For self-described homebody and indoor kid Sam Mercury, a walk through Breithaupt Park provided a chance to connect with her new neighbourhood and establish the area as a green space for this stage of life.
“It just sort of vibes on a frequency that matches where I’m at in an adult way,” Mercury said. “It’s not bustling, but it is occupied.”
Mercury was born and raised in Kitchener and attended the University of Waterloo for theatre and performance. She wanted to use stories and performance to put positive ideologies into the world after better understanding the impact that media has on our lives.
“Then I learned how much power actors have, and how it’s basically nothing,” Mercury said. “Where is that power? I want that power […] it was this different kind of triple threat, actor, writer, producer, […] that really sparked my definition of myself as a creative person.”
While we walked along the path, the shade from the trees provided relief from the hot day. No bunnies were spotted during our detour down Rabbit Trail, but we did pause to enjoy a butterfly flitting around us in the early evening.
Mercury graduated from university in 2018, ready to pursue performance opportunities, but not even two years later did the industry came to an abrupt halt when the pandemic arrived, and with it the first lockdown. Mercury was an essential worker in a grocery store and feeling the stress of her risky situation. She decided to quit and turn her energies towards making art, focusing on storytelling, given that performance opportunities were scarce.
“I discovered my love of script writing,” Mercury said. “And that was when I discovered MT Space Arts Exchange.”
The Arts Exchange program provided opportunities for Indigenous, Black and Racialized artists during the pandemic to engage in partnerships and collaborations. Mercury applied with an idea to explore her biracial identity, and was selected and paired with actor, writer and choreographer Alten Wilmot to create a piece.
The collaboration with Wilmot resulted in the play mixed(er), the story of Sam, a biracial young woman who learns her parents are throwing her a surprise birthday party, and who tries to navigate the event while keeping her life compartmentalized. Mercury was inspired by old episodes of the TV show Frasier, particularly the more farcical elements.
The writing process with Wilmot was a very positive experience for Mercury.
“It’s been this beautiful combination,” she said. “We write and we do the artist thing, but sometimes we also just talk about things we have experienced and try to parse them out. I feel like I have […] the sibling that I always wanted.”
For Mercury, representation and self-discovery were at the heart of her impulse to create mixed(er). She was deeply impacted by the Black Lives Matter movement that gained momentum during the early stages of the pandemic, as well as by seeing more interracial families in Kitchener.
“I was having to reckon with my place in Black culture, where I sat with it,” Mercury said. “I had kind of always gotten away with middling out […] I felt out of place, but also in place because [Blackness] is a part of me […] I’ve come so much more into myself by writing this play, and I just hope that it does that for other people.”
The support and mentorship Mercury received through MT Space was invaluable to the creation process, and she remains grateful for it.
“I’ve been so lucky, I don’t know how I got so lucky,” she said. “Mentorship has not just shown me what I can do, but it’s also made me think about what else is possible.”
Mercury sees a lot of possibility in the arts scene in Kitchener and hopes that the area will attract more diverse voices to contribute to artistic creation.
“I feel so lucky to live here and to be able to create art here and meet so many new people,” she said.
A love of all aspects of comedy is currently driving Mercury’s artistic interests. She works with the Toronto-based sketch comedy group Potato Potato, performing in the 2020 digital Fringe Collective. She discovered a love of improv through taking classes locally with Pinch Arts and has found a sense of freedom in comedy.
Watching improv and sketch live and on television provided inspiration for Mercury.
“Seeing these people and how ridiculous they could be and how hard it made me laugh, I was like, I want to do that,” she said.
Looking forward, Mercury plans to dig deeper into comedy, both performing and writing, as well as seeking out new connections and opportunities for collaboration. Exploring her community to draw inspiration and recharge through the green spaces will be part of that process.
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