Actor Spotlight: Christine Louise Marshall, Colleen Drake

Christine Louise Marshall as Colleen Drake (with Ian Carlsen)

If we were to look you up on a dating profile, what would your bio read?

Christine: I am an extremely judgmental control freak who likes playing dress-up and squeezing cats. I am also married, so please don’t call my house.


Colleen: I enjoy  reading, organizing, and swimming. I do not like loud noises or people who lie to me.

Tell us about your character in this season (in this same format).

Colleen: I am not happy with the state of things on Ragged Isle. And I don’t think Paul Soucey is being very respectful of the computer terminals at the library. He can find some other place to chat up his new conquest.

How did watching season one impact your performance in season two?

It didn’t very much, partly because I shot a lot of my scenes during the run of Season One, and also because I have no interest in watching this program. I don’t care how many awards it has won. The people who created it are clearly not normal, and I would prefer not to be associated with them. Are you printing this? Can I use a false name?

Actually, the RAGGED ISLE people are some of the most genuine, gifted and, especially, modest people I have ever had the privilege of working with. They do Maine proud.

What projects are you currently working on or have you been working on since Ragged Isle wrapped shooting?

Wrapped another season as Artistic Director of Mad Horse Theatre Company, and have chosen and am in pre-production for the next. Taught for and danced the season with Maine State Ballet. Did costumes and wardrobe for two movies shot here in Maine, HOW TO MAKE MOVIES AT HOME, and BACKGAMMON.  Am getting ready to shoot Derek Kimball’s feature NEPTUNE (about which I am very excited). Wrote, produced and appeared in a PortFinge 2012 production called MAKING LOVE WITH DAVE AND CHRISSY, which has just been asked to perform an extra run in Portland this summer. Recorded a buncha audiobooks. Kissed my husband whenever I got a chance. My garden looks like hell.

What is your favorite behind the scenes moment during production on Ragged Isle?

I enjoyed the Lobster Days and Talent Show shoots, as well as the town meeting shoot – it was a chance to tie all the ends together, meet the other people that populate this series. They are fine people, even if they did STUPIDLY vote to hold Lobster Days, despite the obvious looming trouble. Buncha idiots. Well, that’s life on an island. (Clearly Colleen and I mentally blend often.)

I also enjoyed driving an hour and a half smelling like bait fish after one night of shooting. I took off my shirt and stuffed it in a bag in the back of my van, but it still smelled. Turned out Ian Carlsen had left some of his clothes in the van too, which we were using to change. See? What did I tell you about Paul Soucey? Trouble with a capital “T.”

What is your favorite thing about your character?

She doesn’t look like a librarian ought to. It’s one more thing I love about RAGGED ISLE: in the tradition of such series as TWIN PEAKS and NORTHERN EXPOSURE, they remind the viewer that people are not as easy to pin down as we expect.

What do you and your character have in common?

We both like the smell of books.

What do you and your character have least in common?

No comment.

If you could play any other character on Ragged Isle who would it be and why?

The FBI Agent. I love authority. Or Deputy Dan. But there’s only one Deputy Dan, and that’s Erik Moody. I’m too fat to do an impersonation of him.

We’re not sure who survives the second and third seasons of Ragged Isle... any last words just in case your character doesn’t make it?

Return your books promptly.
Or suffer the consequences.
I’m serious. I know where you live.