Disclaimer: This article contains graphic language that could be disturbing or offensive to some readers.
On the night of Oct. 12, I lost my virginity.
The host challenged me and five other lucky virgins to do an impression of a Halloween character having an “earth-shattering orgasm.” The crowd jeered us on. A few minutes later, I found myself bent over a chair as, from behind, the host popped a symbolic red balloon against me. My latex cherry lay in ruins, and I was no longer a “Rocky Horror” virgin.
The Full Body Cast has been performing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” around Boston since 1984. The shadowcast’s impressive run began at the Harvard Square Theater and continues today at the AMC Boston Common.
“We’re one of the only shadowcasts in the world to do it every single Saturday,” Coach, a member of the FBC board, said. The role Coach plays in “Rocky Horror” is an onstage as well as offstage affair; she is both a performer and the assistant director of props. Before “Rocky Horror,” Coach told the daily, she was looking for a creative outlet “silly enough where I could lose myself in it, but sexy enough where I could feel empowered and confident.” She has found just that in the FBC and the audience they serve.
Partaking in “Rocky Horror” is an experience like nothing else, so visceral that words and pictures can only capture shades of it. The show depends on a thrilling rapport between the movie screen, the shadowcast and the audience. Within the walls of the AMC Boston Common, the 1975 cult film comes roaring to life.
“Rocky Horror” is defined by its campy characters. Coach’s favorite characters to play — which she plays the most — are the stereotypical square Brad Majors and the self-proclaimed “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania,” Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
“Brad is a really fun headspace to be in because [he’s] just [a] silly goofy man,” Coach said. “I know the role so, so well that I’m able to be in autopilot, and I go into Brad headspace.”
However, Frank-N-Furter is a bit taller of a task for her. “With Frank, I really love being the star of the show and being the baddest b---- on the block, but it’s also a huge responsibility, because you’re the star, so you have to perform really well,” Coach said. The night I interviewed Coach, she was playing Brad and also being the host. In performances of “Rocky Horror” across the country, it is the host’s job to warm up the crowd and officiate the virgin ceremonies.
Virgin ceremonies are an important aspect of the “Rocky Horror” culture, in which virgins (people who have never seen the film with a live shadowcast) are initiated.
“I invite them onstage and I publicly humiliate them in whatever way I see fit that evening,” Coach explained. She added an example: “For mother’s day, I made a bunch of virgins reenact childbirth.”
Later in the evening, my virginal self experienced a ritual firsthand, in a spooky deluge of faked orgasms and chants. It culminated in me donning a bridal gown and getting married! Despite all the “public humiliation,” there was no shame. You are welcome at the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” as long as you are willing to, in the words of Frank-N-Furter, “give yourself over to absolute pleasure.”
In the audience, the energy of the show is electric from top to bottom. The audience plays as active a role in the experience as the shadowcast does, their jokes, call-outs and props moving at a remarkable clip. To blink is to miss everything. “Rocky Horror” does not let its audience sit back and watch; it forces them to get up and do the “Time Warp” again and again.
The FBC is presented with a unique challenge every week: Keeping a half-century old movie fresh. “Everyone kind of has their own take on things,” Coach said. The personalities of the shadowcast shine through on stage, breathing new life into the characters. But at the same time, the FBC strives to parallel what’s happening on screen as closely as possible.
Coach explained how veteran cast members have inspired her acting decisions. “I look to [them] for inspiration on … how I can move my face a certain way and [I think] ‘Oh, I didn’t notice that subtle hand gesture before. Maybe if I’m able to do that it will bring more life to the character,’” Coach said.
The FBC members support each other in all facets of the performance. Coach particularly emphasized the importance of consent, saying “[it’s] crazy, crazy important because the movie is sexual in nature, and you’re performing sexual acts with people you might not necessarily know that well.” The FBC fosters a culture of communication both during performances and behind the scenes.
The word that sums up “Rocky Horror” is “family,” according to Coach,musical alien incest be damned. “People don’t join shadowcasting just because they want to perform,” she said. “You come with the understanding that you are looking for a community.”
The rich legacy the FBC has inherited through “Rocky Horror” spans decades and nations. Theirs is the kingdom of a kind of heaven where sex, absurdity and joy are all pure and unbridled.
Coach recounted a moving moment performing “Rocky Horror” with the FBC at the Emerson Colonial Theatre last year. “I remember being Brad and holding my Janet, who was my cast member Athena, and watching [5,000] glowsticks bob around, and just being like, ‘What the f--- is my life? This is bizarre.’ That was really, really special. And I’m excited to do it again.”
For certain, there’s a light over at the AMC Boston Common.
