Celebrating Local Talent: RAC Collaborates with Humans of St. Louis to Showcase Cameron Lamarr

Photo credit: Lindy Drew / Humans of St. Louis

RAC is excited to partner with Humans of St. Louis to highlight stories from some of the talented creatives and artists who call St. Louis home. All stories and photography in the RAC + Humans of St. Louis series were created by and are credited to Lindy Drew, co-founder, lead storyteller, and book co-author of Humans of St. Louis.

I came across a byline from one of the featured creatives, and I was truly inspired by his story. Here is the remarkable journey of Cameron Jamarr. The Narrative Matters aims to present more collaborative series from RAC in the future as well.

Content Warning: This story contains references to near-death experience and suicide.

Photo credit: Lindy Drew / Humans of St. Louis

“I went to Clayton High School, where my dad worked in their preschool custodial side. So K through 12, I’d book it out from the Southside to Clayton every day. That’s where my friends were and where I’d start to get my exposure to the arts. In 2nd grade, we had Fairy Tale Theater, and I played Rapunzel’s father. In 4th grade, we had a Renaissance festival, and our teacher asked, ‘Who wants a big speaking part, and who wants a little one?’ So I spoke up: ‘I want the big speaking part!’ and I became Dromio of Syracuse. I didn’t know what I’d be doing, but I came home like, ‘Mom, I’m doing this part.’ I just always thought it’d be cool to go on stage, speak, and shine. In 6th grade, I went to Wydown Middle School and did musicals like 𝐵𝑦𝑒 𝐵𝑦𝑒 𝐵𝑖𝑟𝑑𝑖𝑒 and 𝐽𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑝ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑇𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑟 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑡. Then in 8th grade, I played Jim in 𝐵𝑖𝑔 𝑅𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟. That’s how I found my place in the arts. Outside of acting, I was a choir kid, a band kid, and I played the clarinet. It was always a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Because, why not? That’s what we’re here for.

Photo credit: Lindy Drew / Humans of St. Louis

Who really put me on the acting path, though, was my high school teacher and local actress, Kelly Weber. Sophomore year, there was a meeting after school one day about the fall play. At first, I was very against doing plays. Like, ‘I’ll do a musical. But a play?’ Well, the show was 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟’𝑠 𝑇𝑎𝑙𝑒. And that play ended up following me later in my life. We’ll circle back to that. So, I was sitting in the black box, thinking, ‘This is cool but not for me.’ And as I walked out, Kelly said, ‘Where are you going? Here, read this.’ She gave me the role of Camillo. So I got up there, did my lil’ Shakespeare, and next thing I knew, I was in the play. We mixed the play with Baroque and operatic songs, so we actually sang monologues and worked with voice instructors who taught the school choir. As I stepped into theater, I was getting this cross-training out the gate that was synthesizing music, poetry, acting, and theater all together. I was hooked. I was in. From there, I was a drama kid.”

Photo credit: Lindy Drew / Humans of St. Louis

“I was all over the place in high school because I had to be there early since my dad worked for the district. Junior year, I became the drama guild president. Senior year, same thing. Part of that was just me killing time. It was me as first chair clarinet in the band every year, ‘And don’t come for it because I want it.’ It was me in the show choir and the chamber choir. It was me in musicals and plays. And I had to stay on top of my grades, which I did as much as I could in the subjects I cared about. In advanced English and AP Literature, I was reading these rich stories, learning grammatical structure, and how to write with complexity. That’s how I discovered a passion for poetry and writing. Sophomore year, I was asked if I wanted to participate in the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, MFAA, but I didn’t know what I wanted to go for. I could go for clarinet. I could go for singing. I could go for acting. I wanted to go for all of them, but we live in a world that often makes you choose. Until you start learning how to play by your own rules.

So I chose to go for acting, and I met all these cool people from high schools all across the state. We’d get together at arts camp for the summer, and we were learning how to create. Part of my journey hasn’t been just performing, but meeting artists who empowered me to go within to create something. They’d say, ‘You know you can make something yourself outside of us and apart from taking up someone else’s stories or words. You have it within you.’ Some of the best pieces of art I’ve seen have been passionate artists being like, ‘F*ck it. No budget. Here’s the idea. We’re gonna throw this together. Let’s go!’ One of the coolest pieces I saw at MFAA was 𝑆𝑢𝑏𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑛, this dark, moody, eclectic composition of dance, movement, music, and poetry. It was everything an adolescent was at the time. And I was like, ‘Yes, sign me up for more of this.’”

Photo credit: Lindy Drew / Humans of St. Louis

“High school was like college prep, and my classmates were already doing some dope ass Ivy League sh*t, so there was pressure on me to do the same. Meanwhile, I was just trying to make sure I kept my grades up so I could do fun things like stay in theater, or so my parents would maybe get me a car. Fast forward to senior year. People were asking, ‘Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?’ I wasn’t even thinking about what I wanted my future to look like. I was involved in so many things, like the Principal’s Advisory Council, student government, Black Student Union, class treasurer. I was also a marching band drum major. I kept getting bombarded with, ‘Don’t you want to go to Northwestern or Brown?’ The thing is, I was schooled out. I had the brain for it, but I just didn’t know what was next.

When it came to college applications, I cast my seeds wide to at least 11 schools. Some were art schools, and some were academic. I applied to Northwestern, had my final interview, and got in. I also applied to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music – CCM. Okay, storytime. I’m probably gonna detour, if that’s okay… The week of my CCM audition coincided with our Peppers Prom, which was our high school’s unofficial prom. A week or two before, the school had to nominate who they wanted to be in the court, and I didn’t even know I was nominated. But what I did know was that I had these important auditions coming up and had to work on them.

My drama teacher said, ‘I know the artistic director (AD) of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. I’d like her to watch your monologues for your auditions.’ So she gets the AD to come to my school to coach my college monologues during my lunch break. Turns out, when I got to school that day, I was also going to get kidnapped as part of the prom court nomination. Pillowcase over my head, I was put in a car, driven to someone’s house, and dressed in this insane get-up — some multi-holiday sweater with Halloween, Christmas, and Chanukah all mixed together. We’re talkin’ frills and tutus and makeup on my face. I looked a hot Grinch mess. Because the idea was that you’re supposed to draw attention to yourself at school so people would know to vote for you. Even more awkward, I still had to do my monologue coaching. My first audition piece was fine because it was a comedic Shakespearean monologue from Trinculo in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑠𝑡. But my second monologue was me playing a bisexual jazz musician dying from AIDS and confessing this to his mom. And there I was dressed like every goddamn holiday.

Later that day, I was on the bus going home when I got a call from my teacher saying, ‘Shakespeare Festival wants you to audition for Prince Edward in 𝑅𝑖𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝐼𝐼𝐼 in Forest Park this summer.’”

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