{"id":2368,"date":"2025-07-17T14:20:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/?p=2368"},"modified":"2025-07-18T14:01:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T21:01:42","slug":"tell-me-your-story-penny-peyser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/?p=2368","title":{"rendered":"Tell Me Your Story: Penny Peyser"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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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<\/em> (loved it), Crazy Like A Fox,<\/em> and Knots Landing.<\/em> Artists of any stripe cannot help but create, and Penny is the poster child for continuous creativity. Besides film and stage acting, she\u2019s written, produced and directed award-winning feature documentaries. Her first book, Sonnets From Suburbia: More Candles Than Cake<\/a> <\/em>was published in 2023, and her second, Sonnets From Suburbia: Romance Dance<\/a>,<\/em> 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lady Penelope and her obsession with iambic pentameter has appeared onstage and can be viewed at www.YouTube.com\/sonnetsfromsuburbia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m A 70 Something Newbie<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Penny Peyser<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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People always say, \u201cIt\u2019s never too late\u201d and there\u2019s a reason for that. Because it never is! Until we\u2019ve breathed our last there\u2019s 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\u2019m 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\u2019ll 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(If you\u2019re interested in more details please visit here<\/a> )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m feeling somewhat confessional and I\u2019ll 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<\/em>. I didn\u2019t have the bandwidth \u2013 not that that word was around then \u2013 to keep my home in some kind of order and do the Hollywood actress dance. In fact I wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily for me I met \u201ca guy\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doug and I made two documentaries (see link below) which were very satisfying and then\u2026this \u201cwriting thing\u201d 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\u2019ve always loved rhyming and up \u2018til then had only written gag birthday ditties for friends and family plus some short plays. I dashed off my first sonnet, thought, \u201cThis is fun!\u201d 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\u2019m closing in on eight hundred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began submitting my poems to literary journals. You\u2019d be surprised how many poetry publications do not welcome rhyming verse. I was. But I carried on and became a \u201cpublished writer\u201d in quite a few including Defenestration, Blood & Bourbon, Lunaris Review, Page & Spine, Chantwood Magazine<\/em> and Grand Little Things, <\/em>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the thing \u2013 as I kept amassing material it was clear I was in an extremely \u201cnichey\u201d area. Elizabethan sonnets on modern day topics that definitely leaned towards amusing \/ funny \/ sometimes pensive topics were not and still aren\u2019t at the top of publishers\u2019 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 \u201cno\u201d) had a good suggestion. He said, \u201cSince you\u2019re an actress why not try and develop an online presence performing your work?\u201d I ran with that, dressed myself in an Elizabethan costume and \u201cLady Penelope\u201d was born. You can catch her on the \u201cSonnets From Suburbia\u201d YouTube channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course\u2026I 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 <\/em>arrived, followed in 2024 by Sonnets From Suburbia: Romance Dance.<\/em> Fellow authors reading this – no matter your genre, path to getting published or readership \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh \u2013 and because I\u2019m still an actress and a hambone I created a solo stage show from Sonnets From Suburbia <\/em>which I\u2019ve 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\u2019ll be bringing it somewhere near you and if so I encourage you to come and say hello! But until then\u2026I\u2019d love to be in touch with you \u2013 but not too much, no worries! If you\u2019re game, visit my website and sign up for my occasional newsletter. You\u2019ll receive a chapbook of eight as yet unpublished sonnets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.sonnetsfromsuburbia.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll say it again \u2013 it\u2019s never too late!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And thanks so much Donis, for inviting me to be a guest on your wonderful blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a link to our documentaries and all things Lady Penelope: https:\/\/linktr.ee\/penpeyser<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[375,376,228],"class_list":["post-2368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-penny-peyser","tag-sonnets-from-suburbia","tag-tell-me-your-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2H58s-Cc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2368"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2383,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368\/revisions\/2383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.doniscasey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}