Peg Board

one of the things I learned at Darrow.”
In fact, Maggie’s father, a career Navy
officer, liked Darrow for his daughter
because it wasn’t a “country club” boarding
school. The gorgeous rural setting,
the Hands-to-Work program, and its small
size were all indicators that hard work
were integral to Darrow’s pedagogy.
Maggie arrived with an interest in
acting and immediately got guidance
from Vic Talbert, Proctor Smith, and
Marjorie Hirschberg in the Theater
Department. “Initially, I was much
more comfortable behind the scenes,”
Maggie said. “But the teachers really
challenged me with writing and reading
that took me way beyond what I’d been
studying earlier in my life.”
From those disciplines came a love of
storytelling. “It was like those teachers
lit a fire under the interests that I
brought to the School.”
From Darrow, Maggie went to the
University of California at San Diego
(UCSD) and majored in theater, acting
in undergraduate plays and working
behind the scenes in graduate plays.
When she graduated, she moved to
New York City to become an actress.
“And four years later, I recovered,”
she said.
Her “recovery” from acting included a
move to Los Angeles, where she got a
temp job at the American Film Institute
(AFL) as an assistant to the production
coordinator. That position led to a fulltime
job as an assistant to the vice president
of AFL, which meant she was able
to guide projects through development.
“All of my theater experience came
into play, from the Darrow stage to
behind the scenes at UCSD.”
It was during this time that the career
of Academy Award-winning actress
Sandra Bullock took off, and she moved
to Los Angeles to start a production
company. This was the same Sandra
Bullock with whom Maggie had waited
tables when they were both struggling
to find acting work in New York. Sandra
hired Maggie to help her establish
Fortis Films.
“Sandra has a remarkable work ethic.
In fact, when the company first opened,
one of our mottoes was, ‘No one is
above taking out the trash.’” True to
the motto, during her 20-year tenure at
Fortis, Maggie did just about everything.
In addition to developing scripts and
working in production, she set up nonprofits,
oversaw property renovations,
and pulled together crews for films.
“Through it all, Sandra was very kind
and compassionate. Working with her
reminded me of the Shaker saying on
that plaque outside Wickersham, ‘Hands
to Work, Hearts to God.’” Two years
ago, Maggie left Fortis and now splits
time between producing a short film,
A Meditation, and a web series called
Break a Hip. (Season 1 is available at
breakahip.com, and season 2 is in post
production.)
The work is hard, but, as Maggie said,
“The work comes easier when you do it
with integrity, kindness, and a sense of responsibility
to the larger community. And I
learned to work that way at Darrow.”
—Sam Harper
“It was like those teachers lit a fire under the interests
that I brought to the School.”
—Maggie Biggar ’80
Tom Craig ’68
Tom Craig ’68
Telling Great Stories
You could say that Tom Craig’s long
career as a production executive in
the movie business began in detention
study hall.
“I wasn’t doing very well in a couple
of classes when I first arrived at Darrow,
so I spent a lot of afternoons on top of
Wickersham,” Tom said from his home in
Seneca Falls, New York. “But the study
hall monitor told detainees that if they
wanted to read novels and nonfiction,
instead of sweating their homework, it
was okay with him.”
Tom took him up on it and, from
that point on, he became a voracious
reader and a lover of storytelling. “I
got a real feel for storytelling when I
was supposed to be studying geometry,
and that focus served me well in
Hollywood.”
When he wasn’t reading in study hall,
he immersed himself in the Darrow
drama program, acting in various plays.
“That experience gave me some
perspective later on when I was dealing
with actors and scripts,” Tom said. “It
helped me understand how they were
seeing written material.” He added that
Movie Night at Darrow also broadened
his interest in storytelling. Every Saturday
night in the auditorium, classics
DARROW SCHOOL 23