Rocky Horror Picture Show has been a major part of not only Rowan University’s Gay-Straight Alliance but Rowan itself. The show started in October 2009 in half of the Student Center Ballroom with only 50 people in the audience. Last year, the performance was held in the Student Center Pit with over 800 people in attendance. It holds the record for the largest student run event at Rowan University. But now that the director, Brooke Golden, will be graduating in the spring, what will happen to Rocky? Luckily, Liz Ditzel, a freshman writing arts major, has come to save the day.
So why do you love Rocky Horror Picture Show?
“God, what don’t i love about Rocky would be a better question. But I guess I would have to say the music, the ridiculousness. I love how sarcastic it is when you’re at the theatre itself and you’re living a show of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 pretty much. Like every Friday night, for me at least, cause whenever I go home I try to go to the Rocky Horror Showing in Matawan at the movie theatre at midnight, it’s awesome. So it’s like, it’s so sarcastic and so awesome. Just the costumes and the flamboyance of it, how just stupid everything is, it’s great, it makes me giggle.”
When did you first watch Rocky Horror?
“I was devirginized I think the summer before my sophomore year [of high school], I think, somewhere between my sophomore or junior year I was at a horror convention at Cherry Hill that my cousin and I go to every year, every August. It was the one time we stayed overnight and she was like “Fuck yeah, the Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing at midnight tonight, guess what we’re doing?” And so I was the only sober person there by the way, it seemed, and umm, they took me on stage and spanked me, that was a lot of fun. But yeah, then I watched the movie on Halloween with my friends in my basement. I’ve been to a couple other showings live which I freakin love. I made sure my girlfriend’s Rocky Horror virginity was mine. My mom used to go to showings as a kid so I’ve known how to do the Time Warp vaguely since I was 13 and so she’s kind of making sure that I know what I’m doing.”
So what was your initial reaction to Rocky Horror?
“Probably ‘Holy shit, this is awesome!’ or ‘this is freakin hilarious!’ and then ‘I get to throw shit, cool!’ I don’t know, I loved it from the very start cause it’s a really good outlet cause I’m kind of a hyperactive person and so I can put a lot of my energy and inappropriate thoughts into what I’m doing here.”
How did you find out about the auditions here at Rowan?
“I was eating breakfast with my friends in the Marketplace. We were having an oh so nutritious breakfast of like waffles and ice cream or something or some Count-Chocula, and I was like “yeah, I really want to see if there’s a Rocky Horror thing.” and my friend’s an acting major and she’s like “dude, totally. They’re doing on, like I got an email for the auditions for it.” and I was like “hell yeah, I want to go to the auditions!” so I came to the auditions and I auditioned for three parts, like the first three auditions that they held really. It was like Janet, Riff Raff, and Magenta. and right after the Magenta audition, Brook, the director, pulled me into the room and was like “we need somebody to be in line to takeover next year and you know the show really, really well it seems and you’re really passionate about it, so would you be interested in training to be director next year?” and I was like “Yeah!” so that’s kinda how I ended up here.”
What was your reaction when you received the part?
“I was psyched. I think the first thing I did was call my girlfriend and the second thing I did was call my mom because she was a Rocky Horror geek when she was my age. So I was so so so psyched, it was awesome.”
How did your girlfriend and mom react when you called them?
“My girlfriend was a little bit busy at the time but umm, I think she was at work or something but I called her and I was like “guess what just happened to me?” and she was like “Oh my God that is so cool, I am so proud of you!” Then she was all happy for me and it was really cute and my mom was like psyched cause I wasn’t really involved in drama in high school that much because the drama club kinda kept screwing me over and so like this was the biggest kinda “eff you” that could have happened to them. And um she was also just psyched cause like that’s just awesome. Like that’s a really good opportunity for me and she was just like “yay!” and I get to be weird like she was in college if she went to college.”
Were you disappointed you wouldn’t be a main character?
“Umm for about two seconds I was like ‘aww shit I wanted to act!’ and then I realized exactly what this meant and that I would be super involved every year and really being really really involved was all that I really wanted. And like I love the spotlight but I’m just as happy just taking the wheel like this cause it’s kind of a spotlight itself. Cause it’s like you’re in charge and everyone depends on you and as stressful as that sounds it’s also really really awesome and Rocky is a well known thing so believe it or not I probably could put this on a resume somewhere and if my boss had a good sense of humor or the uh employer, I could get somewhere.”
What do you think you can bring to the show?
“A lot of passion. Just, I want to make it as big as it can possibly be and as awesome as it can possibly be and I can tell with Brooke it’s already awesome, I’m going to have big shoes to fill. Lots of sparkle and flamboyance, and just passion I guess.”