I was born Diana Kaarina Wong on March 17, 1975 (St. Patrick's Day) in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in what was once Grace Hospital. It snowed a little bit that day, my mom always likes to tell me. She also likes to tell me (a la ABBA) that "I was a dancer before I could walk. She said I began to sing long before I could talk". Love that lyric. And seriously, thank you for the music. I am half-Chinese (my dad was born in Hong Kong) and half-Finnish (my mother was born in Finland) so I am first generation Canadian. I have one younger brother. He's pretty cool, but don't tell him I told you that.
I was raised on the old movie musicals and don't think I could love Fred Astaire more. I would spend every moment I could watching classic movies, movie musicals and idolizing people like Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Priscilla Lane.. the list could go on and on. Other than that, it was Disney movies all the way - which are also musicals! I love to sing.
I learned to play the piano, took voice lessons & also studied very, very seriously to be a ballerina. In fact, that was my first goal - dance. I took 6 classes a week, sometimes 8, and spent my summers dancing from 9-3pm. I made all my friends, neighbours, cousins, brother - anyone I could drum up - do shows with me in my living room or backyard. I wrote songs, scripts, stories, you name it. With my love of old movie musicals and voice lessons though, it was inevitable that I would end up in Musical Theatre. And I did. (My brother was an amazing athlete - and because of him, I was asked to try-out for a AAA Girls Softball Team. I guess they thought athletics ran in the family. Boy, were they surprised! I am a terrible athlete! I cannot play softball. Suffice it to say, I didn't make the team.)
I started to do community musicals when I was 16. I also got an agent through the help of one of my acting teachers and, since Vancouver is not a huge union theatre town, I did commercials and radio & cartoon voice overs instead. I got to sing a duet on the Variety Club telethon with Bob McGrath of Sesame Street! I did toy commercials and probably the best known thing I did in animation as a teenager was "Ranma 1/2: Big Trouble in Nekonron, China." I was the annoyingly-whiny-voiced "Lychee" in that movie (but she's pretty darn cute!). That's her with the big blonde hair on the DVD cover. So I joined ACTRA/UBCP when I was pretty young, with my original maiden name, Diana Wong.When I was 16, I auditioned for my first big professional production, "Miss Saigon" which was to be produced in Toronto. The director I was working with on a community musical got me an Equity appointment, which was incredibly kind of him (as I wasn't), and I went (despite the fine print that said "No one under age 18 will be considered"). They asked me how old I was - and that was the end of that.
Shortly after that, I auditioned for Livent - their big production of "Show Boat" was being mounted, and I got a callback and went to Toronto! Very exciting. Unfortunately, they pulled me aside at the end of the audition and told me I was too young, but they would keep me in mind for other things and would be in touch. I wasn't convinced. Ah, well.
I auditioned for the Charlottetown Festival's production of "Anne of Green Gables" - a big deal here in Canada, and... this time I got it! I was going to be in the ensemble as "Tillie Boulter" and understudy "Diana Barry." My mom was terrified. By this time I was 17.
I have always been an enormous nerd. I was teased for it. I studied all the time, did my homework at lunch and recess and got straight A's and scholarships like crazy. I loved school. I went to "The District Incentive Program" for Jr. High, which was a specialty school for inspired learners and only had 80 students. That's how nerdy I was/am. So when I realized I would have to graduate early in order to fly to Charlottetown and do this show, my teachers were fine with giving me the extra work. I worked like crazy, headed out to Charlottetown in the beginning of May and wrote my provincial Grade 12 exams in a neat little school in Charlottetown at the same time as they wrote them back home, while being watched by the Vice-Principal whose name was "Windy." Kind of cool, really. And I got my Canadian Actors' Equity Card with the name Diana Wong again. But I missed my graduation ceremony and "prom." I was too nerdy anyway.
Charlottetown was a blast. I have never danced harder choreography in my life in a musical. Jacques Lemay, who worked with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, was the choreographer/director and we pirouetted our way through the numbers. Partway through the rehearsal process they realized they didn't have an understudy for "Anne". They asked me to come in and sing for it, and surprisingly, I got it. At the time, I was a much stronger dancer than a singer, and I wasn't entirely confident with singing either. I was the only choice, I think. :) Thankfully, I never had to go on that season!
When I came home, I had scholarships and awards from Graduation, so I enrolled in UBC and started to study Linguistics and Russian. I did more voice over & tv stuff. And a few months later, I auditioned for Charlottetown again and got it - so I had to withdraw from school. I went back to do another season in the same role and this time I DID have to go on as "Anne" - and boy, did I make a terrible redhead. Seriously, it was not convincing at all. My singing was more confident though. So much more confident that in the second show (Charlottetown did 2 shows in rep when I was there) I was made a singer - not a dancer. I still credit Jacques Lemay for having confidence in me and trusting my ability to be a singer. I had "dancer's fear" - but he pushed me to go forward and gave me a few solos. Thank you so much for that, Jacques. I remember him in rehearsal telling the Musical Director, "Don't worry. She can do it." The thing I learned though, doing one show as a dancer and one show as a singer is that being a singer is fantastic! As a dancer, you are the first one at rehearsal and the last one to leave, you rehearse non-stop and work your heart out. You bow first and you are exhausted, if not from the dancing, from the costume changes! As a singer, you rehearse for a few hours, get a specialty bow and have time to relax and have fun in the green room. If you know me at all, guess which one I preferred. I'm lazy. I like to sit in the green room.
I loved Charlottetown and my time out east immensely. I hope I get to go back there one day. I made some amazing friends, some of whom I've run into in the business all over the world. I learned how to do a professional show, I had to understudy the lead, which terrified me but made me much more confident, and I got the first real push to switch from a "dancer who sings" to a "singer who dances." I had an apartment, rent to pay, bills to pay, groceries and food to make, and I was 17-18. My mom was still terrified.
More to come...
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