My Life in Fishnets: A Personal Rocky Horror Story

The members of Indecent Exposure

One advantage of being in a popular cast was the possiblity of road trips to perform at other theaters, and my favorite such trip was to the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma CA. I had thought it was just a country cow town, but they apparently had enough of a freak contingent that their local theater was interested in the crowd that Indecent Exposure could draw. I was excited to perform, but had to settle for being a Tranny again as the previous Frank decided to come out of retirement to play the show. This became a running theme: I played Frank every night, but when a special show came up, I got relegated to the chorus line. Eventually I tired of the game and retired myself from the Berkeley cast, concentrating on the Belmont performances, but not for very much longer. Though I loved my Rocky family, I began to grow weary of the weekly routine and the long drive, and soon took my own leave from live casts.

Having had more than my fair share of the music and madness of Rocky Horror, I didn’t go to another showing for nearly six years afterwards, and by that time I was clearly an observer, and happy to be so. I could kibitz on the cast’s performance like an aging theater vet who’d seen and done it all before. Thanks to social networking sites, I’ve been able to reconnect with some of the amazing people I was fortunate enough to meet and play with over the years, and to my pleasant surprise they seem to remember me fondly. Although my costume pieces have, one by one, lost themselves or been surrendered to the effects of aging, there’s still a place in my heart for Rocky Horror that causes a thrill of excitement when I hear the thumping introduction to “Sweet Transvestite.” If you’ve never been to see a live Rocky cast, you owe it to yourself to check one out. They’re everywhere, but beware—you may be singled out as a Rocky virgin and subjected to any number of deviant acts. If you’re lucky, that is.

Thanks to everyone who made Rocky such a positive experience for me: Becky, Mary, Myk, John, Steve, Gidget, Darick, Jeff, Alli, Michelle, Jane, Peg, and so many more. Don’t dream it—well, you know.

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