“Camp”ing it up with young actors
by Brandon Judell

The raging hormones and mixed feelings of adolescence have never been easy. Being a queer teen is that much harder — especially when people just don’t understand why you gotta sing, gotta dance and gotta act.
So what’s a parent to do with such offspring? Theater camp — drama-geek heaven — is the answer, and that’s what Todd Graff’s delicious, incredibly moving “Camp” is all about. In this high-stepping musical comedy (which has its share of tears), a group of girls, gay boys and one heterosexual lad take on their summer world at Camp Ovation with zeal, onstage and off.

Daniel Letterle stars as Vlad, a boy with bubble-gum looks who’s so “straight” that when he sees a photograph of Stephen Sondheim, he mistakes the composer for someone’s relative.
“I was also on a ‘Law and Order.’ I played a rapist,” Daniel noted the other day from the small New York apartment he shares with his girlfriend.
“I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio,” Daniel admits, then laughs. “I know. I know. The armpit of America.” So how does a 24-year-old former Clevelander get to play a 16-year-old in a major independent film?
“They called me really late in the process,” Daniel recalled. “I would never have auditioned for the part, because I’m way too old for it. But they couldn’t find what they were looking for, so I shaved extra close that day and wore clothes that were a little bigger. Yes, I was that pathetic actor trying to look young — but on that day, it worked.”
It certainly did. And the adorable thespian got the leading-boy role: a quirky, obsessive-compulsive heartthrob who happens to turn on all genders. Did he realize how brave the film is to portray young folks, many gay, as sexual creatures?
“First of all, I didn’t have a choice,” Daniel asserted. “This was, like, my first big break. Of course I was going to say yes. But I think that’s what’s so great about the film. I know the director and some other people like to call ‘Camp’ a gay movie, but I personally don’t agree with that, because I think that defeats the purpose.
“If you look at it as a movie with all-real characters, all with real stories, then it doesn’t become anything,” he insisted. “It’s just a movie that should be accepted as a movie. It is a great thing about the main character being gay and being in drag. It’s wonderful. It doesn’t unnerve me at all. I’ve been living in New York for a long time, and a lot of my dear friends are gay. A lot of my gay friends call me and just say, ‘You know, I’m so happy that movie was made. Thank your director, because it’s great.’ I’m very proud and happy to be part of ‘Camp.'”
Daniel, who was recently asked by the former manager of the Backstreet Boys to consider a singing career, then said, “I think I’m more happy that kids seeing ‘Camp’ can feel like they should do what they want to do. It doesn’t have to be musical theater. It could be anything. For me, when I was kid, I played football because that’s what my brother did. That’s what everybody in my family did. And that’s what all my friends did. And I got my *** kicked day in and day out for four years. I would just get my head crushed, and I would cry when I never got to play first string. But the whole time, I wanted to be in a play, or God knows what else.”
God knows.
One of the many “Camp” kids with a crush on Daniel’s character is Michael, a teen diva with a yen for drag. Connecticut resident Robin De Jesus stars as the young performer.
Unlike his character, Robin is just getting used to being a successful star. “Oh, man!” he intoned. “You know what really grounds me, I guess, is that every time we go away, the cast, and do something for publicity or whatever, I then come home and I work again as a waiter. It keeps me a little grounded and focused, and kind of brings me back down to the real world sometimes. I just come home, work and clean my room.”
Did he feel that playing an openly gay teen was a brave act?
“I didn’t in the beginning,” Robin admitted. “I don’t know. It didn’t really hit me until afterward, when I had homosexual men coming up to me and thanking me and saying, ‘You don’t realize how brave it was for you to do that. I only wish that there had been somebody brave enough to do that when I was growing up.’ These men would come up to me nearly crying. I was like, ‘Whoa!’ I wasn’t even thinking about that for some reason. It totally, completely passed over my head.”

But since his character gets beat up at school for being in drag, how does Robin relate to all the news about the gay high school that’s opening in New York?

“I think it’s a bit extreme,” Robin exclaimed. “I hate to say that, but it’s almost like segregation in a weird way. I wish there was a way of enforcing that the kids be accepted in the regular high schools, instead of literally having to pick them up and move them somewhere else. But what do I know?”

Getting back to “Camp,” Robin recalled — with a little agony in his voice — that playing a drag queen wasn’t all that easy: “The high heels were painful, especially when I was doing a musical number in them. After all, I had only rehearsed twice in heels. Then the eyelashes were kind of disgusting. They were really mushy in the eye. The first time, I couldn’t even see with them, really. I fought hard, trying not to fall.”
He succeeded — as does “Camp” — and came out a winner.
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