'Rocky Horror' de-virginizes and delights

I was a virgin before Saturday night. \nA "Rocky Horror Picture Show" virgin, that is. \nI vaguely remember seeing part of the movie several summers ago. I think I fell asleep. However, as I understood it, seeing "Rocky Horror" in a theater is a very different experience because of all the audience interaction. \nWith no small amount of confusion, I Googled "Rocky Horror Picture Show" to see how I should dress and act. \nLacking the time, resources or knowledge to create a costume based off a character, I feared I would be targeted during the embarrassing-sounding "de-virginization" ceremony if I didn't dress up. Thus, I bought a lacy corset from a packed store at the mall and borrowed a short skirt from a friend. \nSo Saturday night, I laced up my corset and slathered my lips in red, sparkly lip gloss. A friend and I made our tall-booted way to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, getting reactions from people driving past. One observant girl noted that we were "lookin' like some sluts." Good! That was totally what we were going for. \nAs soon as the Buskirk-Chumley came into sight, I noticed one thing -- almost everyone was in costume. There were lots of corseted girls and boys in the style of the movie's main character, Dr. Frank-N-Furter. The crowd also featured Batman, a couple of pirates and even a male dressed as Madeline, the children's book character. Theater employees sold bags of props at the door. I handed over my $5 and received a paper bag with toilet paper, a water gun, toast and other strange things inside. \nEmcee and Cardinal Stage member Lindsay Charles began by telling the midnight crowd: "You guys are so much radder than the 9 o'clock!" \nShe and her assistant stripped down to fishnets and revealing corsets, and the night began with a costume contest. The first prize winner was Indianapolis resident Chris Simanton, dressed as Sailor Moon. \n"I was pretty excited," he said. "I just went to the Collins (Halloween) Dance and won a prize there, too. I didn't expect it at all!" \nWhen the contest was over, the de-virginization began. All "virgins" were invited on stage and voluntarily underwent such activities as "humping for their lives," in which virgins were invited to serially hump their neighbors. The next activity was the "crawl of shame," during which Charles asked women in short skirts to stand in a line and spread their legs while other virgins crawled through the spread-eagle conga line. Virgins also ate bananas "as seductively as possible" and performed fake orgasms. \nThough I had been skeptical before, I was briefly bummed that I didn't participate in the de-virginization. I stayed in my seat in the balcony until the "Rocky Horror" pledge, which was a crotch-grabbing vow to decadence and rock 'n' roll. As we relinquished our hold on our crotches, the show began.\nSince I had never attended a live "Rocky Horror" show before, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Immediately, the crowd began to sing along with the opening credits and insert their own lines into the movie. I caught on quickly to some of the recurring cries, such as the shouts of "Asshole!" and "Slut!" every time characters Brad and Janet introduced themselves. \nAlong with the vocal responses, I quickly figured out what to do with my bag of props. We threw rice during a wedding scene, squirted each other with water guns during a rain storm, threw toast, toilet paper and playing cards and snapped latex gloves at specific times in the film. \nThe actual movie seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, the crowd was cheering for the end credits. As we poured out of the theater, adjusting short skirts and fishnets, most of the crowd milled about, smiling and reliving the experience.\n"I loved it as always," said Sydney Jaeger, Aurora Alternative High School sophomore. "I grew up watching it. I was doing the 'Time Warp' at 3 years old." \nShe said she went to both shows at the Buskirk-Chumley Saturday night and that the midnight show was the best one she had ever attended. \nBloomington High School North junior Jeremy Gotwals, the drag queen costume contest prize-winner, said the show was amazing. \n"It was orgasmic. It was a myriad of mystic melodies pouring through every orifice of my being," he said.\nThough not quite as enthusiastic (or poetic), IU freshman Chris Than agreed that the show was awesome. \n"It reminds me of the parties my friends and I used to throw with people with no pants and no shirts on," he said. \nSo, de-virginized, covered in rice and with aching feet from the boots and fishnets, I made my way home. I definitely didn't fall asleep at this presentation of "Rocky Horror Picture Show"