Nov 22nd, 2014- The Show That Wasn’t But Then It Was!
by Ali!
Cast:
Jason (MC, floorwalking, Riff)
Gus (Crimmie, Riff, Rocky, Frank, Magenta)
Heather (Janet, Columbia, Frank, Magenta)
Ali (Brad, Eddie, Frank, Rocky, Columbia)
Amira (Columbia)
Brent (Dr. Scott)
Davey (floorwalking, Rocky)
Special Guest: Amanda (Magenta, Brad)
Tech crew:
Anyone not on stage, holding a cell phone with the flashlight app open
Tonight’s motto: You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.
When your monthly Rocky Horror show overlaps the release of the latest installment of the wildly successful Hunger Games movie franchise (which I certainly can’t argue with, GO TEAM JLAW), the theater still plays Rocky, because Rocky is awesome, but they can’t give us our usual room with the big cushy couches and nice stage and alcoves we can curtain off to change costumes in and space for all our props and cool stuff. This Saturday, a handful of cast members decided to host the showing anyway in an unofficial capacity, so we burst into the theater shortly before go-time to mingle with everyone and do an abbreviated version of our usual preshow.
A few were in costume, a few were in civvies, and most of us were a little tipsy because there was nobody there to tell us not to partake of the bar’s delights (HI LEAH <3) so we did our usual opening dance for Science Fiction Double Feature and then buckled down to sit and watch and shout things at the screen and then maybe Time Warp later.
That lasted about as long as…something that doesn’t last for a very long time at all, witty people please add your suggestions…because we’re all very good at being polite and staying in our seats if we’re at someone else’s theater and someone else’s show, but our own? Pfft! And the audience was in a silly and excitable mood anyway, so it was our duty as cast members to maintain that, right?
Men were women, women were men, people jumped up and played roles they were familiar with and ones they’d played long ago and vaguely remembered and ones they’d only watched others do and actually didn’t do too badly at it, you know, considering the spontaneity of it all. The ridiculousness of the whole thing made up for the lack of actual rehearsal, and the audience was clearly having fun – they had come for shenanigans and nudity, and by golly they were getting it!
Guerilla shadowcasting at its finest, people. Takin’ it back to the 70s, before people started creating these groups called “shadowcasts”, except possibly with fewer drugs (I don’t know for sure, I didn’t get urine and hair samples from anyone, ew). Running around in our actual underwear, not the costume-underwear we keep in a separate drawer and only pull out for shows and special role-play nights when our partners have been very very good. Sitting in people’s laps and petting their hair and…no, wait, we do that on normal show nights too. Getting confused on who’s playing what for this scene because it shuffled around completely from the last scene and nobody’s in the right costumes but we get it worked out and shout our lines proudly because we GOT this shit.
We stayed and talked to the audience outside after the show, free from people yelling at us to come help clean up the theater, and made new friends and shared lots of hugs and traded promises to see each other soon…hopefully in December, and if not then, in January, for an actual LB show! We even met some visitors who had come all the way from Arkansas for another event and stayed when they found out Rocky was playing the next night, who had only ever seen the movie by itself, and loved what our half-cast put on. Hope to see you again soon, Arkansas friends!
And that, all of that, is why I love Rocky Horror.
Rocky Horror Picture Show - Dallas/Fort Worth/Denton Metroplex 