Local Annie actor doesn't fear the big stage

Attwell Martin appears to have no fear.

The nine-year-old, who is the only Stratford resident to be cast as an orphan in this season’s Stratford Festival production of Annie, says that she prefers a larger audience for the hit musical’s performances.

“I want the audience to be full,” Martin said. “Sometimes it’s 90 to 100 per cent. On Tuesday, it was (going to be low) and then it went up to 80 per cent, and I was really glad about that because I was scared of (the small number) because I thought that that audience didn’t really like Annie,” she said.

Martin, who has been dancing since she was two, has enjoyed taking her talents to Festival Theatre stage for the first time. She co-stars as Clara, who she describes as “Annie’s copycat.”

“I think Clara is a little bit shy, but she doe