GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Sherry Chock Wong, left, plays the un-named support role of "Her" with Laurence Paxton who plays "Alfred" and Gary Masuoka, right, who plays the un-named support role of "Him" in the production "Romance, Romance."

Romantic pursuit

Wong, a woman of many
talents, is putting theater first

---

By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com

Singer. Dancer. Actress. Violinist. Fashion designer. Sherry Chock Wong is all that -- and more.

Wong does it right Diamond Head Theatre presents "Romance, Romance" Where: Diamond Head Theatre, 520 Makapuu Ave. When: 8 p.m. tomorrow , and continuing 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through April 6. Tickets: $10 to $40 Call: 733-0274

Wong stole the show at the Po'okela Awards last summer in a barely-there turquoise micro-mini outfit, and did it again when she arrived for the opening-night post-show party for Diamond Head Theatre's production of "Chicago" in a striking red creation that combined a criss-cross, midriff-baring top with a fringed wrap-around skirt.

"I love clothes and dressing up -- full-on makeup, eyelashes, hair. It's almost like theater, except that you're on the stage of day-to-day life," Wong said recently over lunch. She wasn't wearing one of her J.Lo-style creations but stood out nonetheless in a tasteful chocolate brown dress, accessorized with a carnelian butterfly necklace and perfume she described as "vanilla."

For someone so attractive, who'd have thought she'd once been so "introverted and geeky" in high school that the boys ignored her, or that some of her relatives had told her she couldn't be considered beautiful because her eyes were too small and her nose too big.

Wong has been stopped on the street by women who want to know where she gets her clothes, and been offered money on the spot to design something for them. If she wasn't so busy singing, teaching voice, taking a full-course load as a post-graduate student and juggling her theatrical commitments, she could probably be a full-time designer.

But theater is her priority these days, and Wong opens tomorrow in Diamond Head Theatre's production of "Romance, Romance." She is also preparing for TV newscaster Joe Moore's newest play, "Dirty Laundry," a benefit for Manoa Valley Theatre, which opens at the Hawaii Theatre on April 18.

"Romance Romance" marks the first time that Wong was asked by the company's John Rampage and Donald Yap to audition for one of their plays. Po'okela Award-winner Lawrence Paxton and expatriate local girl Isabelle Decauwert are the designated stars, with Gary Masuoka rounding out the foursome.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Sherry Chock Wong

NEXT month, Wong will play a young TV news co-anchor who works with Joe Moore's "aging news anchorman Bryce Edwards." She describes it as her "first straight acting role, without singing or dancing."

These productions are the latest entries in Wong's rapidly growing resumé, but while it may seem that she's come out of nowhere, she's been studying music and dance most of her life. She made her theatrical debut in Army Community Theatre's 1989 production of "Flower Drum Show." Wong enjoyed the experience, but didn't pursue it.

She attended UH-Manoa on a full music scholarship and majored in biology. A short stint as a singer/keyboardist in an alt-rock band convinced her she couldn't do everything, so she quit the band, got her degree, taught algebra at McKinley High School and worked as a genetics researcher at Kapiolani Medical Center.

Budget cuts eliminated the research project, and she became a United Airlines flight attendant based out of San Francisco, where she studied voice "for fun" at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and performed as a singing waiter.

The airlines moved her to Hong Kong, but she moved back to Hawaii after the Britain-to-China handover, got married and went back to school.

She studied Chinese, Japanese, French and German, and took further voice lessons. She entered the Orvis Vocal Competition and won an Honorable Mention award. The "small monetary prize" came with strings attached, however -- she'd have to enroll in a music degree program to receive it.

"I considered that to be a sign that I should become a music major," Wong said.

Lawrence Paxton was one of her professors, and he encouraged the class to audition for DHT's 2000 production of "Phantom of the Opera." She got a spot in the chorus and as one of the dancers.

Her career has gone almost straight up with each subsequent role.

Wong got the lead in ACT's 2001 production of "Sayonara" and then gave a stand-out performance in MVT's 2002 staging of "Song of Singapore" that drew on her talent and training as a singer, actor, dancer and violinist.

She took a secondary role in the aforementioned "Chicago" last fall, while continuing to study opera in the scholarship program for young artists at Hawaii Opera Theatre.

"The whole thing has snowballed, with one thing leading to another," she said.

"Every time you get up there and do it, it just becomes easier, and then you kind of become addicted to it, musical theater and opera," she said. "I feel like kind of a newcomer to theater, but I think I've been gaining a lot of information really fast. I've learned so much from every different source and I'm inspired by so many people."

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