| Northern People: Local kid on PBS cooking show |
 By Marta Hepler DrahosTRAVERSE CITY — Mychelle Hopkins wasn't surprised to learn that Tuuli Qin-Terrill was selected to star in a new PBS kids' cooking show. "She is an unusual talent," said Hopkins, education director for the Old Town Playhouse, where Qin-Terrill has performed in half a dozen shows with the Traverse City Children's Theatre. "She's very prodigious; she has been very mature in her abilities for a long time. She's one of those kids that you say, 'OK; she's going to do something.'" Qin-Terrill, 12, is a cast member of "The Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show." The series — billed as America's first cooking show for kids — features 16 kids "cooking, singing and dancing their way into America's hearts through culinary arts." The series premiered Aug. 28 and airs twice a week with a studio audience on Chicago PBS station WYCC Channel 20. Qin-Terrill is one of two field correspondents for the show, which features "authentic foods, cultural diversity, nutrition education, companies, restaurants and products." Other kids form the main cast, which cooks a new dish each week with the help of a guest chef. A musical cast performs the show's main tracks. "It's really entertaining, and you get to meet so many people and work with a lot of people," said Qin-Terrill, who conducts on-location interviews at places like Indiana's Fair Oaks Farms dairy and the Illinois Institute of Arts, which has a culinary management program. The Traverse City East Middle School seventh-grader beat out 1,600 other kids at auditions held May-July. Qin-Terrill has studied acting, dance, voice, piano and cello. She also loves to bake, and has taken a cooking class at Northwestern Michigan College. "I like to eat what I cook," she said, adding that she especially enjoys ethnic foods and adding different ingredients to traditional American foods to make them less ordinary. Rehearsals and filming for the show took place over the summer and included working with an acting coach to learn diction, facial expressions and announcing. "You have to look right at the camera," noted Qin-Terrill, one of only two cast members from outside Illinois. "I don't like looking at the camera because I'm used to making eye contact with the audience 'out there.'" Mom Cathie Terrill, a production artist with her own business, estimates that she and Qin-Terrill made the six-hour commute about seven or eight times. With travel, some days were as long as 15 or 16 hours, she said. "It's harder work than you would think," added Qin-Terrill, who got to make up her own interview questions and ad lib from the scripts to create her own style. "I used to think they do one shoot and then edit it, but they do eight or nine shoots." The "Jr. Cuisine Cooking Show" is an extension of the USA Cooking Camps Inc. organization, founded in 2007 to provide workshops for elementary- and high-school-age youth. Qin-Terrill's first segment aired Aug. 28, with another segment to follow. She also got to pose on the red carpet at a sneak preview event Aug. 27. "When I watched it, that was when I was nervous," she said. The show will tape 13 episodes a season and probably will go out to national PBS audiences later this fall. If so, folks at the Old Town Playhouse likely will tune in to see their protégé. "She's got an amazing look, she's very self-possessed, she's got charisma," Hopkins said. "She's got that something that makes you want to watch her." |
