Roy Michael Johnson, senior theater major, emerges from the fog in Albert Taylor Hall dressed in a black leather bustier, fishnets and 6-inch heels. In full make up, he struts across the stage and sings, “I’m just a sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania!”

Johnson plays the role of Dr. Frank N Furter for this year’s Homecoming Scholarship Musical, Richard O’Brien’s “Rocky Horror Show.”

“I like everything about it,” Johnson said. “It’s a show that I’m a big fan of. I’ve watched the movie since I was in middle school every year.”

“The Rocky Horror Show” started in London in the 1970s and grew to become a cult phenomenon with its film version, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” in the U.S. Jim Bartruff, theater director and professor, said it developed out of an anti-establishment, free love environment. The show spoofs science fiction movies of the 1960s.

“It’s one of those shows that our students say ‘let’s do the Rocky Horror Show’ and there was always a bit of reluctance to do it because of the subject matter,” Bartuff said.

Bartruff said he and a planning committee looked at the material and realized that it is not as startling as it might have been 40 years ago when the show began. He said they decided on doing the show because Homecoming fell on Halloween and it allows audience members to dress up and get involved.

During midnight showings of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” audience members shout at the movie screen and throw food items. Bartruff said that because ESU’s performance is a theater production, liquids and food will be confiscated at the door. Prop kits will be available for $5 and the proceeds will go to the music and theatre departments.

Marah Melvin, freshman elementary education major, said she and the other actors in the show are excited to see the crowd get involved.

“We encourage it, we hope people dress up, we hope people shout things, you know,” Melvin said. “We just feed off that and the energy, so we would love it if they do it.”

Performances of the Rocky Horror Show are Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 30 at 12 a.m., Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 1 at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the ESU Box Office in the Memorial Union or by calling 620-341-6378.

Lauren Walbridge/The Bulletin

Send article as PDF to