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August 15, 2003/Av 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 51
Teen intrigue at 'Camp'
NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
Los Angeles Jewish Journal
Before Todd Graff attended theater camp, he liked to cause trouble. "I was hanging out with a bunch of idiot kids," Graff, 43, said. "We'd cut class, stand outside the liquor store, drink beer, blast music and raise havoc at night."
When Graff and friends stole a neighbor's car one night, his Jewish musician parents came up with a novel way to keep him off the streets. They showed him a New York Times ad for Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts summer camp; before long, the 14-year-old was en route to the rambling facility in a converted Catskills hotel.
"There were no s'mores, but rehearsal and classes and more rehearsal," Graff recalled. "We were there to learn to be actors and it made me realize there was something I was passionate about. It focused me and changed my life."
Graff's spunky directorial debut, "Camp," about teen intrigue at a theater camp, is a valentine to Stagedoor and "virtually a documentary" about his experience, he said. Based on the summer he transformed from juvenile delinquent to theater geek, the musical "dramedy" was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. More reminiscent of "Fame" than "Meatballs," it's the latest in a trend of independent films, such as Peter Sollett's "Raising Victor Vargas," which explore weightier teen issues than those found in saccharine-fests such as "She's All That."
"Camp's" edgy characters - inspired by real people - include an abject, adolescent drag queen (Robin De Jesus); a geeky ingenue (Joanna Chilcoat); and a charismatic but troubled newcomer, Vlad (Daniel Letterle), Graff's alter-ego. Like the Stagedoor campers, the fictional ones feel like misfits at home but insiders among fellow theater fanatics.
"The camp is like Oz," Graff said. "Your real life is in black and white, but the minute you step off the bus, everything is in color and everyone is a 'munchkin,' a freak, like you."
While Stagedoor jump-started Graff's latent acting abilities, the arts were virtually in his blood. His father served as musical director for Nat King Cole and the Yiddish-speaking Barry sisters; his mother, a pianist, was choirmaster of her Queens, N.Y., synagogue.
After he discovered Stagedoor (where fellow campers included Robert Downey, Jr.) his repertoire expanded to include a range of Broadway showtunes. By age 16, he was starring in the PBS children's series, "The Electric Company"; at 23 he received a Tony nomination for his turn in the Broadway musical "Baby."
Graff went on to act in films such as "The Abyss" and write "The Grandmother Plays," based on his Jewish family, which opened and flopped off-Broadway. Undaunted, he turned the play into a screenplay that became 1992's "Used People."
He settled on an equally personal subject for his debut feature: his first summer at Stagedoor.
Studio executives were less enthusiastic when Graff began shopping his unorthodox script around town in the late 1990s. Many thought the story was too dark and had too many gay characters. Graff's favorite executive: The one who asked, "Can't we just turn the drag queens into Trekkies?"
Graff didn't think so, which is why he signed when the offer came from the producers of well-received independent films such as Todd Haynes' "Far From Heaven." To cast the movie, he auditioned nonprofessional child actors "because I wanted them to be in close touch with what the characters were going through."
"Camp" is currently playing at Harkins Camelview Theater.
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