A Fox, and Knots Landing. Artists of any stripe cannot help but create, and Penny is the poster child for continuous creativity. Besides film and stage acting, she’s written, produced and directed award-winning feature documentaries. Her first book, Sonnets From Suburbia: More Candles Than Cake was published in 2023, and her second, Sonnets From Suburbia: Romance Dance, came out last year. She makes pizzas every Friday night, entertains two grandsons, and tries to stop the cats from climbing the curtains. Favorite Yoga pose: Warrior Two. Consider yourself warned.
Lady Penelope and her obsession with iambic pentameter has appeared onstage and can be viewed at www.YouTube.com/sonnetsfromsuburbia.
I’m A 70 Something Newbie
By Penny Peyser
People always say, “It’s never too late” and there’s a reason for that. Because it never is! Until we’ve breathed our last there’s a chance to do something different, take a flyer at a long-time dream or make a fool of yourself in a whole new way. I’m grateful that I had the focus as a youngster to realize my dream to become an actress and I had the honor of working with some amazing artists. I’ll name drop just for fun: Dustin Hoffman, Alan Arkin, Gene Wilder, Harrison Ford (one too brief screen kiss in The Frisco Kid), Peter Falk, Jack Warden, and Tony Randall.
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I’m feeling somewhat confessional and I’ll admit that my actress focus wavered more than a little when I became a mother, got divorced, remarried, had another fabulous son and got divorced encore une fois. I didn’t have the bandwidth – not that that word was around then – to keep my home in some kind of order and do the Hollywood actress dance. In fact I wasn’t dancing, singing, creating anything for a very long time. My desires which had burned bright were now shrunk to a teeny pilot light waiting, waiting and waiting for me to turn up the heat again.
Luckily for me I met “a guy” and although I was sure the jury was in and ruled that I could not choose a good mate, life surprises you. I met Doug in late 1999, we married in 2002 and guess what? When my heart and mind were no longer wrestling with homestead woes there was suddenly space, breath and creative rebirth. Clearly there are many who do just fine on their own as artists but home and family were always part of my DNA and once that piece was finally right I could let it fly. Pardon while I pause for a sonnet.
O was it husband one or two or three
who taught me properly to cook a fish,
while pointing out the dimple in my knee
and promising that he’d fulfill my wish?
O was it husband three or two or one
who loved chorizos in his scrambled eggs?
Loved more to dwell in pure oblivion
just thinking of the space between my legs.
O was it husband one or three or two
who hurled a cup and saucer at my head
as curses, screaming, ranting all round flew?
Yes certainly he wished that I was dead.
From dreams I have awakened and can see,
my sole salvation was in number three.
Doug and I made two documentaries (see link below) which were very satisfying and then…this “writing thing” which had been in the background forever emerged in an unexpected way. I was happily taking a Shakespearean acting class at the esteemed Antaeus Theater Company in Los Angeles when the teacher, the wonderful late actor Gregory Itzen, gave us an assignment to write an Elizabethan sonnet for the following week. I’ve always loved rhyming and up ‘til then had only written gag birthday ditties for friends and family plus some short plays. I dashed off my first sonnet, thought, “This is fun!” and wrote three more. Despite the fact that my teacher only let me read one the following week I kept writing them. And writing them. As of this week I’m closing in on eight hundred.
I began submitting my poems to literary journals. You’d be surprised how many poetry publications do not welcome rhyming verse. I was. But I carried on and became a “published writer” in quite a few including Defenestration, Blood & Bourbon, Lunaris Review, Page & Spine, Chantwood Magazine and Grand Little Things, among others. And in 2018 I was a winner of the Maria Faust Sonnet Contest. Once I reached one hundred plus sonnets I began assembling a book and querying publishing houses.
Here’s the thing – as I kept amassing material it was clear I was in an extremely “nichey” area. Elizabethan sonnets on modern day topics that definitely leaned towards amusing / funny / sometimes pensive topics were not and still aren’t at the top of publishers’ lists. I explored marketing my work in the humor category because I had begun to perform my work at poetry readings and was delighted and gratified to hear laughter. So I reasoned this was the way to go. One kind publisher (who gave me a “no”) had a good suggestion. He said, “Since you’re an actress why not try and develop an online presence performing your work?” I ran with that, dressed myself in an Elizabethan costume and “Lady Penelope” was born. You can catch her on the “Sonnets From Suburbia” YouTube channel.
But of course…I still wanted to have a book out there. I went to school on becoming an indie author and in 2023 Sonnets From Suburbia: More Candles Than Cake arrived, followed in 2024 by Sonnets From Suburbia: Romance Dance. Fellow authors reading this – no matter your genre, path to getting published or readership – know the thrill and satisfaction of holding something in your hand that sprung from your head. Nothing like it and I salute and support all of you.
Oh – and because I’m still an actress and a hambone I created a solo stage show from Sonnets From Suburbia which I’ve had the pleasure of performing at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, East to Edinburgh Festival in NYC, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and San Diego Fringe Festival. With any luck, I’ll be bringing it somewhere near you and if so I encourage you to come and say hello! But until then…I’d love to be in touch with you – but not too much, no worries! If you’re game, visit my website and sign up for my occasional newsletter. You’ll receive a chapbook of eight as yet unpublished sonnets.
https://www.sonnetsfromsuburbia.com/
I’ll say it again – it’s never too late!
And thanks so much Donis, for inviting me to be a guest on your wonderful blog.
Here’s a link to our documentaries and all things Lady Penelope: https://linktr.ee/penpeyser
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