Spring semester of my freshman year of college, I auditioned for a live shadowcast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was a brand-new group, founded by a couple of die-hard Frankie Fans who wanted to finally bring a shadowcast to Harrisonburg, and I had the incredible experience of playing their very first Columbia. A big-time Rocky Horror fan, I expected it to be fun, of course, but I didn’t expect to learn and grow from it nearly as much as I did. Here are the five lessons I learned from The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

1) Sex isn’t gross.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show has a lot of sex. And I mean a lot. It’s understood that Dr Frank-n-Furter will screw just about anything. The best part, though, is that nobody’s grossed out by it. Do they feel betrayed? Sure! That’s what brings about this iconic scene! But at no point is sex seen or portrayed as gross or taboo. This brought about a really open attitude among those of us in the shadowcast—we talked candidly about our sex lives, our losing-our-virginity stories, our kinks, and everything else that got portrayed on the screen behind us. With all the things we had to act out onstage—blowjobs, burlesques, and aggressive boob-grabbing —we had to be comfortable and open with each other, after all

2) Bodies are cool.
Pretty much everyone but Dr. Scott is half-naked for the majority of the movie, which meant that pretty much all of us are half-naked for the majority of the show. And we made a rule at the very beginning of rehearsals: no jokes about people’s bodies. The logic was that if we felt insecure or judged, we wouldn’t perform well, and so only positive comments were allowed. I’ve had body image issues for years, and let me tell you, there is nothing more healing than strutting[TR3] in front of your friends in a corset and having them yell “YAAAAAAAAAS I LOVE YOUR ASS YOU GO GIRL GIVE ME THAT KICK”, (among other less-publishable things). When our run of the show was over, almost every person in the cast admitted that being in it made them feel more confident about their bodies and their self-image, and that getting naked and dancing for their friends helped them to finally feel beautiful.

3) You form a really special bond with someone after covering your nipples with band-aids together.
I met my boyfriend in this cast (he played the Eddie to my Columbia!). I met some of my best friends in this cast. Like any group of friends, we have our drama and we have our issues with each other, but I can honestly say that there’s no group of people I trust more than my Rocky Horror castmates. We did things together that you never expect to do with another human being (our costume girl had to put band-aids on all our nipples to ensure no onstage slips). We spent hours going over burlesque dances, sex scenes, and regular (read: non-sexual) scenes until we stopped laughing nervously, until we started making inside jokes and learning not to hold back in front of each other, until every line and every moment of this film was in our muscle memory.

4) Don’t try to make sense of everything.
As much as I love this movie, I admit that I do not get it. I’ve watched Shock Treatment. I tried to read Richard O’Brien’s sequel. My director has tried to explain it to me and yet I still only have a vague-at-best understanding of the movie. I can tell you everything that happens! But don’t ask me why it happens. I like to apply this philosophy to my general life, too. Be aware of what’s happening—but don’t try to make sense of it. You’ll get a headache. Just enjoy the music and dance along to it.

5) Whatever you are, FLAUNT it.
Frank-n-Furter? A bisexual drag queen. Magenta and Riff? Incestuous extraterrestrial couple. Rocky? Clueless. Columbia? Groupie. Dr. Scott? (implied) Nazi. Brad? Asshole. Janet? Slut. And they’re all PROUD (even though it takes Brad and Janet a little longer). Embodying a character with absolutely no inhibitions about who she is was empowering. As a college freshman, I was having a lot of trouble with identity—balancing who I was in high school vs. who I am now vs. who I wanted to become. Being Columbia, a character so in tune with her personality and her sexuality, helped me to build confidence in myself and stop being afraid to change. Being in Rocky Horror was the biggest catalyst for my transformation from jaded high school kid to happy, ambitious college student, and I am happier every day for it. After all; don't dream it. Be it.

If you have the opportunity to be involved with Rocky Horror, I cannot recommend it enough. If there isn’t a shadowcast near you, start one like we did! At the very least, watch the movie a time or three. Maybe you won’t see what I see, or feel the fuzzy feelings I feel, but maybe it will. Maybe it’ll change you, too.

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