This is PBS midday edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. It's just a jump to the left and step to the right and before you know it you're at the O.B. playhouse for a revival of that time warp honored Halloween attraction. The Rocky Horror Show Live PBS arts reporter Beth Accomando speaks with award winning choreographer and director Michael Mizerany about bringing the production to life. Michael you are directing and choreographing a live version of Rocky Horror Picture Show. But I want to know what is your first memory of actually seeing the film with Tim Curry. Actually I can. I know the year was 1980. I was a senior in high school in the Midwest. I was in theater and all of us went to the theater to see this. And I had never seen it. And they're like well you're a brat. I'm a brat. Is that a person in the show. Yeah. A character in the film. Okay great. So I go and I watch the film because obraz Virgine repressed and never really experienced anything like sex like. Well that's sort of it was me. Ok I agree with that. But the great thing about it is that I I went somewhere and I fit in. I felt like Oh so this is you know my feelings of of being gay is not abnormal. There are people like that on the screen. The anti-hero is a transvestite. In the movie I'm like wow I get this and the people around me are screaming and hollering and having a great time. I'm like I didn't feel alone. And that's the first time I felt like what I felt inside and being Catholic. I was always told that was wrong. But at that moment I know it's there are people like me I'm not alone and they're celebrating. So that's my first experience with Rocky Horror. And now that you're directing it and choreographing it what are you bringing to it what do you feel like what attracted you to want to do this onstage. I like the message. And actually that song even though there are tons of dance songs in the show that song. Be yourself be your true self. Don't hide it don't conform. And so to me that's the thrust of the show. And no one in that show conformed everyone even Brevin Janah eventually change. What's interesting to me too is that Janet starts out as just O'Brien. I want to get married. I have this ring. I love this ring and Brett is really caught up on. You know I have a job now and we can get married and have kids and then it flips. Jan it becomes very very confident about what's happened to her with and for her and her sexuality and she celebrates that were Brad at the end is still questioning and it comes evident to me in superheroes when he sings I've told the truth to myself I've even lied to me which means he's been living a truth. But it's been a lie and we're Janise like Oh I've had this experience and it lingers in me. It still lingers in me and I want to explore it more. So I think most of the time they end up going off together and in this version they don't because Brad is still not sure about what happened and yet it's like I want to explore this farther so they sort of she walks off alone and he runs after her. But you don't know if they're a couple anymore. And I think most of the time people. Oh there are couples though. But in my version you quite don't know. And for people who are used to seeing rocky horror with a shadow cast where there's a lot of interaction between the audience and what's going on on screen and in front of the screen what is the theater experience going to be like for them. I think well well we are doing call outs and shout out so you can come in and do that and we will have a goody bag of things that you can buy to throw to use. But the thing is the actors can talk back to you. So it's not like you say something. Oh yeah yeah. These actors will talk back to you especially the narrator and freaking furter will actually respond if they feel like it's something they want to respond to. So just be prepared to be called out if you're calling out. That could happen. And we're and we're embracing that. We want that to happen. We even have a guide in the program about good good call outs to have. How is it performing in a small space like that. What kind of kind of ingenuity and cleverness do you have to use to take a small stage like that and put on a show that does have kind of big numbers are set designer Sean came up with a great idea. He somehow has managed to put an elaborate set in. And still there's space to dance and being a dancer. There is dance heavy it's a lot of dancing. Well timewarp and patootie in floor show are big big dance numbers and so I've had to like Slim back the cast a little bit. We have the eight leads and then we have three Phantom's which are the ensemble. So I had to scale back from five Phantom's to three Phantom's to make everything work on stage. It's a tight fit but I've worked on tight spaces before diversionary Ionn so I've had that experience before and so I can sort of be be a traffic cop for for dance and that aspect and what have you liked most about doing the show. I like how all the actors have their own experience with it. Some had no experience with that they had never seen the movie. So we had a I think the Ken was playing in a couple of weeks ago in our rocky horror made a field trip. And so we took the virgins to it and they all got Virgin eyes are divergent as I guess it would be the case where they stood in the aisle of the theater bent over in the shadow cast came down and slapped about boop boop boop boop all the way out and they saw the movie with the call outs for the first time and we had maybe six people like that which is I think is where they're all younger obviously but yeah. How do you prepare actors though for doing an interactive stage. Like most actors in a theatre situation are not expecting to have to engage with the audience. You know a stand up comic would be right to that but for an actor to kind of have your rhythm broken. How do you kind of prep them for that. Well we're actually we're in dresses right now so we have a dress tonight and tomorrow and we're having people come in to do call outs. So because I don't want it to be like an opening act like what is going on. So tonight they'll have us and some of our tech people have been doing some call outs. I think tonight's going to be the first words of like them just being barraged by call outs and hopefully they'll figure it out. It's one of the things that you can't plan for you'd have to be ready for anything. And I think these next two nights is going to be the test for them. They're a great group and I think they're going to rise to it. And what do you feel that this particular production might be doing that's different from other ones that have been in town. Well I haven't seen all the ones in town unfortunately but I feel like I really want to define the heart in the relationship with Brad and Janet that even after everything that's gone on that we still care about them as people and that we care about the Columbia and that we cared that Frank dies for Frakes got a great song called I'm Going Home. And we talked about his his excitement about leaving and going home. And to me that experience is about like maybe me you know I was I grew up in the Midwest and it was repressed and I left. But then if I'd go home again maybe it's going to be different maybe is going to change a little bit. And in that song I think we find the Frank does have a heart and his sense of home and belonging is still there and he wants to see if that's still the case though. It doesn't happen obviously if you know the film and the musical but I really wanted to make these people a little bit more human and that we care about them as characters and they're just not a caricature on stage but that they're actually people or or they're aliens obviously but but we care about them as characters. And I think we really bring that to the show. That was PBS arts reporter Beth Accomando speaking with director choreographer Michael Mizerany. The Rocky Horror Show Live at O.B. Playhouse runs through Halloween be sure to watch PBS.
It’s the month of Halloween, so what better time to do “The Rocky Horror Show” live on stage at the OB Playhouse?
Director and choreographer Michael Mizerany remembered his first encounter with the story of Brad, Janet and the sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania.
“It was 1980,” Mizerany recalled. “I was a senior in high school in the Midwest. I was in theater, and all of us went to the theater to see it, and I had never seen it. And they said, ‘Well you’re a Brad.’ I’m a Brad? Is that a person in the show? And they said 'yeah.' So I go, and I watch the film, and I go, Brad’s a virgin, repressed, and has never really experienced anything like sex, and well, that sort of was me. But the great thing about it was that I went somewhere, and I fit in. I felt like — so my feelings about being gay is not abnormal, there are people like that on the screen. The antihero is a transvestite in the movie, and I’m like wow! I get this. And the people around me are screaming and hollering and having a great time, and it was the first time I didn’t feel alone, there are people like me, and they are celebrating.”
The story of Rocky on film (1975) and on stage (where it originated in 1973) has had that effect on many people across generations. Even more than four decades later the film continues to play midnight shows, mostly with live shadowcasts that introduce the film to new audiences every day.
Mizerany decided it was time for him to tackle the stage version of the film that had impacted his life decades ago.
But he pointed out that his production of “The Rocky Horror Show” will be raunchy, sexy, and eager to embrace audience interaction.
“We are doing callouts and shoutouts so you can come in and do that,” Mizerany said. “And we will have a goodie bag of things that you can buy to throw or to use. But the thing is the actors can talk back to you, so it’s not like you say something, and that’s it. These actors will talk back to you. Especially the narrator and Frank-N-Furter. So just be prepared to be called out if you are calling out. We are embracing that.”
“Rocky Horror,” whether on stage or as a film, is known for its audience participation so the actors at OB Playhouse are rehearsing with crowd participation as part of the process. When you come to the show, also be prepared for the intimacy of the space with actors being as close as six feet away.
But what attracted Mizerany to stage the show more than its theatrics was its message.
“I like the message of be yourself, be your true self, don’t hide it, don’t conform. To me that’s the thrust of the show,” Mizerany stated.
And he wanted his production to truly define that heart of the show.
“The relationship between Brad and Janet, even after everything that’s gone on, that we still care about them as people — and Columbia, and Frank-N-Furter. He has heart too, and we see that in his song ‘I’m Going Home.’ I wanted to make them more human and less caricatures.”
“The Rocky Horror Show” opens Friday, at the OB Playhouse in Ocean Beach. It runs through October with a special Halloween night performance and costume contest. The show may be extended into November if ticket sales go well.
