Every year, in honor of everyone’s favorite spooky holiday, The Clarke Street Glitter Lips put on a shadow cast production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A nearly packed house ushered in the sixth consecutive production at midnight on Halloween night.
Hercampus GCSU sat down with the “Sweet Transvestite” himself junior theatre major Zachary Bradford for the scoop. Zach revealed to Hercampus that Dr. Frank N Furter had been a dream role of his ever since he first saw the movie on television in high school. “I was always really silly as a kid,” Bradford explained while fixing his wig backstage before final dress rehearsal, “I always did a lot of theatrical things but I never really got a chance to pursue it then in high school my junior year I tried out for a play Godspell and got the lead role and ever since then I have just had that feeling that this is what I supposed to be doing.”
Along with Dr. Frank N Furter, Bradford has two other musical dream roles: Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Edna Turnbald from Hairspray, which gives you an idea of his range both of interests and of talent. As far as non-musical roles go though, he turns to Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as one of his goals. When preparing for a role, Bradford turns again to music for inspiration, compiling what he calls a “character playlist”. “I just kind of go through and make a list of songs that remind me of my character, represent my character.” For Frank specifically, he looked for songs that embodied the “creepy Halloween vibe” that is so true to Rocky Horror, with Justin Timberlake’s “True Blood” at the top of that list.
In case his laid back jeans and Deep Roots Festival t-shirt weren’t enough to give you an idea on his mellow disposition, his answer to the age old question of “If you were an animal?” illustrates it perfectly: “I think I’d be a gorilla. Just cause like, gorillas are really big, but they are not really super violent. They eat their grass or whatever, and just kind of chill out.” The sweet protective nature of a gorilla comes out in his advice for freshman, “don’t be afraid to reach out and help your friends”. As far as plans after college go, Bradford is keeping his options open. He pictures himself as staying in Georgia in Atlanta but after a year or two he wants to “roam and find a place to do what (he) loves.” As for this contributor, I cannot wait to see what this super cool dude does next!