Phil and Jackie Edwards are compatible, passionate performers who thrive front and center on the brightly-lit stage.

Theater is their way of life. One manages, the other serves as artistic director for their company, Auburn Regional Theatre, which encourages and supports aspiring artists in the community.

The Auburn couple enjoy the regional arts scene. They simply love a good act. So when ABC came calling last fall to offer them roles on the hit reality TV series, “Wife Swap,” they jumped at the chance.

Only this time, it was no act at all. All they had to do was play themselves.

This was reality TV, and the Edwards clan was willing to open the door to their privates lives for two weeks. They applied for a shot at the show through an online advertisement and a friend’s urging. They got the bid last October.

“The captured us. They captured the flavor, what we felt,” Phil Edwards said of the experience, filmed almost exclusively in Auburn. “They were our true feelings, reactions and frustrations about what was going on in our lives.”

Nothing was contrived, nothing was cosmetic when the TV crews came to the Auburn and Long Island, N.Y., households to tape the episode last November.

Crews produced more than 100 hours of videotape by following the Edwards over a two-week period, but only 22 minutes of it made the final cut. The same amount of footage was devoted to the other family.

The episode will premiere at 8 p.m. next Friday on KOMO 4.

For those who don’t follow the series, “Wife Swap” matches families with drastically different backgrounds and values. The wives – in this case, Jackie Edwards from Auburn and Myra Chi from New York – exchanged husbands, children and lives – but not bedrooms – to discover just what it’s like to live another woman’s life.

In the first week, wives move in with their new family and adopt a different lifestyle. They agree to follow a manual written by the departing wife who establishes household rules, such as how to parent, shop, do housework, manage budgets and conduct social life.

In the second week, the new wives take charge. They introduce their own rules and run the household.

The families were not allowed to communicate with each other throughout the ordeal. No e-mails, no phone calls, not even a three-letter text message.

“That, in itself, was very hard,” Jackie Edwards said.

Added Phil Edwards: “It’s stressful, emotional. And when you’re separated from your spouse and family, it’s even more difficult.”

In the end, the couples meet for the first time to exchange criticisms, concerns and frank assessments of each other and how they handle their lives.

The results are shocking, explosive and enlightening.

In this case, series organizers pitted clearly divergent families from opposite coasts.

The Edwards are a creative, free-thinking family who struggle to operate a community theater out of their modest home. Jackie and Phil are actors, singers and celebrity impersonators. Their 15-year-old, free-spirited daughter, Elisa, has few rules in following her parents’ footsteps.

The Edwards’ disorganized home flows with so much energy, there’s little time for domestic matters. Dishes are only done when it’s absolutely necessary, and bills often get lost in the shuffle.

But Jackie doesn’t worry.

“If life gets messy, just go with it,” she said.

The Edwards’ antithesis is the Chi family. Charles and Myra operate two successful martial arts businesses. Myra is the CEO, Charles is the “product” and kids Meagan, 14, and Charles Lee, 9, serve as role models to other students.

Myra runs the family’s home life like a corporation. She proudly admits she’s the dictator of an army and makes her children sign a document, making them citizens of the family.

The Chis are strict, disciplined, no-nonsense. The Edwards are flexible, independent, a loving family where debate is encouraged.

“They couldn’t have picked two families who were completely opposite in so many ways,” Jackie Edwards said.

Such differences brought out misunderstandings and frustrations.

“It was an emotional roller coaster,” Phil Edwards said. “There was a lot of conflict. You bring in people from different backgrounds and ideologies and you isolate them for two weeks.”

Apprehensive at first, Jackie Edwards dived into the life-altering domestic fray. The Chi family regimentation was trying and difficult to penetrate at times.

“When you’re thrust into a situation, into their household and live the way they live, it starts to get to you,” she said. “You find that anger spot inside you that makes you want to yell.

“It is reality TV in every respect,” she added. “I was so involved in the conversation and the crisis at hand, that I didn’t even notice the cameras were there.”

Through it all, Jackie Edwards stood firm on her actions.

“I really had had to fight for my values, what I believe in,” Jackie Edwards said.

In the end, despite all the problems and turmoil, the families came away with a different perspective on and appreciation of home life.

According to the Chis, the Edwards’ household needed more structure, control and order. Myra Chi also decided the theater business needed a better marketing approach.

According to the Edwards, the “sterile” Chi household needed more smiles, understanding and interaction. Families are meant to be loved and connected, not run like businesses, they observed.

Jackie Edwards brought some lightness and joy to a serious and rule-ridden Chi family.

“I said it’s OK to have fun and be imaginative. You don’t have to hide that from your friends,” she said.

Jackie Edwards hopes her influence will bring some change.

“I was told by the producers that I did make a big change for them,” she said. “Myra has a softer side now, I think.”

The grand experiment finished, the families departed cordially. They don’t expect to be close, but wouldn’t necessarily rule out a reunion.

Phil Edwards was just relieved to be reunited with his wife. The swap had run its course.

“The grass is actually pretty green on this side of the fence,” Phil Edwards said. “This is a pretty good life we have.”

Both sides acknowledge that no family is perfect. But for two weeks, two families with little in common actually came to a common ground.

One lives to entertain, the other is all business. One perhaps learned from the other.

But one thing was especially clear:

Opposites don’t always attract.