In the theatre and performance industry, Ash wears many hats: actor, improviser, director, producer, voice actor, puppeteer, and award winning playwright. As of September 2024 she is adding Artistic Director to her list of accomplishments as the new A.D. of Bull Skit Comedy.
She is also a freelance writer who specializes in songwriting, sketch comedy, and reviews and editorials for the video game industry.
She holds a Bachelor of Education degree in English/Art and a Theatre Performance and Creation diploma. She has performed and trained internationally (USA, Italy, Slovenia) and creates plenty of content locally and online (twitch.tv/Ashromer). She’s a certified beekeeper and an avid squirrel enthusiast.
Past Performances
Puppeteering Mr. Bunn in my play: Cooking With Tobias
Performing over thirty characters in the solo show: Fully Committed
Performing my sketch Alberta Loves Improvisers
Singing my self-written comedy song: The Weird Kid In School
Singing a song made up on the spot in an improvised musical
In The News and Reviews
Woman of 1,000 faces
Red Deer actor shows her versatility in series of plays throughout 2022
Ash Mercia has had a whirlwind year, treading theatrical boards all over central Alberta and beyond in 2022.
Her current gig is playing the trickster Mario in the opulent Prime Stock Theatre comedy The Games of Love and Chance, now playing at the Scott Block Theatre.
But Mario’s 18th-century boots are just the latest theatrical shoes Mercia has been filling.
Hands down, the 37-year-old has been Red Deer’s busiest actor of the year, racking up more than half a dozen credits since January.
Mercia kicked off 2022 by playing hapless restaurant reservation-taker Samantha, as well as over 30 snooty, angry and loony callers in the one-woman show Fully Committed. Constantly running from one end of the stage to another and up ladders, while switching into different characters’ voices, was like running a marathon, she recalled.
“I’d go home and eat crackers and hummus at 10 o’clock at night…”
Fully Committed Review by Joel Semchuk
Fully Committed is a diverse, captivating show that provides a full theatre-going experience with one set and one performer. This performer is the very talented Ash Mercia, who plays upwards of three dozen different characters. Every one of these characters is a fully developed persona, and Ash’s character, Sam, interacts with all of them several times throughout the play. These characters all have different accents that Ash nails perfectly, and she takes it a step further and projects each character’s background and personality. Ash even goes so far as to change her height, becoming shorter or taller when necessary. Ash’s voice-characters interact with different props that reflect their characters: The socialite produces a cognac glass, the Russian gangster is playing with a gun, the head waiter and hostess have menus.
These props add to the characters’ depths and help to establish a dichotomy even though it’s basically Sam talking to herself the whole time. Then there’s Sam’s character: Sam is an aspiring actress, and she goes through character development in terms of her acting career. Also, many of the characters she plays influence her actions, meaning that the play brings together dozens of plot points, some from as far back as the play’s opening, to create the mother of all happy endings. It’s funny, entertaining, relevant, and masterfully acted. Watching one performer change characters with the ease of someone changing hats, watching this performer interact with the set, and watching the complicated, heartwarming plot come to its satisfying conclusion makes Fully Committed a spectacular show, and the quintessential touchstone for one-performer plays.
Indoor/Outdoor - Reviews
Mark Weber, Red Deer Express
“I have rarely watched a show that is so perfectly cast.”
“Director Mercia of course deserves heaps of credit for injecting this show with so much warmth, heart and life.”
“I left feeling a renewed sense of how important those key relationships in life really are, and how we can’t take them for granted for a single second.”
“Sincere congratulations must go to her for the careful attention she has paid to every single aspect of the performances, and for building such a superb, compelling show from start to finish.”
Almost, Maine - Reviews
Mark Weber, Red Deer Express
“Hutchison and Mercia do a wonderful job of capturing how worn out this couple really is with pretense, and how weary they are with their dying relationship.”
“One of the most powerful scenes shows a more mature couple Phil and Marci (teriffically played by Brendan Hutchison and Ashley Mercia) who are tired of propping up the charade of being happy.”