The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Artscene friendship: Pictured are members of the online comedy/drama series 3 Audrey that is produced by a group of Oakville friends and filmed at London's University of Western Ontario where many of them attend school. The series finale went online last week. submitted photo 27 · Friday, February 17, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com Choir heads to worlds The Oakville Children's Choir (OCC) will be competing at the 2012 World Choir Games this summer in Cincinnati, Ohio. The choir games are the largest international choral competition in the world. This is the first year the competition is taking place in North America. The games happen every two years and see approximately 20,000 participants from 70 countries. There are 23 musical categories. The OCC has a tradition of participating in choral competitions, and has won numerous awards over the years. It has musical programs for children from as young as five years old all the way through to 18. The choral games will run July 4-14. For more information on the OCC, visit www.oakvillechildrenschoir.org. Real-life friends make friendship drama series By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The location for shooting is not Oakville, but everything else about the semi-successful online series 3 Audrey is. The five-episode show was created by a group of eight Holy Trinity High School graduates, most of whom decided to go to the University of Western Ontario in London, which is where the show is shot. The final episode was released Monday, Feb. 6. "Everything we've made is out of Oakville. It's Oakville created, it's edited here," said cocreator Miguel Barbosa, who also produces, writes and directs. Just as in real life, the show centres around a group of friends who attend university. The main group consists of eight members, all of whom are from Holy Trinity. There are additional guest stars, rounding out a cast of approximately 20 characters. Barbosa is not a Western student and he's not an on-camera character. "We were all really good friends at HT," Barbosa said. "I made movies with half of them previously. We made short films and videos throughout high school. The others were really good friends of ours. They all just happened to go to Western." The show title refers to 3 Audrey Ave., an off-campus student house that has developed a real-life reputation. Some of the Oakville actors currently live in the house as do the characters they portray on the show. "The show is about a good circle of friends," Barbosa said. "They're all really good people. They just watch each other's backs. The show is about this new student, a third-year student, switching from Carlton University to Western, into a new house. It just happens that 3 Audrey is a notable house around the campus." Though the comedy/drama is about character interaction, it does feature a lot of partying. This has led to the school's administration taking notice of the show and to approach the creators. Since then, the group has taken down the show teaser, which made several unflattering references to Western and it has scaled back on the use of the Western name. The school is still referred to in the show, but not elsewhere. "People don't refer to Western as much in the show. We still show the logos and the building. We just scaled back. We don't refer to it in the marketing," he said. The show has received tens of thousands of views, likely much of it coming from Western students. However, Barbosa said the show is not yet as successful as he would like. "The hits mean a lot of different things. You compare them to other videos you've made but it's not a measure of success at all," he said. Barbosa adds that 3 Audrey is not a reality show, as many people believe. "A lot of people think its reality. It's all scripted. Every shot has lights, we wrote this six months ago in August. We're trying to make it look real. That's the goal," he said. To learn more or to watch the show, visit www.3audrey.com. Dominik Kurek can be reached at dkurek@ oakvillebeaver.com or followed on Twitter at @DominikKurek. Watkinson's work at Artspace One of the top Canadian landscape artists, Terry Watkinson, is now represented at Artspace Oakville. The Thunder Bay native is known for depicting wildernesses and images of Thunder Bay. Being a musician also, his artworks also exhibit such things as rhythm, bold gesture and a sense of lively communication. "Watkinson's art is stunning and creative in design and execution," said gallery owner Chazz Balkwill, in an e-mail. "A painting by Terry stands out, uniquely, among his contemporaries. You can instantly tell a Watkinson when you enter a room. It's guaranteed to cause a double-take as you look on, amazed at the colors, the composition, the light play. It's beautiful." Artspace Oakville is located at 128 Reynolds St. For more information, visit www.artspaceoakville.com.