Friday, October 20, 2000 - North Shore News ~ 13

WRITER’S FEST: 15
DAVE HOLLAND: 16
JOHN DUNN: 18

| PAY iT FORWARD: 20 |

Riml’s ‘Fringe play gets Aris Club production

_ Martin Millerchip

Arts Editor

mmillerchip@usnews.cone

VULNERABILITY: it’s not a word that

crops up too often in conversation with

men — except perhaps those involved in

the arts. The word is synonymous with -
weakness and therefore something to be

‘avoided by big, brave boys.

To women, the word may still relate to weakness
bur it alse has associations with honesty — the

» courage to expose the underbelly of one’s feelings

NEWS photo Itlustration Terry Peters

‘NORTH Vancouver's Michele Rimi juagies bleywriting, copywriting, hus-
band and motherhood with humour anda Gaytimer.

“~The Provincial High Performance Ceritre
-. under the guidance of Head Coach
. Derek Possee.

“6501 Sprott St. Burnaby.

angle; Aldergrove North Shore
333-0423 ‘856-8221 "924-0828 .

“ www.icesports.com

and emotions. .-

The word crops up a loz in conversation with
North Vancouver playwright Michele Riml. It's not”
surprising in the context of her play, Uzder the
Tufluence, that has just opened at the Arts Club .
‘Theatre, Gran ille Island Stage. But on first impres-
Sions it’s a little harder to apply to this seli-pussessed
34-year-old with the direct stare and the strong hand

. Shake.
But then Riml has had some practice at masking ;

her feelings. As a teenage student attending

Handsworth, she had to face the pressure of hiding -

her sadness about her dying father while making
scores of public appearances as Miss Teen Vancouver.
(Some of her experiences colour her 1994 play, Mis:

Teen — “It came from a time in my life when'l was-_~

n’t suré what I was doing. "yy

Rimt says she wasn’t even showing up to school a
lot of the time but she liked her drama class and the
challenge to write a one-act play “was actually one of
the assignments 1 T handed in that year.”

- Academy of Soccer Education ~~

Introducing an indoor seccer arena
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Practise Time

She pauses and looks off into'the middle distance *,
before adding, “And it was a very good thing for me,”
it kind of got me going again.” :

The play, Sonvenirs, won the B.C, Young a ae

Playwrights Search.

While playwriting was a new penre, writing. wasn't”:
new to Rim at ail. She says she has always kepta: ~
journal and recalls loving reading from the age of - -
four. While her father wore. his lack of reading like a
badge — “T’ve only read three books in my life,” she.
mimies with a smile — a constant childhood memory
was the Friday- afternoon trip to Edgemont library to:
load up with an armful of books. 0 35

“At the age of 12,1 was reading (lames :

Michener and in heaven.” :

While books may have.offered the younger Rimt
an escape into a different world, she has seen some of
it in person as an English ‘teacher in Japan’ ‘and as 2
model in Milan and London. Further education, thi
time by choice, came at Simon Fraser University
where Rim! switched from philosophy/sociology to
graduate with a degree in fine and performing arts.

Miss Teen debuted at the’1994 Vancouver. Fringe
Festival with Andrew Mellroy, who is also calling the”
shots for Under the Influence, directing: That friendly.
relationship with Mcllroy has allowed her to stay in
the rehearsal room for the Arts Club production and:
to, judiciously; say her T piece — an option not always
offered to authers by « rectors who sec : them as di
tractions to the actors. =;

“I say one out of the 10 ‘things T want to say,”
says Riml, but acknowledges that McIlroy “might:

299

saree and | g0 “You' re directing, already’

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