Born to Perform
Whether in choir, on the stage or in the classroom, junior Cameron Williams shines.
Junior Cameron Williams performs a solo in the pop show. He is also a standout in the theater program.
March 12, 2022
Cameron Williams’s first theater role was as a “Spelling Mighty Mind” in a third grade musical about the STAAR test. His one line was to assure the children STAAR testing wasn’t going to be that bad. However, at his turn to speak, he repeated the line of the person before him, completely forgetting his own line.
“It was this terrible moment for me at the time, but I just remember how happy I had felt about that role and then how funny looking back at it it was,” Williams said. “It was just something that at the time felt so good and looking back on it it was just the first moment I realized I really enjoyed theater.”
Even though he cried so hard on stage that they had to stop the song, the experience hooked him on theater forever.
When he was younger, Williams played viola and was involved in elementary theater productions. Now, he balances his arts classes with upper level core classes.
“He’s so driven that we’ve never had to keep track or push him,” his mom Diane Bulanowski said.
That drive was instilled in him when he was a little kid. He enjoyed success and constantly looked to do more difficult things just to prove he could.
“That’s a similar thing with even theater and choir jumping into new things and taking them on and seeing how well I can do,” Williams said. “I think I excel in those environments and it’s something I like and appreciate.”
While positive experiences helped his academic drive, the arts were there from the beginning. A pregnant Bulanowski could feel her baby kicking when she played music. She played her future son rock n’ roll, R&B, classical and jazz, while also making an effort to sing to him.
“My family has always been very involved with music and the arts,” Williams said. “It’s always been a big aspect of my parents’ lives and something that unintentionally they gave to me.”
His goals for high school and college are a mix of academic and arts related goals. He’s looking to attend Rice University, Baylor University or the University of Texas with a major in education and a minor in theater.
“The main obstacle is staying on top of everything and remembering everything I have to do because there are a ton of honors classes and I don’t get home until after rehearsal,” Williams said.
He said that keeping a planner and the whiteboard in his room doesn’t work very well for him and so he has to check his assignments online often to make sure they get done on or before the due date.
“In reality, I’m always the harshest critic of myself,” Williams said. “If ever I get a bad grade or I feel like I didn’t do as good as I wanted to do, [my parents] are always the ones that bring me up and tell me that there’s always next time, ‘this is not who you are,’ ‘you will do better.’ And so they have really been a driving force in helping me stay on top of everything.”
His mom said she is amazed at his academic drive and how he has improved over the years in the arts.
“We know that he has a lot of options and he’s very level headed, so that’s where we are right now,” Bulanowski said. “We want him to be happy and we want him to find the thing that he has the most passion for and that would bring him a great life.”
