Les Miserables. And Wong to Kaarina.

It was an open call in Toronto. Canadian Actors' Equity and American Actors' Equity have an agreement - and Les Miserables was slated to play the Princess of Wales with Colm Wilkinson for 6 months that year. That meant they needed to hire 6 Canadian actors.

People were lined up around the block to sing their 16 bars. I stayed with a good friend of mine from Phantom and we worked on some of the music. He was so kind to me.

I got a callback! Vinnie Liff from Johnson-Liff casting, who is sadly no longer with us, gave me a bunch of Eponine material and asked me to come back later and sing it. Of course, I already knew all the songs, just like every girl my age who liked Musical Theatre even a little bit. Ironically, he took me outside and spun me around and asked me why he had never seen me for "Miss Saigon". I think it was because I was still "Diana Wong" professionally, so that worked for a Miss Saigon cast member. Or because I sang "Now That I've Seen Her" for my audition. Huh.

I came back later, sang the material and then they asked me if I knew "On My Own." Of course I did! But the original lyrics, not the later lyrics. I told them I'd do my best, and they started with the intro - "And now I'm all alone again..." instead of "On my own..." as I was expecting. Totally different lyrics, but I stumbled through.

I never know what to think of auditions. Sometimes they are lovely to you, but you don't get the job. Sometimes they are very standoffish, and you do. I had no idea how I did. I flew back home to Vancouver and went back to singing in a band.

A month later, I got the call to join the tour of Les Miserables. I would be doing the "Red Urchin" track and understudying Eponine. I was over the moon. I could not believe how lucky I had been in my career - to be able to be in both of the shows I loved so much as a girl.

Now I had to join American Actors' Equity - and my agent suggested it was time to change my name. Since I didn't look very Asian, "Wong" was confusing people when he was submitting me. I didn't want to just make up a name, so I thought a bit about using "King" which is the English translation for "Wong" and pretty close in spelling. There was a popular recording artist at that time already named Diana King so that idea wasn't going to work. I didn't want to just make up any name and use it, so I suggested using my middle name - the Finnish "Kaarina". The good points: It was my own name. The bad points: It's spelled with 2 a's and it's foreign and confusing for people sometimes (but it's simply pronounced "carina" in English), plus it made my name sound kind of sing-songy and rhymy. It was obvious though. I wasn't comfortable with a made up name, so it was going to be Diana Kaarina. I was called "Anna Karenina" for a long time, but that's okay because I love Russian novels and that one in particular. :)

I got my US Work Permit, joined the cast in North Carolina, and off I went on a new adventure - in a completely sung-through musical!

Up until then, I had still considered myself a dancer who sings. In Phantom, I was doing a lot of dancing, ballet dancing - en pointe! Even in the one show in Charlottetown where I'd been a singer, I'd always had to dance. Les Miserables only had a little waltz in it and a quadrille. I'm not complaining about this -- I just started to freak out. I would be singing. Only.

I showed up to rehearsals in dance gear. Even dance shoes. I didn't even know what to wear to a rehearsal like this. They must've thought I was such a dweeb. I AM such a dweeb, but even I am embarrassed about this one. :) Once again, green green green.

There's another thing: while I was doing Charlottetown and Phantom, even though I was dancing in the shows, I didn't really have time or know where to take dance classes while doing the shows, and I was losing my technique. I could do the choreography for each show, but I wasn't sure I could keep my flexibility and technique in check and, as a girl who once wanted to be a ballerina, that was a painful thought. All those years and hours of training going down the drain. I was worried that I would lose even more technique doing Les Miserables -- so I took every moment I could to stretch, and keep moving in those first few years. Sadly, it didn't really matter. I still lost tonnes of technique. That's all my fault. I could've worked harder at it. Some of the Les Mizzers even asked me to teach some dance classes, which I did, but on the tour it was hard to find spaces in every new theatre and that faded out pretty quickly. And the honest truth is that I am lazy. I knew without a show to force me to dance, I wouldn't make myself dance. But I did kind of try... just not hard enough.

So there are two of my regrets: Not finishing University. Not keeping up my dancing. Please, please, please - if you are young - keep up your dancing! And if you can go to school - do! :)

Now that I digressed - back to the excitingness of Les Miserables! So I was a dweeb, in dance gear, learning a show that had no dancing, and learning it quickly. When I did Phantom the first and third time, they were new mountings so we did a full rehearsal process. When I joined Toronto, I already knew the show so the 1 week put-in rehearsal process wasn't too daunting. I had 2 weeks to learn all of Les Miserables and my understudy track too. Awesome! Actually, I love stuff like this. As a super nerd, learning is fun.

Ironically, one of the notes I always got was to look less like a dancer, turn in my feet, walk heavier in my soles - which didn't help my fear of technique loss - but did help me as an actress. I also did Phantom entirely in a "mid-Atlantic" accent (which is supposed to be a mix between British and North American - as if there was a country in between them with that accent), so I started my first singing rehearsals with that accent. Duh. I really am a dweeb. :)

I loved doing Les Miserables. We got to play 6 months in Toronto - and I got another great apartment in the downtown area. This cast was amazing - we were a total family - and I learned so many amazing things about the business, about the world, about the art.

A little while into my run with the tour, both the Swings left. I was ready to do something new, so I asked to become a Swing and they let me. For those who don't know, the Swings cover all the roles in the ensemble, and sometimes some of the leads for the show so that if anyone is sick, they can step into any of the roles and the show can go on. The great thing about being a Swing is you get to do something new almost every time you are onstage, you get a variety of roles, and you get paid more! And sometimes, you don't have to do the show - you can relax backstage and knit. :) Swinging is awesome.

And then the Eponine left and I was moved into that position. This time I got to use my real hair! :) I was seeing the country, performing in one of my favourite shows, and I got to do all sorts of different roles in the show. It was wonderful. But it was tiring. We moved every week unless we were in a really big city, and I was starting to see some of them for the 2nd time. Traveling is wonderful, but suitcases and packing is tiring after a bit. And only being able to keep what you can carry with you is great, but after 3 years, you long for a home. You're not able to do much of anything else in the business because you are never in one place. I had now been with Les Miserables for 3 1/2 years, just like Phantom. It was time to go home.

I gave my notice and got ready to head for home. And as I was driving home from San Diego to Vancouver, I got a call. Would I want to come and play Eponine in New York?

I was on my way to NYC...