Street Theatre

Students at Camden Creative Arts High School know talent is rampant in Camden. It doesn’t usually make the nightly news, but many Camden teens are setting their sights on becoming artists, musicians and actors.

Check out the following excerpt from Direct Your Own Life, a book by filmaker Chris Barrett and actor Efren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite), who own Powerhouse Pictures Entertainment. Here Chris talks about how he witnessed exquisite talent in a most unexpected setting:

HOW A FOUR-MINUTE VIDEO CAN CHANGE A LIFE

I grew up in Cherry Hill, NJ, and even though that area is a beautiful community, it exists just miles from the small, distressed city of Camden. Likewise, when Efren was growing up in California, he was surrounded by the same kind of poverty and economic disparity. This is why Efren and I have made it a priority to speak at Camden Creative Arts High School numerous times since 2005. I like to think that by speaking to these kids and telling them our stories we are helping them to change their lives.

Before our first trip to the school, we thought we were only going to be able to speak to the kids for an hour; but we had such a wonderful time with the students that we ended up staying all afternoon to meet every kid in the school. The students wanted to find out everything they could about the films Efren and I were working on, and we learned just as much from the students as they did from us; we were treated to dance and theatrical performances that blew us away.

At the same time, as the 2008 presidential campaigns picked up in mid-2007, I started attending political debates and rallies in my free time and posting my videos of the events on YouTube. During that summer I got an email from Steve Grove, the YouTube political editor. He told me that YouTube was sponsoring an innovative type of debate that would air on CNN. He asked me if I could shoot a question with someone in the inner city, and I knew right away that this would be a great opportunity to work with some of the kids in Camden.

I contacted one of the directors of the school, and she said she had the perfect student to talk to me. When I showed up at the school with my camera, Craig Bazan said that he would like to ask the candidates how they planned to heal inner-city violence. After we were done shooting the question, Craig started to tell me a little bit about himself. He had just graduated from Camden Creative Arts a month before as a drama major, and he was planning to head off to college to pursue acting in the fall. Craig told me that he had to memorize and perform over a dozen diverse monologues his senior year to be able to graduate. I told Craig I would love to see him perform, and he offered to perform one of his favorite monologues from Hamlet for me right there on the spot.

Craig’s performance was incredible. He had memorized and perfected his diction beautifully, and he delivered his lines flawlessly and with tremendous emotion. I knew there was something incredibly special in Craig’s talent, so I asked him if I could film him doing the same monologue right there on the sidewalk.

I set up my camera, hit record, and let the tape roll for four minutes while Craig gave an equally impressive performance as before. He didn’t have much to work with; Craig was in casual clothes and sneakers and his backdrop was nothing more than boarded up, drug-infested houses, but he was just as wonderful as the talent you’d expect to see on Broadway. After the first take, I rewound the footage to show Craig what I had captured. He was so pleased to see it all on tape; Craig had been acting his whole life, but he had never seen himself on camera.

I went straight back to my office and edited the footage of the debate question and the monologue. I uploaded both videos, and though Craig’s debate question wasn’t selected by CNN, I got an email within hours from the YouTube editor, Big Joe Smith. He absolutely loved Craig’s Hamlet video. Over the next month, the video was featured on the front page of YouTube; it eventually garnered almost half a million views, and it was featured worldwide on ABC’s new TV show, I-Caught. The local news crews also came out and interviewed Craig. It might seem hard to believe because it happened so quickly, but Craig now has auditions lined up at Julliard and the New Jersey Shakespeare Company.

I am sharing this story as an example of how big things can come from little places. For me, I was able to discover true talent as a result of simply following political events with my camera. But this story is really about Craig Bazan, who by praciticing what he loved in the middle of a broken city, was able to step out and shine for everyone to see. I was so moved by Craig that I have gone back numerous times to film more amazing students to highlight their talents for the world.

Here’s the original Hamlet performance by Craig Bazan:

And here’s another video featuring Ed Williams, who performs a scene from a script he wrote: