Peyton Hayslip 
(Image links Event
playbill) (Image links to thistlemouse.com)
is the co-founder of thistlemouse productions with her husband
and partner, Carl Anderson. A 7th generation Texan who received her training as
an actress at the Juilliard School in NYC, Ms. Hayslip has been performing for
audiences of all ages for over 20 years. In addition to her work as an
actress, writer, director, and instructor of acting for theater and film,
Peyton is the Acting Director of the State Theater School of Acting in Austin,
TX. She has been the recipient of numerous commendations and nominations
for her work as an actress, and received Austin's B. Iden Payne Award for
Outstanding Actress in a Play for Youth for her work with Zachary Scott
Theater's Project InterAct. Hayslip has been named one of the "Top
40 Actors in Austin" by the Austin Chronicle. She has been lauded by
critics: "... Hayslip's work raises the bar for acting in local children's
theater." (Austin Chronicle), and
"... critics and co-workers have fallen for her mutable stage personae and
firm control of acting technique..." (Austin
American Statesman). Ms. Hayslip has performed lead roles in
NYC; in London with Great Britain's National Youth Theatre; in Dallas at
the Dallas Theater Center, The Addison Theater Center, The Garland Civic
Theater; and in Austin, TX with The State Theater Company, Zachary Scott
Theater's Project InterAct, the dirigo group, Onstage Theatre Co.,
Different Stages, and numerous other companies. Most recently, she has
been enjoying a 3 year run of her original one-woman show, Kate
James: Portrait of a Texas Pioneer which she wrote and is based on
the journals and scrapbooks of her great-great-great grandmother, Kate James
who came to Texas in 1855 as a 4 year old. Peyton tours the show to
enthusiastic audience all over Texas. In addition to more traditional roles,
Ms. Hayslip appears annually with Dr. Anderson's Santa Claus as his Mrs.,
Maggie Claus. However, without a doubt, two of her finest productions are
her daughters, Kitty and Tiger.
