EDITOR ANNIE ELLISON THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28 2013 4 Life after Reality TV: Reiko Mackenzi She’s no longer on the Real Housewives, but there’s no stopping this Vancouver mom By HAILEY MCDONALD e second season of local reality TV show the Real Housewives of Vancouver just started up and former cast member Reiko Mack- enzie won’t be returning. The Voice caught up with Macken- zie, who lives in the southlands area of Vancouver, about her life after finding fame on the television hit. “The show brought a lot of opportu- nities for me,” she said in an email. Mackenzie said the show also gave her an opportunity to give back to her community. “Thosted the NOH8 event last May at the Renaissance Harbourside Hotel,” she said. “I am a big supporter of gay rights and equality.” NOHB is an equality-rights campaign with a huge celebrity following. She is also an avid supporter of Dress for Success, a non-profit organi- zation that encourages career develop- ment through confidence boosting for low-income women. The show also gave Mackenzie the opportunity to channel and share her passion for gluten-free baking. “Tam happy that I did the show,” she said. “Not only did it give me the outlet to pursue the things I truly care about, it gave me some interesting business opportunities.” RHOV follows the lives of six Van- couver women juggling their careers, children, love lives and friendships with eachother. Langara students have mixed opin- ions about the show. Photo-imaging student, Lily Dich- burn said the “housewives” aren’t a good representation of women in Van- couver. “T didn’t realize we had that many bitchy white women,” said Dichburn. Back in January, Mackenzie said via Twitter that her drama-free lifestyle didn’t coincide with the theme of the show: @dearmrsWendy® Yes. Appar- ently I didn’t bring enuf drama LOL#dramafree #healthylife #lotso- flove. “Im just one of the neighbours, a mom with children who loves her Star- bucks too,” she said. Mackenzie and fellow cast member Christina Kiesel, who also left the show after season one, have been replaced by Amanda Hansen and Russian bomb- shell Ioulia Reynolds Mackenzie is looking forward to her future with her daughters, her Ferrari 458 and her gluten-free baking - al- though unfortunately for her admir- eres, it won’t be televised. TWITTER PHOTO Reiko Mackenzie is living her life to the fullest Celeb faces Cyberbullying Destiny’s Child star gets hazed by blogosphere and Van musicians weigh in By DEANNA CHENG don’t respect musicians and the effort they put into their art. After Beyonce Knowles’ perfor- mance at the Superbowl, an online trend called “Poor Michelle’— as in Michelle Williams — popped up online to ridicule Williams for not being as cool as Beyonce. The Poor Michelle blog received over 1.5 million hits. But cyberbullying is lame, right? “Being a performer at that level is a huge amount of work. It’s not just your job. People don’t understand the level of work, commitment and discipline it takes to be at that level,” said Cathe- rine Hiltz, bassist for local band Hot Panda. Hiltz said if you take yourself too se- riously, you’re setting yourself up to be upset. On the other hand, she thinks artists don’t get recognized for their work. “People practice three to four hours a day and then you spend another three hours working out [to look good] on stage, and you have to do recording or rehearsals for four hours a night.” People feel entitled to see outstand- ing performances but they don’t know what goes into it, she said. Province music writer Tom Harri- son said heckling and name-calling can be a good thing. “The experience can be provocative and might leave you thinking, it might influence what you do in the future. “Nobody likes being heckled but how you respond is an indication of maturity. You can ignore it, you can be distracted by it, you can have your own retort ready. “You might be feeling vulnerable or invincible ... and you just have to deal with it,” he said. “All performers need to build up a very thick skin because once you put yourself out there, you’re going to get blowback,” said radio host Alan Cross. Despite celebrity hazing, Hiltz re- mains positive. “The only thing you can feel good about is that you’ve done your work, and you feel good about the perfor- mance that you’ve done, and you feel good about the message you’re send- ing to the world. And if you feel like youre honouring yourself, there’s Sams people on social media ® The time she was like, “Talk to the hand!” and Beyonce and Kelly were like, “Oh girl, no one uses that line anymore...” * Michelle Williams is getting her own re- ality show. No, not that Michelle Williams STL ee EL material for @poormichellew to post daily is just tragic...yet hilarious. Hilariously tragic. iS = 2 7 ba = * The fact that there's enough Obama...) NIKO M photo Bassist Catherine Hiltz: Internet trolls can’t bring down musicians who love what they do. WHAT THE INTERNET SAID ABOUT ‘POOR MICHELLE’ * Poor Michelle, Adobe Creative Suite got more screen time than her * Michelle was at the Oscars!!! (well.. Michelle No expiry date for Studio 58 By JES CUNNINGHAM t has been 26 years since Deborah Williams graduated from Langara’s Studio 58 acting program. Williams, graduate of 1987, says she hasn’t had difficulty finding jobs because she has passion and works hard. “I work my ass off,” said Williams, who also does stand-up and radio. Most recently she toured with the Arts Club for the company’s production of “Hen- ry and Alice: Into the Wild’ with fellow Lan- gara graduate Beatrice Zeilinger. “We have the same process and training,” said Williams. With every new show, things such as the size of the stage, amount of people seated and the acoustics must be taken into consid- eration. “There’s a lot to adapt to,” Williams said. Williams said that she absolutely feels that the Studio 58 program prepared her for the industry, and has come back several times to teach workshops and direct. “You have to believe in what you’re do- ing because otherwise no one will knock on your door,” she said. “There has to be a rea- son to get up in the morning.” She is currently working on a play and creates YouTube videos for a series called rantingparent.com with Studio 58 instructor Alison Kelly. The two have worked together since meeting at Studio 58, 26 years ago, re- ferring to their relationship as her “other marriage.” Both of Williams’ children attend Langa- ra, although they are not involved with the arts program. Instead they express them- selves through environmental activism. “They are really passionate about what they do,” said Williams. “I think it has a lot to do with being raised in an arts communi- ty.” There is a lot of free-lancing in the acting industry because there are not many compa- nies left anymore. With the large cuts occur- ring to the B.C. Film industry, Williams says she has seen a large cross over for jobs. “People who are in film often want to do plays,” said Williams. “More people are looking for stage work.” Overall, Williams believes that passion is necessary for everything, not just acting. Actors who have different mediums and create their own work don’t end up waiting around for someone to come knocking, she said. “Don’t be a Kardashian.”