BWW Interviews: Cameron Bautsch and Adrian Coco Anderson Talk LIFE COULD BE A DREAM, Acting and Living Their Dreams

Me: Cameron, what was it like finding out the show was so popular that it would be extended?

Cameron Bautsch: It was really flattering and really exciting. It meant that we got to stay with our friends a lot longer, which has been really cool. And we've had such great houses that we were just really pumped about the extension. It was really exciting.

Me: Coco, when did you start with the show?

Adrian Coco Anderson: Well, I started it the first day of the extension. I came in two weeks before too, and I watched the show like 12 times. That's a lot of times.

Cameron: More? Was it just 12?

Coco: No, it was just 12. I counted. [Cameron laughs] Then, I started the first day of the extension, and that was my first day to go on.

Me: What was it like coming into the show, since it was already established?

Coco: It was definitely nerve-wracking cause you have big shoes to fill, especially when you're going into a rehearsal process and they already know all the choreography, songs, and stuff. You don't want to be the one that messes them up so that they have to stay after for like a put-in rehearsal, so it...

Cameron: [Laughing] Yeah!

Coco: I just definitely had to be on my A-game at all times. So, it was nerve-wracking, but it was really awesome because I actually already know all four of them.

Cameron: And she did a really great job too. She didn't skip a beat. She came with all her lines down, all the choreo memorized, and we just kind of phased her in. Pretty seamless transition, I think.

Coco: Not in my mind. [Laughs] Walk, talk, act, sing now. That's how I felt. [Cameron laughs]

Me: The show is definitely a really fun show, but what are your favorite moments in it?

Cameron: Well, you know, it changes it every night, I think. As the show matures, I find that I enjoy different moments differently every time. Sometimes, I notice things that I've never seen before-little beats that I'll catch Mark (Ivy) doing that I haven't seen. It's just fun to exist in that kind of realm because we have done this show so many times now that we really can just live it because it's kind of our life at this point [Laughs]. So, I would say that's a really tough question to answer because I have new favorite moments all the time.

Coco: For me it's the same thing, different moments every night, but I think the part I enjoy the most is the end-whenever we're all signing together and we're all in our cheetah outfits-just to see the audience because all they're doing is just watching, smiling, nodding, and tapping their foot. It's really fun to see how much they enjoy it.

Me: I believe it. I remember the first night I came out to see it and when the back wall lowers...

Cameron: [Coco laughs] Ohhhhhh!!! Scene change!

Coco: [Cameron laughs] Some women freak out! People freak out. They're like, "The wall! The wall! Get the wall!" [We all laugh.]

Cameron: Yeah.

Me: I remember when I first saw the set, I thought, "Ok, this is a one set show. No changes." Then the back wall lowers.

Cameron: Right! That's a big thing. It looks sturdy. It looks like almost part of the theatre, I was blown away when they winched that thing on down.

David is a Special Education teacher with a passion and love for the performing arts. He aspires to become a full time theatre critic and/or professor of Drama as Literature.

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