Costumes customize ‘Picture Show’

The Joker and his masked female counterpart, who was sporting a whip, stood outside the Buskirk-Chumley Theater for the fifth-annual showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on Saturday.

It would be hard to guess that underneath the face paint and black-feathered mask were local residents and retired schoolteachers Kent and Barb Unger.

“We used to dress up for school, and we kind of miss it,” Barb Unger said, holding her tasseled whip. “Well, not like this.”

Inside the theater, the Ungers melded into the audience behind a female version of Darth Vader, a man trying to squeeze through the aisle in a Speedo and chaps and a woman struggling to get in a seat with her wings attached.  

Cardinal Stage Company sold $10 tickets to those in costume and $15 tickets for everyone else in an effort to raise funds for educational programming. Prop bags were sold inside for special parts of the movie, including rice that could be thrown during the film’s wedding scene.

“Costumes have always been a part of ‘Rocky Horror.’ It’s just a part of the movie,” Cardinal General Manager Katie Becker said.

In the costume contest, a woman dressed as a gumball machine won over Marie Antoinette, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love when an actual gumball popped out her costume. A series of games followed to “de-virgiize” the newcomers, such as Katy Howat and William Cornell, both donning dresses.

“I’m expecting a total surprise,” Howat said of the events surrounding the film.
Cornell, another “vigin” who came with Howat, said they had never seen “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” played in a theater.

“It gives me a reason to dress like a girl,” he added.

As the Buskirk filled with fishnets, spandex and games such as “bobbing for condoms,” things shaped up to be but ordinary.

“There’s a way that ‘Rocky Horror’ convinces people of letting their hair down,” Cardinal Art Director Randy White said. “It’s the sort of idea we’re not defined by gender or sex.”

A woman dressed in lingerie took the stage to lead the “pledge,” which involved placing a right hand over the heart and the left hand on the crotch of the person sitting next to you. The movie began as the lights dimmed on the audience, including the Ungers, who said they have seen it twice.

Crowd participation was heightened during the screening of the cult classic, which featured songs and dialogue about sex and gender-bending eroticism, all taking place in a haunted house. 

“It’s just a fun night,” Kent Unger said, “or I wouldn’t be dressed like this tonight.”