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Twenty years ago, Margaret Peirson woke up to a life-changing experience.
"I don’t even know how to explain it. It just happened," the 56-year-old former South Philly resident said. "One night, when I was 36, I woke up and started writing."
Since then, the pen-to-paper urge hasn’t stopped. Peirson, who grew up on the 2600 block of Carlisle Street, has written and produced three independent films. Her second, "Illusions," earned a 2004 Aurora Gold Award for excellence in writing.
"When I got the envelope, I thought, ‘Probably another rejection,’" the Mays Landing, N.J., resident said. "[But] when I saw I got the Gold Award … I have to say that it was the most elated feeling I ever had."
Peirson’s first endeavor, "Kharizma," didn’t have as much luck with the Salt Lake City, Utah-based organization, which recognizes exceptional achievement among independent film- and video-makers. The 1998 psychological thriller, which took Peirson a year to write, was ultimately turned down.
With "Illusions," however, the independent filmmaker knew the script was gold in the making.
It made its second run on WYBE early last month and Peirson said it will air on WHYY in the near future.
The 77-minute piece premiered at the Towne Stadium 16 movie theater in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., in June 2004. It was cut to 60 minutes for TV. At its center is fictional Danny Di’Santis, a young man who has a strained relationship with his father and then falls victim to a scheming girlfriend. To cope, he turns to food for comfort.
"It’s just eating to substantiate the hurt," Peirson said. "This is why my movie is not a dated piece. There’s no shelf limit on it at all. How many today will say, ‘Have something to eat, you’ll feel better’? Everybody has a tendency to do this."
"Illusions" also snagged the ’04 Ocean City Film Festival’s Emerging Filmmaker Award.
Although the mother of three didn’t get the chance to study creative writing until later in life, she said her inspiration for the film came from interviewing an overweight male friend. The rest of the story line draws from her own creativity.
"I didn’t want the audience to see this film and feel like someone was preaching to them. I wanted them to go in, enjoy the story, enjoy the relationships with the father, the brother, the love interest, and be drawn to the film as if they were experiencing the same thing," she said.
When Peirson graduated from Saint Maria Goretti High School in ’68, the writing spark still lay dormant. She had been a commercial major, which prepared young women for office and clerical duties.
"I never thought I was a writer," Peirson said. "I’ve lived in the real world for so long that I never thought I had this in me."
The youngest of three children and a fraternal twin, Peirson didn’t have the chance to attend college full time. Her mother worked around the clock in a tailor shop and her father was disabled. As a result, the kids needed to help out with bills and household chores.
"I really had to go to work. That’s really what I had to do to make money," Peirson said.
She became a bookkeeper at the Barclay Hotel on Rittenhouse Square, which, at 17, was her first job out of high school.
"Once you got out of school, you got married and had children. [Society] never really pushed college at that time," Peirson said of forgoing post-high school education.
After getting married in ’71, Peirson moved to the Poconos, where she lived for 23 years while raising her kids. One night, she woke up with the urge to write and spent a year taking creative writing, English composition and public-speaking classes at the now-defunct Upsala College in East Orange, N.J. In the evenings, she joined four other students for writing workshops at a nearby Poconos resident and newspaper editor’s home. She also took two years of writing courses at Atlantic Cape Community College after moving to Mays Landing in ’94. Peirson never earned a degree from either institution, but her classes at Upsala were credited.
"I was a late bloomer at everything," Peirson said. "I just enjoyed getting my feelings out on paper and seeing it come alive."
Writing, as it turned out, wasn’t her only passion. While living in the Poconos, she came across an instructor setting up acting classes at the Port Jervis Arts Center in New York
"Oh, I’m too old to start that," she recalled telling the teacher.
"No, you’re never too old," she remembered the man saying.
With that, she signed up for the class.
"I have a passion for the arts; It doesn’t matter if it’s writing or acting," Peirson said.
Her time in front of the camera has taught her the nuts and bolts of filmmaking. In ’90, Peirson played the lead in the Sullivan County Playhouse production of "Home Free." Some years later, she landed a nonspeaking role as a reporter for a "Law & Order" episode. The scene, which involved Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan rushing out of a vehicle to investigate a mysterious death, took three hours to film.
"It’s just the thrill of being there. It really teaches you a lot. Nobody realizes the time that’s involved," Peirson said of the experience.
Sometimes, as she later learned, all that time amounts to nothing. During the filming of "The Long Kiss Goodnight," she had to stand inside a ticket booth. According to Peirson, actress Geena Davis, who plays an assassin, was to walk by and meet Samuel L. Jackson’s character near the booth. The scene, though, was cut.
"You’re roasting. It’s July," Peirson, who had to wear an overcoat for the winter scene, said with a laugh. "It was all part of the excitement. This is what you do. This is what your job is."
Despite never landing a speaking role in her movie stints, Peirson bypassed the opportunity when producing her own films. In "Illusions," she is a customer sitting in the background at Di’Santis’ bakery.
"I enjoy being a writer better than I enjoy being an actor. I like the thrill that I get from behind the camera," Peirson said.
Although she hasn’t "earned a dime" from "Illusions," Peirson points out money isn’t going to become a sticking point. The film took three months to write, six to shoot and edit and cost nearly $30,000 in mostly out-of-pocket expenses.
She’s currently working on a TV pilot for what she calls a "nighttime soap combined with sci-fi." She’s also submitted her latest 16-minute film, "Four Women and Freddy," to festivals in Texas and New York.
"I’m more on the local people-level type of success," she said. "If I don’t go to Hollywood, I don’t go to Hollywood. That’s not my main goal. My main goal is getting it out there for people to look at."
