Dramatist to Bring 19th Century France to Life

When Barbara Rinella gets on stage at the Twin Orchard Country Club in Long Grove, Thursday, April 28, she won’t be channeling the spirit of French impressionist artist Claude Monet’s wife, Camille. But it will seem like it.

Rinella, a former English teacher with a passion for stunning prose, calls herself an “academic entertainer,” a dramatist. For 32 years she’s been bringing books to life, presenting characters and scenarios straight out of the books she loves while whetting the audience’s appetite for the full literary treatment.

“My agenda is to promote good books to read,” said the Kenilworth resident last week, just hours after she turned herself into a version of Camille for an audience in LaGrange. “I am still teaching, which is why I love historical fiction.”

Rinella’s presentation at the Ela Area Public Library’s annual Spring Book Review Luncheon will be based on Stephanie Cowell’s book, “Claude and Camille.”

“I become Camille, who is his first wife and his first love,” she said, adding that when she began to read the book and research the artist’s life and relationships, she discovered that Monet created what is now a well-known, signature painting of his wife titled, “The Woman in the Green Dress.”

“I thought, ‘In the attic, I’ve got that green formal from 1988. That’s what I’ll wear,’” Rinella said. She also dons a brunette wig and uses several props for her Camille performance.

“I bring a blow-up of several of his paintings,” she said. “We talk about art.”

Rinella, a graduate of Duke University, holds a graduate degree from the University of Michigan.  She’s worked as an editor for Putnam Publishing Company and as a researcher for Mademoiselle magazine.

Rinella first taught high school English in Needham, MA and later at New Trier.

“I stopped when my kids were born,” said the mother of two, who is now also a grandmother.

She said, back then, she was in a book discussion group. One of her friends, a fellow member of the group, signed her up to give a speech about a book at the Woman’s Athletic Club in Chicago.

“The first time I spoke, I gave it as if I was an English teacher,” she said. Her mother-in-law was in the audience.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you just tell the story? And pay attention to what you wear,’ “ Rinella recalls.

So, the next time she gave a talk, she did that – but she read from notes on index cards. That system was short-lived. She went to full-blown theatrics, featuring a character from her featured book, with her third performance.

“I hated the notes because they were a barrier between me and my audience,” she said.

These days, she does more than 200 programs each year. She performs all around the Chicago area. She also performs in Florida when she and her husband, Dick, vacation there and aboard Crystal Cruise Ships cruises.

Rinella said she selects the books, she bases her performances on, based on her personal tastes. The next step is to write a script and develop a program.

She’s dramatized books about tennis great Andre Agassi, Andrew Jackson and Albert Einstein, to name a few.

The Thursday luncheon in Long Grove, a fundraiser for the Ela Area Public Library, begins with cocktails at 11 a.m., followed by a noon lunch seating. Gift baskets will be raffled.

Tickets are $55 per person and must be purchased in advance. For more information, call the library at (847) 438-3433 or visit www.eapl.org.