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Phone: 905-845-3824 (ext. 5559) Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: rjerred@haltonsearch.com mmm Jamie Smith · Special to the Oakville Beaver Noel Dhingra, 13, of St. Marv's, Ontario, and Oakville's Neil Stratford. 13, right, hang out together during a break in the shooting of an episttde of a new TVO kids' `reality' series, Swap-TV , now in production and set to premiere in September. By Mary-Louise Langlois S P E C IA L T O T H E BEAVER Kids like to trade -- they trade lunches, hockey cards, t-shirts. Some kids may even think about trading lives. Thirteen-year-old Neil Stratford of Oakville not only thought about it -- he did itf Stratford swapped his life in Oakville for the life of Noel Dhingra, a 13-year-old resident of St. M ary's. Ontario. Well, at least he did for a weekend and now we can watch on T V to see how it all turned out. Stratford and Dhingra are just two of the young people who participated in the new T V O kids `reality' series. Swap-TV. now in production to pre miere in September. Last weekend Stratford and Dhingra "swapped their lives" . Stratford went to St. M ary's to spend the weekend with Dhingra's family where he had an opportunity to learn fencing with stage fighting and fencing instructor John Brogan, who is located in Stratford. "The swap was fun because 1 got to try new things, such as fencing, archery and print making." said Stratford. Dhingra came to Oakville to spend that weekend with Stratford's family. Because Stratford is interested in gour Swapping lives Oakville teen featured in new TVO reality series met food and gourmet cooking, Terzopolous. When thinking of pilot ideas, the Dhingra. who is not a cook, had the opportunity to take a gourmet cooking graduating students considered the pop class at the "Gourmet Cook" in ularity of reality TV shows such as Mississauga where Stratford takes Survivor. They wanted to create some classes. thing that was a fun docu Swap-TV is aimed at "We take two kids and mentary style reality the 9-13 year old `tween show for kids, but not the we swap their lives for set'. The pilot show of traditional formal style the weekend. We look Swap-TV started out as a with sit-down interviews. school project for four They wanted to make it for kids with a unique female students in their fun with game-show ele way of life and then set final year of the Radio ments. graphics and popand Television Arts pro up a swap that the kids ups. gram at Ryerson "W e wanted to do a will each get into." University. show that instead of just · Tatyana Terzopolous Tatyana Terzopolous. following around kids, Swap-TV now' one of the associate who do interesting things, associate producer producers on the series, we wanted to immerse has been involved since them into each other's the inception of the program idea. lifestyle, so that they can learn firsthand " We decided we wanted to do some what it's like to he another kid. That's thing that had potential to get us going where the premise of Swap-TV came in the television industry." said from. We take two kids and we swap their lives for the weekend. We look for kids with a unique way of life and then set up a swap that the kids will each get into." TVO liked the pilot so much it want ed to create a 13-part series. Serving as mentors, TVO introduced the student producers to Ira Levy of Breakthrough Entertainment with the idea that these novice producers could use the help of more seasoned profes sionals to get a series produced. Finding participants took some cre ativity on the part of the fledgling pro ducers. and they found volunteers in a variety of ways. One approach was to place ads in newspapers looking for kids. Dhingra saw the ad and responded by e-mail. The producers were interested in Dhingra because he was into fencing and archery and also had a printmaking studio in his basement. Stratford fit into the picture because he was interested in learning new things and his cooking teacher Patricia Corsini (who is chef/owner of `Cook Gourmet in Mississauga) had been approached by the producers and indicated that Stratford would be a good candidate for " trading places" for a number of reasons. " Neil is interested, really keen and he challenges himself all the time. He asks questions and is very focused." commented Corsini. She also stressed his parents' level of involvement in his hobby also made him a good candidate for Swap-TV. Terzopolous agreed that it is neces sary to have the whole family involved to make it a successful swap. " It's also about the family, not just the child, making the swap." "Both kids were incredibly cooper ative and positive. The show becomes a life-changing experience for both the kids and the families when every one gets involved...it is at this point that the experience moves above and beyond the confines of simply `mak ing T V '." Sign up for drama camp West End Studio Theatre's Summer Drama Camp w ill begin July 2. The two-week sessions run Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Session one runs from July 2-12 and costs $350. Session two runs from July 15-26 and costs S390. Session three runs from July 29-Aug. 9 and costs $350. Session four runs from Aug. 12-23 and costs $390. Participants take part in exercises designed to awaken and expand creative expression through improvisation the atre. creative dance, voice and mime. 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