â intro
CELINE MERCIER â 18, acting major at darden (the supernova)Â
penned by mai, 22, aest
BASIC STATS !
Full name: Celine Yeoh Mercier
Age: 18
Date of Birth: August 1stÂ
Astrology: Leo Sun, Libra Moon, Aries RisingÂ
Hometown: San Francisco, CaliforniaÂ
Family: Faye Yeoh (Mother) Charles Mercier (Father) Thea (Older Sister) Leon Mercier (Grandfather)Â
Gender: Cis woman
Pronouns: She/HerÂ
Sexuality: BisexualÂ
Religion: Agnostic
Positive Traits: Ambitious, passionate, theatrical, meticulous, refined Â
Negative Traits: Competitive, self-centred, duplicitous, brusqueÂ
Occupation: Freshman at Darden College (Acting Major) / Instagram InfluencerÂ
Likes: Well-lit dressing rooms, glossy headshots, chocolate-chip cookies, the feel of cashmere, watching reruns of bad reality shows, walking through the aisles of Sephora, the look of a marked-up script, playing the lead partÂ
Dislikes: Gardening, polyester, salted caramel, a quiet Saturday night, unprofessionalism, being ignored/being given a supporting role (theyâre basically the same thing to her yikes)Â
Living Arrangements: Leone Winters Residence Hall (roommates with Charlotte Washington)Â
Faceclaim: Natasha Liu BordizzoÂ
BACKSTORY !Â
The Mercier family is infamous in performing arts circles. Celineâs grandfather, Leon, cut his teeth in the Dramatic Writing Department at the San Francisco Academy of Arts before debuting an Off-Broadway show that launched his career. In a decade, he had established himself as one of the most exciting playwrights of his generation. Her mother, Faye Yeoh, is an acclaimed theatre actress (her turn as Lady Macbeth in a 1999 production at The Globe Theatre is still discussed by critics) and her father is a frequent name in the Best Production Design lineup at the Tonyâs. But even before Leon put pen to paper, the Mercier family had long been legacy alumni of the Academy of Arts University. Take a walk on campus, and youâll find multiple gold plaques and even a theatre department under their name.Â
Despite Celineâs natural love of the spotlight (you couldnât get through a family dinner party without little, eight-year-old Celine gracefully tapping a champagne glass, primly announcing to the adults that they must listen to the song she was practising in choir) she didnât just grow up in the shadow of her family name â she also had to compete with her older sister, Thea.Â
Where Celineâs talent is sharpened by embittered hard work, thousands of vocal warm-ups and scripts marked up to look as effortless as possible â Theaâs talent was always miraculous. After her older sisterâs first lead part (Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz - Thea had the entire first row in tears by the end of the third act) her family had decided who would carry on their legacy.
As Theaâs talents extended to composing and writing, words like genius, prodigy, artistic marvel â were declared by anyone who read her work. Meanwhile, silly, frivolous Celine, received indulgent smiles for her âlittle school plays.â Never mind that she had been in the lead role for almost her entire high school career (save for, of course, that one seriously misguided incident where a director had given her a supporting part). Occasionally, after careful networking, she would land a background part in a sitcom or police procedural (her acclaimed roles included: Mean Girl #1, Teenage Partier #3) but it paled in comparison to the true artistry that Thea possessed. Celine, to her family, though they would never explicitly say it, represented the superficial. Her performances, her obsession with keeping up a social media presence, her complete lack of dramatic writing ability, she was, by Mercier standards, mediocre.Â
The competing play this year at the Academy of Arts will be her sisterâs directorial debut. Her family, of course, are sinking all their connections and funds into the production â anything for their daughterâs creative vision, for her chance at the coveted Dickenson Award. And, say, Celine, couldnât you help your sister? Wouldnât it be a service to the family, if she could join Dardenâs quaint, little theatre troupe and figure out what they were up to? In exchange for her year at Darden, they would introduce Celine to agents and managers, someone who could secure a real chance for her. But the possibility of finally receiving her parentâs approval (no matter how deceptive the job) â is more tempting than Celine would like to admit.Â

















