Penny Maple is possibly the most talented individual you have never heard about. This young lady contributes immensely to the horror community and little is known about her (even though she often bares all!). Penny is a West Virginia native with a B.A. in french and devotes her time to writing for horrorfullife.com (which she founded along with Luna L’Enfant ), helping the indie film company Razor Sharp Studios anyway she can, and is a burlesque performer at the Wayward Girls School of Burlesque (which she also founded with Pepper Fandango).
With all this going on she still finds time to work a full time job and is a loving wife to fellow actress and burlesque performer Elle Xohmbeah. It is because of all the things she has going on that I want to truly express how much I appreciate her making the time to answer a few of my silly questions. Thank you Penny!
At what age did you become interested in horror and what spawned that interest?
Oh my goodness, since I can remember, really. My mom says my brother and I were little vampires, and it’s true. She was a big Stephen King fan herself, and I remember sneaking out of bed and sitting in the dark to watch the It miniseries and Misery over her shoulder. I read early too and my aunt had an addiction to the Fear Street books and their ilk, so I got hand me downs every weekend when she finished hers. I don’t know where it comes from; other than being an SK fan, mom doesn’t like gorey flicks at all and my dad absolutely hates it!
As one of the founding members of horrorfullife.com, what was your goals and aspirations when you first set up the site?
It was really, for both me and Luna, about encouraging ourselves to write a lot more. We both loved writing but didn’t study it in school, and we wanted an outlet that was all ours – a kind of safe space, you know? Cause jumping into an art form of any kind, without connections or really an idea of what it’s all about, it isn’t easy. Horror was something that I knew I would be passionate about, and our definition of horror on the site encompasses a lot of things, so we would really be able to do what we wanted. Besides that, we knew we wanted to focus on local artists and support them – they way we wanted to be supported.
How did people respond to horrorfullife? Has their opinions changed with time?
you know, at first we didn’t even really share it much because we were so ‘aww shucks, i’m just a newb!’ but when we did start sharing it, we had a lot of support. some people -even strangers – in the community have been surprisingly supportive and seem to really like what we do, and we also get a lot of hits from google searches (people google ‘nude zombies’ a lot, by the way). people like our irreverant tone but also the serious subjects we sometimes touch on. we’ve gotten a little bit of work from it, too, which is really really pleasing! people take it as seriously as we do, and i thank them.
actually, now that think about it, i’m disappointed i’ve never really pissed someone off with a post i’ve written
Aside from horrorfullife, you have also helped the West Virginia based indie film company Razor Sharp Studios on more than one occasion. How did you become involved with them?
Even though I have a lot of mutual friends with Eamon & Co, I really just saw an ad for auditions and showed up, and that was the first time I had met them. I was initially going to have a slightly larger role in PC2, but shooting got pushed back and I started a new job so I had no vacation time. I did a little bit of PA work on the weekends, and Eamon ended up using me in a small kill just ’cause he loves me! When the PC3D rolled around, they knew I sewed a little and asked me to do wardrobe and costumes. I designed the Pig Girl dress, and I’m really proud of it – it looks just like I imagined!
What was it like being in a film with Porkchop who is now a modern indie horror legend?
It was seriously a blast! A hot, sweaty, bug ridden, sleep deprived blast, both times. They used a still from PC2 for the PC3D tshirt, and it’s me and Rob Cobb – that’s insane, like, how can I wish for anything more? It was such a gift! Rue Morgue’s The Gore-Met reviewed PC2 and used a still of me and Rob. When I saw that, I seriously ran around the house screaming bloody murder, and when I finally sat down, I started crying and laughing at the same time. Before then, I thought people only did that in books. The only thing I can imagine that would be more satisfying than that is having an article I’ve written run in Rue Morgue.
If you did not have enough on your plate as it is you are also one of the members of the Wayward Girls School of Burlesque. Can you tell me what it is like working with so many talented women?
Ah, I’m actually the founding member, along with Pepper Fandango! I love love love working with The Wayward Girls, everyone has their own niche, everyone is on the same wavelength, we really share a vision about where we want to go with the troupe. It’s a lot to organize – there are a total of 12 members if you include our kittens and staff photographer, some of us are students, parents, live in other counties, have day jobs, you name it – but we all love it so damn much we make it work. We Tim Gunn the fuck out of it.
How did you become interested in burlesque?
It’s all Chase Henderson’s doing. He runs Dr. Sketchy’s Charleston, which is a burlesque figure drawing class, and he goes to a lot of events out of state and networks – anyways, he had his heart set on introducing burlesque dance to Charleston. A touring group came through town – Dangerous Curves Ahead: Burlesque on the Go-Go, an amazing group of women! – and they needed an opening act. He set that up and kind of opened the door for us. Pepper agreed to open for them, she played a set and, for the final song, we did our first dance together. After that, there really was no turning back. I thought I was going to pass out and vomit while I was waiting in the wings, but once you take your clothes off on a stage – it’s over, man.
Well I want to thank you for your time and I have one last question. What is your favorite horror movie or movies?
What a question! Man oh man, I could name so many titles, but right now I think I’m going to go with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Yeah, I know everyone hates it, but BOB still scares me. To this day! If you don’t count that as horror, theeeeeeen Martyrs!
Once again I want to thank Penny for answering my questions. Those interested in Penny and her performances at the Wayward Girls School of Burlesque should check out their Facebook page here.
*all photos by Chase Henderson
