This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you are listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:19] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. This is the 30th episode of Backstage Talk. I'm really excited about that, and today I have a really special guest all around the world from the UK. I have here with me Cameron Tweed. Cameron, thank you so much for being here. It's an honor and a pleasure, and I'm really excited to ask you a lot of stuff. But first, hello.

[0:47] Cameron Tweed: Hello. Nice to see you and meet you all the way from England, across the pond. Thank you for having me. My pleasure. I will first start asking you, I know who you are, but our listeners don't, so I'll let you introduce yourself a bit.

[1:07] Cameron Tweed: Sure. Well, hello, everyone. My name is Cameron. I live in the UK, about an hour out from London. I'm currently in my final year of college, or school, college here. Before I go off to uni next year, I'm applying for different drama schools here in the UK, and also normal universities to do normal courses, because I think it's good to stretch, especially because of COVID, with the industry being put on hold. I think it's good to keep your doors open at the moment, so I've got a footing in as many doors as I can get in. But yeah, that's me at the moment, waiting to hear back from a few places for next year, but it's all hopefully going well. And I'll obviously, as we get further into the podcast, explain a bit more about my background in musical theatre and dance, tap more specifically. But yeah, very happy to be here.

[2:16] Martín Acuña: And well, now that you're saying that you're looking into other schools, besides keeping yourself in the entertainment industry, what other programs are you looking at, at the moment?

[2:23] Cameron Tweed: Well, my three current offers for university are to study law with Spanish law, so quite different, and that's at the University of Oxford, and then there's two more schools in London, University College London and King's College. So they're quite, obviously, they're very different to your kind of your typical route through to get into the industry, but I think with Oxford especially, you know, you've got people like Benedict Cumberbatch and Footlights and all of that, which you can go through through universities here in England. So I think it's not the most traditional route to go down, perhaps, to study a very dense subject like law, but I'm sure that everything will hopefully work out well in the end.

But I've also got two final recalls from drama schools here in the UK, so Guildford School of Acting and Arts Education London, which are two very big drama schools here. So those are kind of my, I've got my recalls on Saturday and Tuesday, so those are kind of my options at the moment, but yeah.

[3:44] Martín Acuña: But that sounds amazing, I wish you the best. I know that you will get a lot of options out of all the schools you just mentioned. Tell us a little bit about how you started in theatre and in musical theatre.

[3:57] Cameron Tweed: Well, I lived in Singapore, even further across the globe in Asia for about 10 years, and the kind of cultural, theatrical community out there isn't, you know, as big as it is in Broadway in America and in England. And it kind of, my journey, if you will, in theatre kind of started, well, it started with dance mainly, is that I remember my mum went to pick up, she went with, my mum's friend was, her daughter was doing ballet classes, and I was hanging out at their house and the mum said, do you want to come pick up my daughter with me? Because my mum was there as well. And I said, yeah, sure, I'll come along to the car ride, not thinking much of it. And we turned up early and so I kind of sat outside and I watched a few classes and I was like, oh, this is kind of cool.

Like, this is, you know, not your typical boy thing there from when I was younger. And, but I thought this is really cool. And I went to a shopping mall a few weeks later and I saw a dance shop and I said, oh, mum, mum, can I go in there? Can I go in there? And she was like, okay, fine. She let me go in. I remember seeing these kind of shoes with metal on the bottom and I was like, oh my God, this is so cool. And I tried them on and I just like, I loved, like, just making sounds with my feet and just, I don't know, just the feeling of kind of, of tapping, which was, didn't know what it was back then, but do now. And my mum kind of thought, this is a bit, you know, he's not a football type of guy, but my mum has lots of friends who kind of work in the theatre industry in Singapore.

And so that Christmas, I think I auditioned for a panto for a company called Wild Rice. I don't know if any of your listeners are based out in Singapore, but Wild Rice is probably the biggest kind of theatre company and theatre practitioner in Singapore. And my mum knew one of their directors for the panto and I auditioned. And actually the first year I got in because I was just, I was friend, my mum was friends with him and, you know, they were just trying to do my mum a favour, but I did that for about four years just because I, you know, I loved, I kind of loved that feeling of theatre. And so, yeah, that's kind of where my, my start of my theatre world started in a way was just because I watched a ballet class, my mum thought, you might enjoy this, I'll put you in contact with one of my friends and I just happened to do a pantomime on you. And that was, that was how it started.

[6:49] Martín Acuña: I love it. I love it. It's just, it was meant to be.

[6:53] Cameron Tweed: Exactly.

[6:53] Martín Acuña: I do believe in serendipity and a lot in fate, but some things are meant to be and what you just said, I think it's meant to be. And you just started out of, out of the blue, taking ballet classes and tap classes. Who else? Do you have a specific figure of someone that inspired you to be a performer?

[7:18] Cameron Tweed: I think I kind of, the culture in the world that I grew up in Singapore was, you know, it was the kind of big rise of children's television and Nickelodeon and Disney and kind of the rise of that industry. And so I did, I grew up with all of these, kind of these child stars and things like iCarly, Jessie, all of these, you know, really typical late 2000s TV shows. And I kind of, I always watched that and I was like, I'd love to, you know, live in LA and be a child star. Who wouldn't? The life just looked amazing. And so it was kind of like things fell into place. It wasn't that I had an idol or I had an inspiration and I thought, I want to do that. It was that I kind of, I think subconsciously in my mind, I was kind of looking like, wouldn't that be amazing?

And then, and then in the other part of my life, I was, you know, watching a dance class and kind of put the two together and went, oh, I never thought about this. Like I can go into this. And then from there I kind of developed inspirations in a way. I think my mum kind of showed me the classic Singing in the Rain. I saw there was a production of On the Town, to which I kind of got familiar with Gene Kelly and Gene Kelly's work. And so, yeah, I was never, it was never one thing that inspired me to, one thing, it was just one, it was kind of a collective thing of what I was watching, what I was interested in and what I was, yeah, seeing in life. And so, yeah.

[9:14] Martín Acuña: So you're 18 right now. I would guess that you started performing around 10?

[9:23] Cameron Tweed: Yeah, yeah, no, no, eight, I think it was. Eight.

[9:27] Martín Acuña: And you've come a long way with the World Tap Championship.

[9:34] Cameron Tweed: Yeah.

[9:34] Martín Acuña: So you are a five-time World Tap Champion.

[9:39] Cameron Tweed: Yeah.

[9:41] Martín Acuña: That it's just mind-blowing at being at such a young age. It's just like mind-blowing. Tell us a little bit about that journey into the championship and into the five times you won it.

[9:56] Cameron Tweed: Well, as I said, it all started in kind of this, going to these tap classes. And my teacher, Richard, who's still teaching tap now in Singapore, kind of saw me and I wasn't great to start off with, I kind of stomping my feet around, trying to find my way. And yeah, and my teacher kind of said, well, you know, why don't you do some private lessons and then come to a few more classes? And so I came to a few more classes. I kind of, I worked on my kind of skill. And I still, I still wasn't, I wasn't, you know, amazing. And I kind of, I was decent at it. And then I moved back to England in 2013, and I just happened to see a, my mom happened to see this advert for a tap class from a few, someone who, there's a tap show called Tap Dogs, and he was the dance captain in Tap Dogs, and he was teaching a workshop.

And so I turned up to this workshop in Italia Contes, which is a big theatre school in London. And I, I came to it, I did it, and it was, you know, I just was, I was really enjoying myself, wasn't thinking anything of it. And at the end, he pulled me and my mom aside, and he said, have you, you know, have you had any training in this? And I was like, well, I mean, I've had a bit in Singapore, and that was it. He said, I think, you know, I think you've got something, and I'd love to work with you and kind of get your skill up. So I worked, his name is Douglas Mills,

[11:37] Cameron Tweed: I worked with him for about four years, kind of working on really cool technique, and I kind of got taught all from scratch, taught all the kind of basics of tap. And then I went to a dance fair. This story sounds very complicated to them. In my head, the linear makes sense. But I went to this dance festival called Move It. It's the biggest dance convention in Europe. And I saw this tap company called Taptac, which are quite famous, Taptac. And I saw them, I did a class with them to work on my canoning skills and rhythm skills. And I thought, I might as well, might as well audition. It'll be quite fun. Not still not thinking anything of it. And Taptac are actually the kind of tap company that create the TGB that compete in the World Championships.

I should put that context there. But I worked with Taptac. I went to their auditions. I auditioned and I got in, I got into their youth company. They've got kind of a company and associates. The associates are once a month or once every two weeks. So I joined their youth company. And that was in 2014, 2015. I'd been working with Dougie for about a year, year and a half. And I worked with them and I auditioned for the TGB, for the tap team. And the first year I got a role in their formation, which is basically a 24 group number. It's all about the patterns and straight lines. In the World Championships, they've got this camera at the top of the stage to judge how straight your lines are and to judge how good your formations are, choosing the name of formation.

And I was, I was the youngest one in there. I was actually, so much detail. I mean, there's three categories in the World Championships. There's children, juniors and adults. I was actually a child and I danced up the category into the junior section. And I, yeah, so I was in their formation and we won gold for that. It was to, The Wiz, Ease On Down The Road was the song, which I'm sure everyone will know. And yeah, so that was my first, first gold was, was this 24 formation group, to which it's more about the collective and keeping in line than it is, you know, technique and things like that. So that, that journey from, you know, when I was really young, I say really young, when I was eight till about 13, 12, was kind of just working on technique and working on things like that and becoming part of this group.

I then in, that was in 2015 that I won the gold. I then took a year off of tap because I got into a West End musical. I got into Big The Musical and I was in the kind of premier first European cast of Big and we toured around England prior to it coming to the West End. So I took a year off in 2016 to kind of not work on tap and work on musical theatre and joined my first professional company. And then I came back to tap once my contract had ended with the production company. I came back to tap, I auditioned again and this time I got a solo, where did I get that? Yeah, I got a solo and I think I got, I got a solo and I got an adult formation. So this time I was a junior. I danced up in the adult formation and I had a solo in my age category, juniors, and to which I choreographed that solo myself.

It was, yeah, it was quite, yeah, I'd never done choreography before. And so they kind of, they turned around and said, yeah, solos, you guys are going to do them yourself. And I was like, oh no, oh no, this isn't going to go well. And obviously they gave help. They gave lots of help and they gave lots of kind of advice and guidance. And I thought, same thing I always thought was kind of, I'll do this because I love it for the fun, but I'm not expecting anything. It's that old saying, what is it? Want everything, expect nothing. I think it's a saying like that. And that's kind of the attitude I went in. I obviously wanted to do well, but I wasn't expecting to do well. And to be honest, I don't think the team thought I was going to do well either.

But that was, that was 2017 and I actually came fifth. I came fifth that year and we won the, we won the formation. And so I did get, I did get gold that year. But yeah, I came fifth, which I think everyone was very surprised by because I was kind of, not the dark horse, but no one had ever really seen me as, as competition. And, you know, there were times, like I remember in, in rehearsals, a lot of the time it was kind of like, Oh, I forgot you were doing a solo or things like that. Cause I was never really seen as, as that much. So to get fifth with my own choreography, I was really, I was really proud of. And then I stayed with them cause I thought, you know, I've done, I want to keep getting better.

I want to keep, you know, working on my skill. I stayed with, I stayed with Taptac and I, sorry, I, I re-auditioned again next year. You have to audition every year for the company and every year for the team GB. So I auditioned for both and got into both. And then this time I got a solo, a duo, a trio and a small group. And so I was now in small numbers for the world championships. And I was dancing up for two of them. So I was a junior. I danced into the adult category, which is above 16 for the small group in the trio. And then for the duo and the solo, I danced in my junior age group. This time I had one of the, actually the kind of founding number, he did the choreography for me. It was, you know, it's brilliant choreography.

And, and yeah, I trained and I trained and I trained. And I went to the world championships that year and I, I worked so hard, you know, hours and hours and hours every week. I think by the end of it, I was working from about 8am till 10pm on the weekends. I was working about three hours a day, not every week, but most weeks, working all my numbers. And still I went with this idea of, I want to do better than I did last year in terms of my solo. But, you know, if I get fourth, even if I get fifth, anything is, anything is good. With my duo, we didn't even think we'd make it to finals. And my trio and the small group, we were just, you know, as close as we can get to the top is, is good. And we went and yeah, I ended up, I ended up winning my solo.

I won my trio and my small group and my duo came second. So it was a good year for me. It was a surprise in the end. Like you just said, like, go for the best, but expect the worst. So yeah, so nice surprise there.

[19:42] Martín Acuña: And you've obviously trained a lot and learned a lot of things from scratch. What are those main things you think a tap dancer should know? Like, really know by heart?

[20:02] Cameron Tweed: I think, I think it's hard. I think when you look at tap compared to other dance styles, you know, when you've got stuff like jazz and ballet and all the different kind of more specific branches that come off of jazz that meet with it, commercial and ballet and all that, they all come down to technique as the core. And it's the same with tap. It all comes down to kind of core technique. But the biggest thing with tap, I think that separates it as an art form is the kind of musicality, the, um, the need for musicality that needs to be worked on, um, from, from a tap dance. And I think that is the, the biggest thing that I would kind of say to people wanting to start tap is that really focus on kind of rhythms and, um, and, and working through the music.

Um, obviously that's, I think the first step of tap is kind of learning about the core steps, you know, shuffles, you've got close work, um, crawls, um, paddles, kind of pickups, the kind of basic steps which, um, amalgamated together, create the dance. Um, and it is really important that you've got, you've kind of, you know, all the drills, you know, all the different, the core technique steps. But once you've got those, the different, you know, I think anyone can learn that to, anyone can kind of drill those steps. The difference that makes someone that can, you know, make sounds with their feet and then kind of make music and, and, and dance and tap dance is that they, um, it's to music, it's, there's musicality to it and you have to kind of create intricate rhythms and, and tap should be as visual, as orally pleasing as it is visually.

Um, and so it's really imperative that you get both the performance aspect and then you get the kind of, the sound quality, because that's what people are impressed by. I mean, you can, you can move your feet really quickly at, um, and someone watch them go, yeah, but then it's just the, the kind of rhythms that come from that. So I think definitely working on being able to, to try different, to try swung rhythms, to try kind of even rhythms, syncopated rhythms, and just learning and drilling to kind of fit in the pockets of the music and, and kind of experiment with different time signatures is just really key to kind of taking your tap to the next level. And you just mentioned one thing that made me remind me when I started tap dancing, um, and it's the visual pleasing you need in tap dance.

Like I remember my first tap classes, um, like I guess this happens to everyone that learns tap that they just like stumble and stomp around all over the place trying to make any kind of sound. But I remember like watching myself in the mirror and it was like I feel like a gorilla dancing. It was really weird.

[23:13] Cameron Tweed: And then obviously with the years with more technique, with more discipline, it was like okay I can make this visually pleasing. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's obviously so many different styles and forms of tap and you know the kind of the new American—well, it's not new—but the American style that's come out is just so intricate and stuff like that. But then we look at the kind of traditional golden age tap and it's all, you know, we look at 42nd Street, Top Hat, On the Town, all these kind of classic tap shows and it is all about, you know, the audience. I would say 99% of them aren't really going to be sat there going, "Oh, that was, you know, triple pickup, that was really hard," or like, "Wow, that step was really intricate."

They're going to be going, "Oh, that sounded nice," but it looked so impressive and a company of 40 people doing it makes it impressive. And so it is such a kind of key part in the world championships. It's also, it forms part of the criteria that they mark you by is your presentation of the dance. You could have the most brilliant choreography and you could be the most technical dancer, but if you can't present the work in a way that audiences and people enjoy watching, then I think tap slightly loses its kind of engagement to audiences. It's so important. I remember from a tapper's point of view, I'd watch these soloists in the world championships and I'd be like, "Oh my god, there's no way I can beat this person.

Like, this person is on a different level of tap that I can never reach. This is something else." And I was really surprised that I won because I thought the competition was so strong. But then at the end of the day, a big part of it is, you know, how you present the dance. And these people that are crazy good at tap, they sometimes find themselves kind of closed in and hunched over and just getting the feet really quick and not really caring about the ankles or the knees or whatever part of the body that's moving. So it is as much of a visual art form as it is an oral.

[25:51] Martín Acuña: I have another question for you. Performing, what is your best memory, like an overall, your performance history? It could be from the World Tap Championship or any other musical you've done or any other opportunity you've been on stage.

[26:06] Cameron Tweed: I've got a few. I don't think I can pinpoint. Am I allowed to say more than one?

[26:14] Martín Acuña: Of course you are.

[26:15] Cameron Tweed: Perfect. Well, the biggest one that stands out to me is the year that I took off from kind of focusing on tap. I kind of joined the musical, I auditioned all throughout kind of the string for it. I had to do singing rounds, dance rounds, acting to read some scenes in and kind of meet the creatives and things like that. And then actually, the way that they don't normally do this—I mean, when I was younger and I was training, I used to audition for all of the kind of Billy Elliot, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I always got to the finals. I got to the final five to play Michael in Billy Elliot, the finals for Bruce in Matilda. I got to finals for Charlie and I got to all the finals and I never quite got it. And I was getting to the point where my voice was breaking and I was kind of shifting my playing demographic. And it was quite ironic because the musical is called Big the Musical. I don't know, have you seen the film Big with Tom Hanks?

[27:25] Martín Acuña: Yeah, I love it.

[27:26] Cameron Tweed: So I've never seen it before. And it was kind of perfect because I was getting too big to play all these roles. And it was kind of my last shot, you know, getting into something professional when I was young and getting into kind of a lead role as a child. And we found out on the day, which never really happens. All the auditions I've done, they kind of tell you two weeks later. Some of them don't even tell you. It's such a culture in the industry that you get to the final round of stuff and you never hear. I remember auditioning for the Peter Pan film called Pam, and you know, I'm still to this day waiting to find out if I got it. And the film came out four years ago. I'm guessing it's a no, but you know, you never get told.

But so we found out on the day and I was like, I called my mum and I was like, "You'll never guess what." She's like, "Well?" I said, "I got it! I got the role!" And she was like, "No, you're joking. You're joking!" I was like, "I'm really not." And she actually ended up calling my agent and saying, "Is he lying?" And they were like, "No, no, no, he has genuinely got it." And my mum finally was like, "Oh wow, it's amazing!" And so we moved into the rehearsal process in September of that year, September 2016. And obviously, it's been about four or three months since I got the role. And I remember thinking my voice has obviously developed quite a lot since then and gone a bit lower. And I thought, "Oh god, I really hope this doesn't go wrong."

So I turned up on the first day, I kind of met the director, the choreographers, the musical director, the adult cast, and we went—I did my first call where we were learning the second member in the show talked to her. It's called, it's a good album, everyone, Big the Musical. Nice, nice plug there. But we got to the scene and they were teaching it to us and I sat there going, "This is so high! This is so high!" And two of the other boys put their hands up and I thought they were going to say something about the keys. I put my hand up as well, and the two other boys went, "This is so low! I can't sing this!" Oh my god! And I was like, "I'm sorry, this is way too high! I can't sing this!" And Stuart, the MD, was like, he said, "Give me a day, give me a day, I'll figure something out."

And I thought, "It's two against one here, I'm definitely gonna get fired, you know, I'm definitely not gonna get this." And he comes in the next day, and I was, you know, waiting for the bad news, and he said, "Okay, what we're going to do is I'm going to transpose all of the orchestrations down a few tones for every night that Cameron's on and every night that the two of you are on, we'll do it in the kind of original set key." And I was like, "Oh my god!" Like, they, you know, the whole two-hour performance got completely transposed just, you know, just for my songs and just so I could sing it. And we, I know we had two different papers and the orchestra was told every night, it's blue, I was blue, and the other team were pink.

And they got told, "Okay, it's blue tonight, Cameron's on." So they'd kind of put blue. But anyway, that's getting later into the story. So here we were in rehearsals, we were figuring out the two different keys. And the reason I'm telling the story is the whole process is my—this is really what made me think this is what I need to go into. I can't even describe it. It was the most amazing thing. But so I, yeah, I talk about the whole process because I think it's interesting. So yeah, we were there in rehearsals, we were kind of working with our director through scenes. The lead in it was Jane McGuinness, who was in the band The Wanted. He was the one, strictly for any UK viewers out there, he won a big TV show called Strictly Come Dancing.

But yeah, he's obviously famous from The Wanted. He was in there. The cast was quite famous in terms of British musical theatre. Gary Wilmore, just yeah, the cast was amazing. So we were working with—it was amazing to work with, you know, these adult professionals who've been through all their training and they've kind of were working professionally on the West End to work with kind of West End producers and directors and choreographers. So we learned all of the material in London at Dance Attic Studios. We learned all the material there and then we moved to Plymouth where the set was built. And I remember the first—all of our rehearsals in Plymouth were with the full set. So, you know, we could get used to it.

And just the set was, you know, half a million was put into it and it was kind of a tiered revolve system, so the stage kind of revolved and three different layers and moving sets and the flies. And the stage, we had an LED screen to kind of give the set and the floor was LED that lit up to do the iconic piano scene. And we were, you know, we teched on there, we worked on there, we kind of put all this rough staging we did onto the set in Plymouth, did all our costumes there in Plymouth, all of the kind of—we did the Sips Probe. For any viewers that don't know what a Sips Probe is, it's basically where the orchestra and the kind of the actors and singers come together for the first time and it's the first chance for it.

It was one of the best, it was the first chance for the actors and the performers to hear how all the music sounds, not just piano. And you sing through the material. And so we did that all in Plymouth and then we did a week of previews and two weeks of runs, two weeks of shows, which was amazing. You know, quick sidetrack here, my first ever show, because the stage was so technical and the show was a really technological show, I remember my first night we had a stage stop where basically a technical issue had happened and so the show has to be stopped. The curtain kind of comes down and the audience, you know, wait for 10-15 minutes and then they take it back up to where we left off. And I remember being set, it was a scene where I was sat in the house having a bowl of fake cereal, and no one had told me that there was a stage stop and it was just me on stage.

And so I was there for about 10-15 minutes with nothing happening and I thought, I was like, "Do I leave?" I was like, "I have no idea what's going on. Like, I don't know why no one's singing, I don't know why no one's acting, like there should be a song now." I was there kind of pretending to eat ice cream while reading a comic.

[35:49] Cameron Tweed: And just crying and crying. And then it was time for my bows. And so me and the other child, the other Josh, were the final bows. And so we come on at the end, we kind of do our bows. And I was just like sobbing and sobbing. And I look behind me and like the whole company are crying. And, you know, we do the final song and the revolve kind of turns around so that the audience can't see us. And I remember we all just finished and we were all just hugging and crying because the cast for me was such a tight cast. And I remember in that moment being like, you know, this is what I like, this is where I need to go in life. There's nothing else for me that's kind of topped that. And obviously, you know, the world championships, they're such different, different things. Both were amazing in their own right. But yeah, I just, just that was probably my best experience on stage.

[37:25] Martín Acuña: And that is a beautiful memory. Like I felt that way too, like closing a show and just, it just happens. And it's beautiful when it does, when your cast becomes a part of your family for quite a while. And a specific like period of time. And just closing is, it's just, it's heartbreaking. Yeah. But it's also an unearthly experience to, to like look back on all those months of rehearsals and shows and crying and maybe, maybe having injuries and blood all over the floor. So yeah, that was, that's, that's a beautiful feeling.

[38:08] Cameron Tweed: Yeah. And it's, honestly, it's, it's post-show blues. It's, there's not, it's, it's like a hole in your life. You know, these people have been, we lived together, we ate together, we traveled together. Every, like I've lived with these people from 11 a.m. from like morning cleanup calls till about 10, 11 o'clock at night when, you know, the show finished. Get mic checks, warm-ups every day, you know, the Christmas warm-up, Secret Santa. These people were a big part of my life for five months, five, six months. And then all of a sudden, you know, it stops. And, and I've, I mean, I've kept in contact. I've tried to keep in contact with quite a few of the people that, it kind of stops and then you never see these people again.

So it was, yeah, it was an amazing experience. And I still to this day, and I keep all of, I've got my vocal score and my, my libretto, and I've got all of this stuff still that I always, every once in a while kind of comes back to me. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of come back to, and yeah. Yeah. I love it.

[39:24] Martín Acuña: Before we go, I have a little trivia for you.

[39:30] Cameron Tweed: Oh God, I'm not good with, with knowledge. But my knowledge is something like, I've got a really good knowledge of certain areas of musical theatre and things like that. And like these really intricate, complex, you know, shows and composers. But then you asked me like the top level kind of questions, but I'll go for it. I'll try my best.

[39:49] Martín Acuña: All right. First, Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire?

[39:57] Cameron Tweed: I think I grew up obviously with both. I think, personally, I think I'm going to go with Gene Kelly, which is probably, I think that what most people would say, you know, Fred Astaire is kind of held as the king of tap, but I love singing in the rain. So, so I'm going to go with Gene Kelly. And I loved On the Town and America in Paris. I just, I love those things. So, Gene Kelly.

[40:23] Martín Acuña: Classical musical theatre or contemporary musical theatre?

[40:27] Cameron Tweed: Oh, pretty pulling at the heartstrings here. I, well, contemporary musical theatre has so much. I mean, there's been such a shift in like the most recent years to kind of pop rock musicals like, like Jagged Little Pill. And I personally am not the biggest fan of that. But I think contemporary, I love, you know, Jason Robert Brown, you know, Sondheim, all of these last five years, Songs for a New World. I'm going to go with contemporary. I do love contemporary musical theatre.

[41:04] Martín Acuña: Um, dancing, singing or acting?

[41:13] Cameron Tweed: Could you really, you really are picking questions that are kind of hard to answer. Dancing, singing or acting? As in which is the most important or which do I prefer most?

[41:25] Martín Acuña: Which do you prefer? I mean, you're a whole triple threat, but you must have one that you like better.

[41:35] Cameron Tweed: I really, I really love all three equally. I mean, in terms of like, I'd say my best disciplines, I'd say kind of, I don't know, obviously dance because of my tap, but I love singing. I love acting. I'm, I think I'm going to have to go with all three here. I'm sorry. I just, I can't pick between those.

[42:00] Martín Acuña: No, no worries. No worries. And last question. Well, it's not actually a question, but which are your five, top five favourite musical theatre shows? No brainers.

[42:14] Cameron Tweed: To listen to or to watch?

[42:17] Martín Acuña: Oh my God. They have never throw back the question at me that way. I don't know.

[42:24] Cameron Tweed: Whichever you prefer.

[42:25] Martín Acuña: I'll tell you why. Because if we look at stuff like songs for a new world, songs for a new world and the man in the ceiling by Andrew Lippa, which if anyone takes anything from this podcast, it is to listen to the man in the ceiling by Andrew Lippa. But songs like that are so amazing to, you know, listen to on full volume. But there's nothing, there's nothing that compares to the spectacle of, you know, Wicked or 42nd Street. So top five are going to be, I'll do a mixture of both. I'll do top three for watching and listening.

[43:07] Cameron Tweed: So top three for watching, Wicked, Hairspray and 42nd Street. I really hate to be that basic, but you can't go wrong. And to listen to the man in the ceiling by Andrew Lippa. Then I would say songs for a new world, Jason Robert Brown. And lastly, a final one that I think is amazing to listen to. My God, I've got so many in my head. I just need to pick one. And you know what? I'm going to go basic and say Dear Evan Hansen, because even that is about what I see. I saw it on the West End. It's amazing to watch and to listen to.

[43:56] Martín Acuña: It's like a comfort musical.

[43:59] Cameron Tweed: It's a comfort musical, definitely. I just, any of the, you know, the biggest Hamilton, Mean Girls, Waitress, all of these big musicals that are kind of so contemporary, you need to listen to. But the man in the ceiling, just please, everyone go listen to that one. It is amazing.

[44:21] Martín Acuña: Before we go, Cameron, where can people get a hold of you? I know you're active on Instagram, but if someone wants to contact you, say hi, where they can get a hold of you?

[44:34] Cameron Tweed: Well, my, I'm really quick to respond on Instagram. So my Instagram is, I think, yeah, my DMs are open to kind of the world. So, and on my Instagram is my email address, which is cam, God, I just want to get it wrong. Hang on, this is not the part to get wrong. cam.tweed, like the fabric, 302 at gmail.com. So if anyone, you know, has any questions or wants to hear more about my experience at the West End or tap message me on Instagram or on, or email me, I'm quite quick. Well, I'm sure I'm not that quick to reply, as you know. Uh, when I do, when I, when I have free time, I will reply. Um, so that's where, that's where you can get a hold of me.

[45:51] Martín Acuña: Awesome. Well, Cameron, thank you. This has been a wonderful conversation. Uh, I wish you the best. I know that a lot of great things are your way and I cannot wait. I cannot wait to see and know where, what are you doing? Wherever, whenever it's COVID over. Thank you. And yeah, please do keep in contact.

[46:00] Cameron Tweed: Thank you.

[46:07] Martín Acuña: Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.