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[0:12] John Schwab: Hi, John Schwab here from Curtain Call.

[0:14] John Schwab: And welcome to Take Your Bow, a new bite-sized podcast series from the Curtain Call Stable that shines a spotlight on the people that make theater happen.

[0:21] John Schwab: In today's climate of increasing isolation, we want to bring you a daily dose of inspiration.

[0:27] John Schwab: In each episode, we give someone in the theater a chance to take their bow, from the seasoned professional to drama students, vocal coaches to life coaches.

[0:35] John Schwab: You'll find them right here, giving insights into what drives them to be in the business and who inspires them.

[0:41] John Schwab: Whilst on lockdown, I've been mentoring five students from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts here in London.

[0:46] John Schwab: The five of them are all getting their MA in acting and should be doing their showcase performances about now, but I don't need to tell you that that isn't happening.

[0:58] John Schwab: Karen is not your typical postgraduate drama student.

[1:02] John Schwab: Already with a successful career as a teacher, the sacrifices that Karen had to make to follow her dreams, it's just an inspiring story.

[1:11] John Schwab: Here's Karen to tell you.

[1:45] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Um for the UK industry. Having uh a stage name is so cool because I don't have a stage name. My name is my name. Well, you know what? I really wanted it to reflect my heritage, my background. It sort of came naturally. Um as part of my creative project at Mount View, I did a piece on identity, and I kind of discovered that I had, you know, in many ways run away from my background or I left that behind many years ago, and it was my way of coming back to who I really am, you know. I just don't want to keep taking everybody else's names, and even not even my mother's name, that's why I put her name back in my stage name. Reinvented my stage. I love that.

[2:33] John Schwab: So when did you know that you wanted to work in the business, Karen?

[2:36] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Um I think it was probably about five years ago. I think when my children were between the ages of five. My son was, no, probably my son was about seven years old, and my daughter was about four, and I remember I was still teaching, um because that's my other profession, my first profession. I was a teacher, and I've always wanted to act, actually. It's always been a passion of mine. And because of my family circumstances and being in the German-speaking part of the world in Switzerland, I found myself unable to get back so quickly into the industry. In fact, I fought very hard to pull myself away from the family on some evenings and do advanced film acting courses in Zurich, which was actually meant to be done in German.

And I asked the director if I could do all my scenes in English, and I think that's how it all started, and then I quite soon realized that I actually loved it, and he said I was actually pretty good at it. So it gave me more impetus to move forward and then to look for more training programs in the country. But of course, there were actually none in English. So I thought of London, and then I started applying for drama school and the rest is history.

[4:04] John Schwab: Amazing. And who inspired you like at that point? Because who was it that really got you wanting to be an actor and getting into this industry that is notoriously difficult, but also is an industry that people who are inspired to do it nine times out of ten, just go for it.

[4:26] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Yeah, you know what? I'm I can't really put a finger on it, but I must say, and I have to, I hope I'm not gonna embarrass myself. I remember listening in on interviews, particularly one by Tom Hiddleston many years ago. And he's got lots of personal stories about inspirational stories about how he came into acting and advice for people who want to act. And I remember listening in to him at a point that was pretty low in my life when I felt frustrated with being a mother who wanted to do more with her time, you know. And I remember putting my kids down every evening and still having more energy, you know, and people were going like, aren't you tired? You know, don't you want to just sit down and watch TV?

And I didn't just want to do that, and every time I watched TV, I found myself wanting to do what they were doing, you know, being inspired to act, yeah, and always thinking about the craft and things like that. So I remember writing a letter to Tom Hiddleston.

[5:32] John Schwab: Amazing.

[5:33] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Yeah. And I didn't put a stamp on it or a self-addressed envelope because I didn't really need anybody to reply, but I just wrote a five or six-page long letter about why he inspired me and why I really want to do this, and that I am in the midst of applying for drama school. So, in a way, I kind of talked myself into it. And so, yeah, so he inspired me, but then again, actors inspire me, movies inspire me.

[6:03] John Schwab: Um yeah, yeah.

[6:06] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: And they carry on inspiring you now. You're meeting people, you're seeing shows, or what keeps you going and thinking, yeah, that's what I want to do.

[6:17] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Well, um I would say that I love watching, I love watching movies. Um I also love going to the theater, and I went to a lot of different shows while I was in London before I came back from and even before that when I was in Switzerland, I always made it a point to spend some good money on good theatre or whatever they brought in to Zurich, for example, or to Basel, and supported many of the little English-speaking theaters here in my area. There were not many. I mean, there are not many here, but I've always been involved in it. Um what about what else do I do? Let me think. Um it's quite hard to find English programs apart from just watching them on television because we don't have a big English culture here because German is the main language here.

So I find myself in a little bit of a bubble world, so I have to work very hard to stay connected to my world, to what makes me tick. And of course, with the family around me, I find that it's hard to find the time as well. Um but um yeah, that's what I do. It's a lot of hard work getting to do this and being inspired by my friends now. Now I've got a great network of people I've been exposed to in London, and I really want to hang on to them, whatever happens down the road.

[7:42] John Schwab: Yeah.

[7:43] John Schwab: You will, and that's your tribe. Whenever you I didn't get to go to a drama school, I kind of went straight into it, but I would have loved to have come out with the, you know, that, well, here's a phrase that people have heard, support bubble, you know, to have that around you when you leave drama school is a fantastic thing.

[8:03] John Schwab: Um, Karen, you just mentioned having children and living not in England, and you applied for drama school.

[8:14] John Schwab: You had to leave your family behind to go do your master's degree.

[8:19] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Indeed.

[8:20] John Schwab: What do your family think about your job now, this skill and this endeavor that you're going after?

[8:30] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: I think it has very gradually dawned on them that this is something that really inspires me. And I think in the beginning they thought that it was just like I was just looking for some fun, you know, some avenue to vent my extra energy or something. But it's taken them a while to actually understand that there is a craft to it, you need to focus and you need to spend time on it and it's work, you know, and I think they're beginning to respect it as well. And I think the way to do it is to keep them involved. In the beginning, I thought I should run away, go to drama school and leave them behind and have them not know what's going on in my life because that's work and family is family, you know, I thought I had to separate the two so much.

But ever since, you know, in a funny way, ever since coming back to ARA where I live in Switzerland after the virus came out, it's given me a chance to actually show them that this is what I do and they saw firsthand what I had to do in this room and how much time it took and how much energy and how much focus and concentration and that they could do their part as well.

[9:44] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: So I think to cut the long story short, I think they have learned to share this journey with me and most of all I think they quite enjoy some of the scenes I come up with as well and they have a good laugh and I think it's great that I'm sharing this with the family and I don't need to hide it anymore like an embarrassing, you know, I'm gonna follow my dream and I'm not, you know, I'm just supposed to be a mother and do nothing else, do you know what I mean?

[10:11] John Schwab: So I know well and not as a mother but as a parent, yes.

[10:14] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Yeah.

[10:15] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: And I think that's amazing. That is such a great way of looking at it and because you have younger children and to include them into what you're doing and to say actually Karen if you think about it follow your dream, what a great example you're setting for your children.

[10:33] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Yeah, I know. I tell myself that's the best thing I could do is just to be myself, and that they could see their mom, their mother being so many things, and you know, yeah, I'm just showing my true self to them, and it just makes for great conversation, and you know, I think it's great all around to actually share your true self with your family, and particularly as well with my mother and father-in-law, who live very close to us, and it was very hard in the beginning to get past them because you know, it's like they're part of society who thinks I should do what mothers should do and take care of their grandchildren. And I know I was for a long time hesitant to tell them of my dream to go away.

[11:18] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Um and they were it was filled with shame and you know guilt. And I carried them with I carried that with me when I was in London for quite a bit. Um, but every time I called home to know that everything is okay, it just made me feel so much better that they they offered to do their part to help me achieve what I want to achieve. And and I think without asking for it, I would never have come to this kind of realization that it's not all horror and and and pain and difficulty, you know, you just have to fight for what you believe in. I think it'll pa you will find a way, and I think it's what a great story, Karen. It's beautiful to hear, and um such a fantastic approach to your training. And I know it must have been hard, but well done for persevering.

[12:01] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Thank you. Um and we'll get to how hard it's been since March, but let's before that, you've talked about your career as a teacher, which has a hundred million skills that you need to have to keep a classroom engaged, involved, and passing on knowledge, keeping people aware, and and and basically included in what you want to do at any one point, and actually, you are performing for a class. You are doing the same thing that you would do on a stage, just teaching. So that's that's a great skill to have. And I always ask my guests how important it is to have multiple skills in today's world. So anyone coming out of drama school is getting these different skills, communication skills, physical skills, way to hold yourself in society and in a conversation. How important is it to have be multi-skilled in today's world?

[13:00] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: I think it's extremely important. Um I think the the biggest thing um the biggest thing I've learned um being a teacher and going to drama school and wanting to be uh wanting to be in this business is that it it really teaches you about people. I mean it makes you get to know uh others and to listen to each other, to to understand uh what makes people take to basically to be to be compassionate about about your characters, you know, to know that um every character wants something in in a sense, it's not it's not always wanting bad for people but wanting something for themselves or need or desire as well. Um and I think it it helps me to it helps me to just connect to people, and I've always been the kind of person who finds that it's very important to to talk to people, and I I think it's it's it's just it's just a natural thing.

I've always loved to to um to share myself with others, and in order to do that, you need to talk and reach out to people. And I think coming from a very mixed background, um, because my my father uh I was raised with Chinese in my life and and as well as English, my mother's Eurasian, my father's Chinese, and there was always a lot of um uh I would say I would say cultural sharing at home you know there was there were lots there was lots of languages at home and in Singapore where we have multicultures there um as a teacher I taught child children uh students of all ages as well as all all races so there was lots of um uh talking to each other and understanding each other and understanding those our religious differences and um yeah being being harmonious in that sense and I've I've I've yeah I've always enjoyed getting to know people and that's that's one of the things that I I could um continue to do in this in this in this business because it's so much people oriented I feel um it's all about yeah it's all about connecting and talking to people.

[14:03] John Schwab: Karen you should be doing showcases right now um at Mountview or other places and and you know you normally a graduate would have a graduate show to do you guys don't have that so how have you been spending your days this last term as it were of Mountview?

[14:03] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Well it's it's well ever since we we came back we were we did our showcases uh via a digital showcase so the school supported us in um doing monologues for our showcase because you know we we couldn't have a public show and that was that was pretty uh pretty tricky but we may we managed to pull it off with our with our trainers online and then um we've gotten pretty good at um self-taping yeah.

[15:46] John Schwab: Right.

[15:46] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: That's that's a great skill that um we've managed to practice while while being in this lock, you know, lockdown situation. In fact, right now, right as as as we speak, we have just entered my my group has entered a um a module called uh show reel module. And so we've been working with an award-winning director, and he's working with us and coming coming up with our duo logs. And um, instead of having somebody with us doing uh an on-scene uh sort of on location shoot, um we have our our our friends call in on the on the on Zoom and we basically set our camera up somewhere and do a self-tape but you know with an actor, not just any reader with us, but with a as a real actor being our partner in the scene.

So it's it's as close as we can get to uh um um what we call that, um a showreel, I guess, but without being on location in terms of acting, it still works. So I think it's been very tricky, you know. It's it's um we've had to learn to adapt. Um, but most of all, I think all of us have improved in our skills of self-taping, which um uh let's face it is going to be part of our business from I think this point on. Not not that it even wasn't before, because I remember as I uh used to, but I I still act in in Swiss productions here. Before coronavirus hit, I was still being asked to send in self-tapes. Even if, you know, even um even though I could just take a half an hour ride into Zurich on a train to go do an uh an in-person casting. So it I I was used to it before, but um my skills just got way better since since being back.

[17:23] John Schwab: Um fantastic. You know, absolutely I think it's uh I think you guys are gonna be ahead of the curve because you've been self taping and practicing your self taping for so long, doing your uh your showcase, virtual showcase. I've seen, I've seen them. And they're very good.

[17:40] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Thanks.

[17:41] John Schwab: Before we get into some fun final quick fire questions, sure. Um I have to ask, are you a fan of musical theater at all?

[17:50] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: You know what? I I am, I am.

[17:53] John Schwab: Okay. If you had one cast album, Karen, that you could only listen to one, in quarantine, self-isolation, everything. What would that one cast album be?

[18:06] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Oh, um. Oh. Let me think. Um well recently I watched uh a musical called Juliet and Juliet, and I I kind of like the the hippie, you know, that the this the songs in there, and it just made me dance and sing, and people were standing, and so I think that that brings back good memories. Oh, I'd like to have uh the songs from that um from that show, yeah.

[18:38] John Schwab: So we're gonna do some this or that questions, Karen, and then I'm gonna leave you alone to do some more of your preparation for your show reels. So there are no wrong answers, it is just a uh a this or that question. Um you ready?

[18:54] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Yeah, sure.

[18:56] John Schwab: Okay, so first question is movies or theater.

[19:01] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Ooh. Theater.

[19:05] John Schwab: Okay. Twitter or Instagram?

[19:09] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: None.

[19:12] John Schwab: Sorry.

[19:13] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: I know it's okay.

[19:14] John Schwab: It's okay. I'll give you your one pass though. I'll give you your one pass. Tom Stoppard or William Shakespeare.

[19:23] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Uh Tom Stoppard.

[19:25] John Schwab: Okay, Broadway or West End.

[19:28] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Uh West End.

[19:29] John Schwab: Clotted Cream or Jam first?

[19:33] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Ooh. Jam.

[19:36] John Schwab: Okay. Netflix or Amazon Prime?

[19:39] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Netflix.

[19:41] John Schwab: Cinderella or Snow White?

[19:44] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Ooh, um Snow White.

[19:47] John Schwab: Wicked or Lemiz.

[19:50] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Oh uh Lemiz.

[19:53] John Schwab: Dogs or cats?

[19:55] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Dogs.

[19:56] John Schwab: Of course, of course. That is a correct answer. Last one, Steven Sondheim or Lynn Manuel Miranda.

[20:05] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Oh Lynn Manuel Miranda.

[20:08] John Schwab: Yeah, he's a pretty cool. Both of them are pretty cool. I hate to ask that question.

[20:12] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Definitely.

[20:13] John Schwab: So Karen, is there, I know you said none for Twitter or Instagram. Is there somewhere that people can go and find you online?

[20:20] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: Or my gosh. Is it just um, you know, you're on Spotlight, obviously, so any casting directors out there can see you. Um well, currently, well, I'm not on yeah, Twitter or Instagram. I kind of keep myself pretty private, but um Spotlight most most likely. I have a Swiss website as well, but that's sort of linked to Spotlight anyway. So kind of perfect.

[20:44] John Schwab: Yeah, Spotlight's the best, the best uh way to get to know me, get to see my work. Hopefully they'll be more up there soon.

[20:52] John Schwab: Excellent. Well, Karen, thank you so much for this. This was great. Um I love your journey. I'm so proud of every one of the people that I'm speaking to with like all of my. I'm not a mentor, I'm just uh I I'm a I'm a buddy, a theater buddy. And um what we're talking about is fantastic. I just love your journey I I'm talking to Jess and talking to Johnny and Nathan and Pear you guys are all so frickin' cool and I look forward to meeting you I look forward to working with you thank you so much.

[21:13] Karen Ann Wong-Dorall: John it's been such a pleasure um have a great rest of the week and we'll speak soon thank you John.

[21:13] John Schwab: Karen Ann Wong-Dorall acting student on the acting MA course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts keep listening this week to hear more from Mountview students that are continuing their course virtually in London and far far beyond. If you'd like to take your bow on this podcast get in touch with us by any of the social media platforms at curtain call or email me at John at curtaincallonline dot com that's John with an H. We all need a little bit of inspiration and happiness these days and hopefully today's chat gave you just that. Join us tomorrow with another Mountview student the fourth in this series will be taking their bow. Bye.