by Kathy Kaufield

Kindred Spirits ~ Winter 1996-97

Twelve year old Martha MacIsaac of Charlottetown brings L.M Montgomery's beloved Emily to life on the small screen.

Martha MacIsaac is trying to capture the ant she has just spotted scurrying across the soundstage. The twelve year old star of the new television series Emily, strategically places a piece of paper in the ant's path and smiles in triumph as the unsuspecting insect proceeds onto it. She lifts the paper off the floor. "Got 'em!", Martha says happily, striding purposely off the set with the ant in tow. "I'm going to add him to my ant farm."

Moments later, Martha is furious, her face flushed, her eyes brimming with tears of anger. She has suddenly transformed herself into Lucy Maud Montgomery's young heroine Emily, who is enraged at her Aunt Elizabeth for reading her private letters. "They weren't meant for your eyes," she screams, her eyes blazing with anger.

When her aunt threatens to throw the writings into the fire, Martha slams her hand on the desk yelling, "You shall not have them." Then, as soon as the director yells, "Cut!", Martha's anger disappears as quickly as it came, and she smiles, chats with the crew and playfully sticks her tongue out at the camera. But that's just the way it is with Martha MacIsaac, a natural-born actress who slips in and out of character with complete ease, the way most people slip in and out of a warm winter jacket.

"She's a born actress," says Marlene Matthews, supervising producer and head writer of the Emily series. "She has natural ability. She slips into the part so easily." Martha, who, incredibly, has had little formal acting training, goes on to repeat the emotional scene flawlessly several times, each time with the same intensity.

"It's quite remarkable," says Martha's mother Irene MacIsaac. "She can be joking and laughing with you one minute and into character the next minute. Then she'll do the same scene over and over ten times. She has a real talent (for slipping into character). Her concentration is impeccable."

Born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., Martha wanted to become an actress since she was four years old when out of the blue she announced to her mother that she wanted to "go to Hollywood". And now, just eight years later, Martha's dream is coming true. She beat out over 1,000 girls across Canada to win the starring role in Emily, the television series based on Montgomery's books Emily of New Moon. The show will air nationally starting in September. The series will be seen on ATV in the Maritimes.

Network executives were so impressed with the episodes filmed so far that in December they ordered another 13 shows, for a total of 26. Matthews was thrilled with the news, adding that it is unusual for a network to order additional episodes when the show hasn't even aired yet. "They (network executives) loved what saw," says Matthews, who also worked on the award-winning CBC show Road to Avonlea for six years.

Martha grew up putting on plays and skits with her three older sisters, Sally, 15, Jill, 17, and Jane, 18. By the time she was five, she was performing Elvis impersonations at nursing homes while her sisters sang the chorus. Irene, a psychiatric nurse, and her husband Bruce, a hairdresser, always encouraged Martha to pursue her goal, telling her that, "anything is possible". But Irene says she never really took Martha's ambition seriously until one day when Martha was in grade one. Irene had been asked to play the role of an angry child as part of a seminar that Martha's principal was conducting at school. Martha, who couldn't even read yet, listened to Irene practicing her lines, and on the third reading, Martha began reciting the lines and acting out the part. Irene couldn't believe her eyes. 'She was very convincing. She took right over," says Irene. Martha went on to play the part of the child at the seminar. "That's when I knew she had abilities," says Irene. "She was like an old pro. She never missed a beat."

Eventually, Martha earned parts in several plays at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, including playing one of the children of Avonlea in Anne of Green Gables, the hit musical based on another of Montgomery's books.

Another break came in the summer of 1995 when she was chosen to star in Prince Edward Island's tourism advertising campaign, which put Martha in newspaper, television and magazine ads.

Then, in June of 1996, Irene read a story in the newspaper about auditions for a new show called Emily. She contacted the production company and asked if they would be interested in auditioning Martha for a role. They told her to put together a portfolio and send it along. Meanwhile, Matthews, the show's supervising producer, arrived on the Island to do casting. An executive at Enterprise P.E.I. suggested she take a look at Martha, the girl who starred in their tourism campaign.

"The minute I saw her (Martha), I knew," said Matthews. "She was the image I had of Emily in my mind. To top it off, Martha had a superb audition."

After seeing Martha, the producers auditioned 200 other girls on Prince Edward Island and another 900 across Canada, but Matthews couldn't get Martha out of her mind. "She was head and shoulders above everyone else," says Matthews. "She had a very quiet determination, very fiery eyes. There was that glint in her eyes and that bubbling personality. She had absolutely no fear in speaking her mind, and that's exactly the way Emily is."

When she found out in August that she had won the part, Martha was so excited that she rented a limousine for an hour and took five of her friends on a tour of Charlottetown, which included, of course, a stop at the Wendy's Drive Thru. "She asked us and then phoned and arranged the whole thing herself" says Irene.

Since then, Martha's life has turned into a whirlwind of activity, with her working five days per week, 10 hours per day on the show's set in Summerside. During the week, her parents take turns staying with her at an apartment in the Summerside area, and she also spends a couple of nights during the week at a friend's house nearby. A tutor has been hired to help Martha keep up with her grade seven class at Queen Charlotte Junior High School in Charlottetown.

Although she's been busy since shooting began in September, Martha says she loves every minute of it, especially the people she works with on the show. "They are really fun and really nice too," she says.

She's even had the chance to work with some big-name stars including well-known comedian Phyllis Diller, Michael Moriarty, star of the television show Law and Order, as well as Maury Chaukin, who acted in the Academy Award-winning movie Dances with Wolves.

Despite being the star of a television show, Martha has remained grounded, says Irene. "We always remind her that this is a gift. Her talent is a God-given gift," says Irene. She keeps in touch with her friends while she's home on the weekends, says Irene, adding that Martha rarely talks about the show when she's not on the set.

Martha says she hadn't read the Emily books until her auditions began, then her Mom read them to her. She likes the books and says that, in some ways, she is like Emily. "She's (Emily) not shy, that's for sure," says Martha. "I'm not shy." Martha also says Emily is "a bit looney". "She talks to herself in the mirror all the time," she giggles.

In addition to her ability to slip in and out of character with ease, Martha also has a knack for learning her lines quickly. She has to read the scripts only three or four times to memorize her part. Her memory is so good, in fact, that Martha can recall lines from shows she taped several months ago.

She's also completely relaxed in front of a camera. Even on her first day on the Emily set, Martha wasn't nervous because, as she says, "She's not at all shy." As for mental preparation before taping a scene, Martha really doesn't do any. "I just learn my lines and listen to the director," she says. "I don't really practice how to act it out. I just do it."

Spoken like a true natural.

Return to My Unofficial Emily of New Moon Page