Most Valuable Players
A Guide to Austin Stage Actors
Fri., Sept. 28, 2001
Peyton Hayslip
On the scene since: 1999
MVP for: Onstage Theatre, Project InterAct
Recent Roles: Sally, Talley's Folly, Onstage, 2001; Gabrielle/Maud, A Name for a Ghost to Mutter, State Theater Co., 2001; Judith, Bingo, Public Domain, 2000; Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream, InterAct, 2000; Liz, Fruits and Vegetables, Different Stages, 2000; Closier, Degas' Little Dancer, InterAct, 2000.
Honors: Payne award, Degas' Little Dancer; Payne & Critics Table nominations, Talley's Folly; Payne nomination, Fruits and Vegetables.
There's warmth onstage, then there's warmth onstage; Peyton Hayslip has the kind that can melt a heart at a hundred paces. She projects a tenderness so genuine and heartfelt as to be totally disarming. Still a relative newcomer to the Austin scene, Hayslip couples honesty of feeling onstage with a precision of technique honed at Juilliard. Mother to Austin's one of busiest young actresses -- frisky Tiger Darrow -- which may explain the maternal wisdom in Hayslip's Titania and Closier. Her InterAct work raises the bar for acting in local children's theatre.
