Response: Howard Dai on "My First Time"

[ED: Readers are invited to comment on articles appearing on the CharPo websites.]

My First Time

“Oh, no, not drama” I thought.
by Howard Dai

[In reponse to My First Time by Gaëtan L. Charlebois]

Howard Dai is a contributor to CharPo as well as a theatre practitioner in British Columbia.

It was another boring day in my elementary school. I was in Grade 7. It was the first year of my residence in Canada since I left this country when I was five to live with my grandparents and receive education in Taiwan. I had’t really spoken English for nearly eight years (except sometimes in English class in our school in Taiwan, but all we said was “This is a book” or something super simple like that), thus when I came back to Canada after I graduated elementary school - which goes to Grade 6 in Taiwan – I was doing so badly, and apparently the only word I said in the first week was “Hi”. Our tiny community elementary school doesn’t really have a proper ESL (English as Second Language) program; they only took me for two classes of ESL in the whole school year – and it was taught by the French teacher of the school. Basically I had to sit in and learn Grade 7 English with everyone else. Oh, and I had to go to French class too. Seriously? I couldn’t even speak English properly, and you want me to learn French with English? Needless to say, it was a year with a sad report card (surprisingly, I didn’t fail any subjects – probably because there is no F in elementary school).

Anyway, as I was saying, it was another boring day in school. I didn’t really have friends in school because of my poor English. This day, our teacher handed us a course selection sheet to fill out for Grade 8 in the only secondary school in the city. Everyone was excited to finally get to have some kind of choices in their classes. I remembered I stumbled upon the arts electives section of the sheet. The options were Drama, Choir, Band, and Art. 

Blog: Theatre Night Fever

Back to the Mercers
by Howard Dai

I’ve always been a big fan of David French’s Mercer Family series, and have been waiting for these Canadian plays to be put on stage in Vancouver. 

And they are finally here. Furthermore, the actors in this production are two of my good friends from last year’s school musical Grease. This production of Salt Water Moon features 18-year-old Jesse DeCoste, and 16-year-old Sofia Newman.

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, January 26, 2012

January 26, 2012

Not a Good Time

by Howard Dai

It all started on Dec. 6, 2011. While striking after our band concert in Massey Theatre, I fell on one of the risers which left a huge open wound on my left shin. We went to a public clinic a few days after to get a tetanus shot; they gave me some antibiotic and said it would heal in a month. Three weeks later, the wound showed no signs of healing, so we went to the only hospital in my city, and they told me there are some bacteria living on my wound. 

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, December 24, 2011

24 December, 2011

Christmas on The Coast

By Howard Dai

It’s the Christmas season for theatre in Vancouver!!!

In Arts Club theatre, the heart-warming play The Patron Saint of Stanley Park , by Vancouver’s Hiro Kanagawa, will have their closing night on Dec. 24th, at Revue stage on Granville Island. Also, the fourth season of White Christmas is playing on the Stanley Industrial Stage till Dec. 28th, you can read my recent blog of my experience watching this year’s White Christmas here.

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, December 19, 2011

December 19, 2011

White Christmas in Van

by Howard Dai

Nothing’s better to get into the Christmas spirit than a wonderful musical. Since 2009, White Christmas produced by Arts Club had become a holiday tradition for all the theatre goers in Vancouver. This is the third consecutive year of Arts Club’s White Christmas directed by Bill Millerd, with the same cast playing the lead characters, thus I had a really high expectation of this production.

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, December 1, 2011

December 1, 2011

Swimming to The Perfect Moment

by Howard Dai

It was during the collaboration theatre summer camp by The Cultch, one instructor Vanessa told me about this master storyteller Spalding Gray and his works. And about a month ago, when I was trying to write a monologue for school drama class, I found Spalding Gray on Google again. Then finally, I got this book – Swimming to Cambodia - from the library.

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, November 19, 2011

November 19, 2011

For a theatre geek like me, theatre IS cool.

by Howard Dai

Just a few days ago, when I was surfing on Twitter like I always do. I found that I missed a super awesome conference – Making a Scene conference. It’s an annual event put together by GVPTA (Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance), for anyone who’s connected to theatre, whether you’re a performer, a theatre technician, a student, a volunteer, a patron, any kind of artists or a theatre geek just like me. A two-day conference that connects all theatre people with endless topics set by all attendees.

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, November 6, 2011

November 6, 2011

Just The Right Song

by Howard Dai

I’m always searching for a good baritone song for musical theatre auditions that fits me. For me - a 14 year old dramatic baritone who looks like 16 – it’s kind of difficult to find songs that suit me.

“Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from Les Miserables was the one song I used for auditions for the past 3 months. It’s written by Claude-Michel Schonberg, for the character Marius, a really emotional and powerful number, about how he misses and feels guilty about all his friends’ deaths. The range of the song is an A below middle C to two Gs above middle C (A3 – G5). I had a bit of a struggle hitting that high G in full voice, it’s getting easier as I’m currently working on the upper register of my voice.

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, October 30, 2011

Judge Dee and The Haunted Garden

October 30, 2011

by Howard Dai

For the past week leading up to Halloween, I’m volunteering for Seven Tyrants Theatre in Vancouver, for this Halloween site-specific production named “Judge Dee and The Haunted Garden”, re-written from the famous Judge Dee series by Robert van Gulik. We transformed Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden in Chinatown to make it look haunted-house-like, but instead it’s a haunted garden. The show features nearly 30 actors, dancers, and musicians, with an awesome site and amazing soundscape.  Arguably it's the best Halloween theatre this year in Vancouver.

Blog: Theatre Night Fever, October 27, 2011

David French and the Mercers
by Howard Dai

A month ago, I asked one of my theatre friends for a good dramatic monologue for me, he told me without any hesitation – “Go read ‘Of the Fields, Lately’ by David French.” I’ve heard about David French, and how awesome his plays are, but I’d never had a chance to actually read one. So last week, I finally spent time going to Vancouver Public Library and got the famous Mercer family plays in a book. I started from the first Mercer family play – Leaving Home, from the first few pages it already caught my interest, and I just couldn’t stop reading it. The contrasting characters make the conflict between them so breathtaking. I just started reading the second Mercer play – Of the Fields, Lately, which has the monologue that my friend suggested, and let me say, this play also shines on its own! Now I just really want to see this play live in theatre...