For most actors, landing a lead role in a Toronto stage production is a major coup.

For P.E.I.’s Martha MacIsaac, it is something that has happened twice in the past year.

After racing to blindness and death as the young Hedwig in the summer production of The Wild Duck by Hendrik Ibsen, she’s back on the boards as Emily in Soulpepper Theatre’s production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.

“It’s incredible. To get to do what you love and be able to make a career out of it, is wonderful. I’ve been busy, busy, busy lately,” says MacIsaac, who also has a minor role in The Government Inspector, bringing her performance tally to eight per week.(The two shows play in repertory at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts until March 25.)

“I don’t have a very big part in the second play, basically I just move the furniture when needed,” says MacIsaac, breaking into giggles.

Her humour and candidness intact, it’s evident that success hasn’t gone to her head.

In fact, MacIsaac’s feet are firmly planted on the ground.

“This year has been an incredible experience for me. I’ve gone from job to job and I know that’s rare.

“Everyone has been so supportive of me. I just feel so lucky that I’ve had the opportunities that I’ve had. I can’t explain how thankful I am,” says the Colonel Gray high school graduate who, at 21, is already well-familiar with the ups and downs of the acting business.

Four years after playing the lead in Emily of New Moon on P.E.I., she packed her bags and moved to Toronto to find work in her chosen career.

But all she found was rejection slips.

“When you’re a child actor and you start off starring in your own television show and then you take three years off to finish your schooling, it’s like starting all over again,” says MacIsaac.

After being unemployed for about a year, she was hired as a receptionist in a talent agency.

She also started doing television guest spots and animation work in her free time.

“Then one day out of the blue my agent told me that I had an audition for Soulpepper the next day,” she says.

However, there was only one problem. The idea of doing theatre in Toronto terrified her.

“The Wild Duck was the first audition for a play that I ever had. I had only worked in television and film,” says MacIsaac.

With wild butterflies in her stomach, she decided to memorize the part and go anyway.

That day at the audition, MacIsaac gave a remarkable performance, says the artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre.

“She came in, auditioned and just completely blew us away. She got the job and went on to do what is generally considered to be one of the great performances of the last year as Hedwig,” says Albert Schultz, during a telephone interview.

Since then, he has cast her as Emily in Our Town.

“And she’s had another huge triumph in that, so she’s had a really remarkable year. We love our Martha.”

He first heard about the young actress through Sheila McCarthy, an old friend from the filming days of Emily of New Moon. In the series, McCarthy played Aunt Laura.

“But I didn’t meet Martha until last summer,” says Schultz.

And he liked what he saw.

“Martha’s got several things. She’s got a wonderful sense of humour. She’s got a very strong sense of who she is. And she has an amazing emotional availability and that comes from having a really great imagination.

“For great acting to happen, you have to have the tools but you have to be able to imagine yourself in that situation so full that it filters down the blood and bones of the person,” he says.

“And she has an amazing ability to imagine herself in a position and then to convey that emotional reality to an audience. It’s extremely rare in someone so young,” says Schultz.

Relaxing in her Toronto apartment between performances, MacIsaac takes it all in stride.

Instead of focusing on the glamour and the positive reviews, she prefers to talk about her parents who came to the opening night and her best friends — Sarah Simpson, Laura MacKay and Eliza Hurry — who caught a performance of Our Town last week.

“I was so happy that they would come up and support me like that. It was a pretty big deal for me and for them, too,” says MacIsaac.

This ability to stay grounded through her friends and family is impressive, says Schultz.

“In meeting her parents — Bruce and Irene — and, in fact, three of her friends, it gives you insight into why Martha is such an amazing person. Her family and friends from Charlottetown are just great people.

“They’re completely unguarded, grounded people. And in this business it’s hard, particularly for young people who have had success at that age, it’s really hard for them to keep their heads and she’s absolutely done that.

“She’s as solid as a rock. And a very gifted rock she is,” says Schultz.

And how does she do it?

Back in her apartment, MacIsaac says it starts with being aware of your motivation.

“I don’t want to be an actor so that people will say, ‘you’re great.’ I want to do it because I love doing it. And I love making people feel.

“Whenever I come out of the theatre and people are waiting there and they’re still crying or they’re telling me how it moved them, that’s much more important to me than one theatre critic saying that they liked or disliked the show,” says MacIsaac, who keeps busy on the weekends with other projects.

She shot a Canadian pilot last week and does voice work for Digata Defenders, a soon-to-be released animated series.

“Keeping grounded is something that you have to take upon yourself. Of course, I rely on my family a lot,” she says, with a laugh.

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca