WILD AND UNTAMED THINGS

I lost my Rocky Horror Virginity when I was thirteen years old. My older brother Jerry, who was and is my hero, let me and my buddy Noel tag along with him and his high school friends- the drama kids of Blackford High, whom I also idolized- to see this funny movie where people yelled and threw toilet paper and went insane.

And it was at midnight. 

I went. I was scared shitless, but I went. How could I not? Somehow, my parents were letting me go to a movie that started at midnight. On a Saturday. With a bunch of teen agers. Life was not always brilliant in those days for me. But this was one of those rare times where the Gods had granted me a moment of grace. And I was going to run with it for as far and as long as I could.

We piled in to a station wagon that seemd to have at least twenty people in it, and headed to Cinema 150. I was so excited. What would happen? As we drove along, everyone was laughing, singing The Time Warp, and going over the shout outs for the movie. I had no idea what was going on, but I loved it. Something felt right.

We get to the theatre, park, and walk towards the entrance. The lot is full of young people, a lot of them in costumes. Some are smoking weed, some are drinking beer, and all of them have this mad gleam in their eyes. 

We walk into the theatre. It is teeming with at least a thousand lunatics, all laughing and talking and dancing and singing and not giving the slightest shit what anyone else things about them.

And to my great mortification, I am loudly declared a "Virgin!" by my brother and his friends. The thousand lunatics turn as one and stare at me with the Devil's Eyes, and scream back "Virgin!" and drag me to the front of the theatre. 

And my induction began.

Being a Rocky Virgin simply meant I hadn't seen the film yet. But instead of being made to feel stupid or strange or inadequate by the Lunatics, the Thousand  taught the Time Warp,  gave me some hints on the shout outs, and took into their glorious, bedazzled arms.

And thus began a lifetime of going to the film as well as being in and later directing the original Rocky Horror Show, the stage musical on which the 1977 movie is based.

Right now, it is tech week for my latest visit to Frank's Place, up at StageDoor Theatre in Conifer. It's one of three productions currently going on in the Denver area. Which I think points to a clear fact:

We seem to need to find our inner freak here.

We need to let go of all the sturm und drang, the yelling and crying and wondering-why-ing and just give ourselves over to absolute pleasure.

This show has been an absolute joy for me. I don't know if it's the cast, the time of year, or what- but every moment has filled me with a sense of not being insane. 

At least not being the bad kind of insane.

This show always opens the vault of memory for me; from being thirteen and finding an escape from my dysfunctional home if only for two hours every week end to my first job as an Equity Actor at the Barn Theatre in Michigan the summer after graduating from SJSU right before moving to NYC to directing my first production at Reel Kids.

I've been doing the Time Warp for a long time now. And while I might, the Warp never gets old. 

It gets younger. Groovier. Sexier. 

Our cast is sublime- every single one of them. 

Our set magnificent, the lights moody, the sound gothic, the costumes delcious, the props kinky, and the whole vibe is dirty, dreamy, and delightful.

I want all of you to come see it with me. I don't give a shit if you live across the country or the ocean. Get out here. Now. 

And now I'm off to our first preview, then tomorrow we open.  I'll write more soon. I got a short film set to shoot later this month. And a new script I am excited about. And another script. And another. And I need to write about them. It helps me. 

Here's a song. It's Over at the Frankenstein Place.