Liam R. Martin ’06 might be dubbed the ultimate newcomer to theater—until college. Martin had never pursued acting until halfway through his Harvard career, when an injury forced him out of athletics—his chosen activity up to that point—and a summer abroad inspired him to delve into drama.

This year, however, Martin beat out many more experienced actors in winning the prestigious Jonathan Levy Award, which the Office for the Arts at Harvard (OFA) grants to the most promising undergraduate actor in Harvard College.

Martin charts his journey to acting beginning with his summer in Avignon, France, where he enrolled in a seminar taught by a famous Parisian director, despite the fact that he was there to study government. “I fell in love with his style of acting and with acting in general,” says Martin, who performed in the Avignon Theater Festival that summer.

Since then, Martin has been involved in about a dozen Harvard shows in only four semesters.His favorites include “Carousel,” his one foray into musical theater, and last semester’s “Lulu.” This semester Martin has roles in the Mainstage drama “The Playboy of the Western World” and in the Sunken Garden’s Children’s Theater production of “A Tale of Two Cities.”

Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) member Aoife E. Spillane-Hinks ’06, who is currently directing Martin in “Playboy,” says that Martin’s athleticism has contributed both to his acting style and his work ethic.

“The thing about Liam is that you can see how he’s an athlete...He’s so adept with using every part of his body to tell the story that he’s a part of,” says Spillane-Hinks. “He’s so funny, he can be heartbreaking, and it’s all in his body.”

Martin agrees, saying, “I create the character from the outside in. I change my physicality to become that character...[which] involves a lot of stuff that doesn’t happen in the play.” Martin creates a childhood and past trauma as motivations for building his psychologically convincing characters.

“He finds characters that are less likeable and less charismatic and less easy to deal with [than himself],” says Spillane-Hinks. “His gift is that he was never complacent but always working.”

“He worked as hard on the thesis, or harder, than he did on this play. If that says anything about the quality of the thesis, the thesis must be extraordinary,” says Spillane-Hinks.

Martin’s thesis, a study of ancient Greek democracy through an analytical narrative and a combined adaptation of Aristophanes’ “The Birds” and “Lysistrata,” was awarded a summa on its first grade and is also being considered for the Hoopes Prize. It incorporates an analysis of historical government with the modern-day applications of theater as a form of political criticism.

“I knew that when I was thinking about writing a thesis, the only way I could do it was to combine it with my interest in theater,” says Martin.

Of the enthusiastic reception of his thesis, Martin says he was “flattered” and “shocked” to receive the summa and the Hoopes nomination. “All I wanted to get out of it was to learn about playwriting and about the Greek system,” says Martin. “I’m happy. It’s something my mother and father can brag about.”

Martin has remained humble about his extracurricular achievements as well, citing his respect for the Harvard theater community when discussing the Levy award. “The most flattering thing about it was just seeing the list of the people who were on the committee that made the final decision, and also being alongside the other winners of the Arts awards,” says Martin.

Next fall, Martin will pursue acting in New York City. He’s using the $500 from the Jonathan Levy Award for professional headshots to use in auditions. In a few years he would like to be living and working in Los Angeles, in the film and television industry. His professional aspirations are a drastic shift for a young man who had never attempted acting until just two years ago. But if the opinions of his colleagues are any indication, Martin’s inexperience should prove no obstacle.

According to Spillane-Hinks, “Working with him has catapulted [my] estimation of him up to heights that I never would have expected.”