CANADA COURIER: Canada's La Femme Nikita on the Internet (09/08/96)

CANADA COURIER

by Christopher Guly

Canada's La Femme Nikita on the Internet

On a cool, drizzly Thursday night in May, Libid Zyla does at a Globe Bistro and Wine Bar reception what every aspiring actor is likely to do. She networks.

Smoking a cigarette, in holder, and wearing a leopard-skin scarf around her neck, the 20-year-old, raven-haired Ukrainian Canadian works the room.

The event is a preview of a new interactive social drama on the Internet. Its developers - software titans Corel Corp. and Ottawa-based Animatics Multimedia Corp. - are promoting it as the world's first soap opera/murder mystery on the World Wide Web. Ms. Zyla, daughter of businesswoman Oksana Bashuk Hepburn, is promoting herself as the first Ukrainian Canadian to win a Best Actress Academy Award by the year 2011.

Cross purposes? Not really, considering the two ideas boast confidence. The Corel-Animatics venture, called "Club Mode" - and located at http://www.clubmode.com - is a weekly, episodic drama in which Internet users can help create the story line with one of about 10 characters. Ms. Zyla, who plays Anna, "the young Ukrainian revolutionary who heads up an inflammatory theatre company," is one.

Every week, the story changes and visitors to the web site can use an online "Mood Bar" to respond to anything the character says - transmitted by both written text and audio - depending on how they feel. For instance, if Anna invites you to see her company's upcoming production, you can either press green for "yes" or red for "no." In either case, Anna - a woman who also smuggles arms to rebel Ukrainian armies - will respond.

Ms. Zyla has already videotaped nine episodes - including the May 9 pilot - which earn her $400 (just under $300 U.S.) apiece. The video is digitized for use on the Internet - which can be downloaded in QuickTime clips.

"Club Mode" story editor Kirk Finken says Ms. Zyla was selected as an online actress partly because she "looked like an angel" - a handy juxtaposition to Anna's femme fatale persona. But the casting fit is a lot more autobiographical than that.

Last year, Ms. Zyla formed her own theatrical company in Ottawa called Cozen F/X which plans to take its show, "Revolution," on the road this summer to fringe festivals in Montreal, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton.

She says the show looks at events in every decade of the 20th century. With the 1990s, "Revolution" begins its glimpse at the current decade by going back to the roots of current job dissatisfaction and the growing influence of technology in the late 1980s.

Perhaps not inflammatory - and not very Ukrainian, apart from her presence - but the Cozen F/X "Club Mode" combination could be Ms. Zyla's launching pad to stardom.

Modelling herself after back-to-back Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks, Ms. Zyla - who is married to Ottawa theatrical technical director John Alexander - wants to be in the movies. Certainly, her regular appearances on the World Wide Web can only help increase her profile. Maybe Hollywood will notice Ms. Zyla's star potential?

Warren Hik, meanwhile, hopes the Internet will take him to the stars.

The Vancouver-born Ukrainian Canadian owner of the Polar Design Group in Ottawa, also has big dreams in riding the information highway. In many ways, they are out of this world.

Mr. Hik is intent on establishing a permanent lunar colony by the end of the century. By networking on the Internet, he hopes to attract 1,000 participants, who will spend six months on the Moon in groups of 100.

The problem is that Mr. Hik is already a year behind his starting date and has yet to meet with any NASA types. "It would be unrealistic for me to think there wasn't a lot more work to do," he explains.

While he pursues his aerospace goal, Mr. Hik is also developing another idea which is more down-to-earth - and more directly exploits the Internet.

In early June, he hopes to launch "Ottawa Live" - located at http://www.pvg.net. Essentially, it will be an electronic tour guide of the sights and sounds of Ottawa, featuring an innovative section devoted to 22 local dance clubs.

"You will be able to dial up the web site and receive a live feed from any one of the clubs included or see what happened at last week's party at 11, 12 or 1 o'clock," explains Mr. Hik. But, he adds, "Ottawa Live" still needs a bit more work.

While Mr. Hik appears to have many more cyber-miles to go before he hits electronic pay dirt, Ms. Zyla seems to have found herself an Internet cadillac in which to further her acting career. In the end, networking at the Globe party might not have been as important a self-promotional vehicle after all.

On May 16, "Club Mode" was officially launched in Los Angeles. (Maybe Tom Hanks will visit the site.)