Hello to all of you. Unconventional convention is out there. Welcome to Rocky Talkie, the Rocky Horror Podcast about Anything and everything. Rocky Horror. I'm Aaron, I'm Meg and joining us on air this week, we've got Becky Melania from the Michigan Rocky Horror Preservation Society. That's Meps and indecent exposure. Becky's been on our guest shortlist for quite some time and as the newest recipient of the community's esteemed Atlas award, we knew we got a strike while the iron is hot and get Becky on the show. So a huge congratulations and a big Rocky talkie. Welcome to Becky. Hi, Becky. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for joining us. Um Now, Becky just before we get started, if you don't mind. For those of our listeners who might have been hiding under a rock for a hot minute. Could you just give us a brief intro about yourself and your time within the Rocky community? Sure. Uh In 1981 I had the pleasure of becoming a cast member of indecent exposure. We were a weekly show with the U C theater in Berkeley, California. I E retired in 1995 but I remained active in the community attending conventions and judging costume contests. Now, when I was with I E I played every part in the show except Janet, but my favorite of course was Columbia. At some point. I also had the opportunity to become I E S director. I, I gotta ask, what was it about Janet? You don't, you didn't like I never had the opportunity. Somebody that, somebody, somebody, somebody cast back. He is Janet. Listen and costumes. Resident Janet. Uh You're welcome to fill in for me. Any time, please come take over. Uh and we'll get a costume together for you. You'll hate it. You never know. I love New York. I remained active in, in, in the community for a while. And then, you know, in 2013, I became director of the Michigan Rocky Hor Preservation Society. We call ourselves Meps in last year. In 2021 I stepped down as director. We Incorporated Meps as a nonprofit corporation and I currently serve as, as chief operating officer and a member of its board of directors. I also make a few costumes every now and again. Uh And I also currently serve as the Chief theme night coordinator of Barely Legal in the San Francisco Bay. Oh, amazing. So if that's what you're doing when you're stepping back, I can only imagine you're, you're, you're making us, you're making, you're putting us to shame over here with just how much you've done over the last 40 some years in the community. It's amazing. It's amazing. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. We're really excited to have you here and excited that all our listeners get, get to hear all of your tips and tricks and your experiences. I'm excited to be here. Let's go. You know, Becky, you are known within our community for your just exceptional out of this world costume making abilities. I've got to ask, do you have a background in costume creation? Outside of Rocky? I do not. I actually my mom taught me how to sew at a very young age with the, you know, the old fashioned singer sewing machine. It went backwards and forwards like that's it. And on that machine, I created my very first Columbia costumes and it, for years after I e retired, I actually stopped sewing. And then when my mom passed away in 2015 is when we started doing theme nights. It kind of all was like a magic recipe that happened. And part of my grief therapy for myself was to start sewing again to try and pay forward her legacy. So I started sewing and paying forward her legacy by teaching my cast members at me how to sew because about 80% of them had no idea how to sew. And they've come down here, you know, whether they've picked up glue to sequin or they've cut out a pattern or cut out fabric, they've learned how to sew. And so it's been a great opportunity to be able to teach them something my mom taught me. Oh, that's great. That's, that's super cool. I mean, my legacy of Rocky, my, my parents, uh, also, you know, helped me with my first costumes, taught me how to sew and all that. And I, I, I treasure those. Not quite so screen accurate pieces that still hang around because it's, it's, you know, part of, part of that whole legacy it is, isn't it? So what was it specifically about the costumes? And Rocky, you know that your brain kind of latched into and you're like, oh, these are fun. I actually wouldn't mind making 15 Columbia tailcoats over and over again. Uh New different ways every time you fit in my basement. Uh We do have quite a few Colombian tails coats down here. Truly. I mean, who doesn't love gold sequins? That's true. Right? And to be able to like, I've made multiple gold sequin tails coats and I know how hard it is to cut into that fabric. So we always say before you make your actual gold sequin tails coat, make a draft first. So we have down here like sequin tails coats in like teal and purple and pink because we want you to make something, make a draft first. Use it for a theme night because before you go spend a lot of money on a tails coat and cut through that gold sequin fabric. Learn how to sew, make your mistakes on the draft. That's incredibly important. And it's also really fun to see the characters in a different costume. You know, whether it's putting Eddie in a veteran's day costume or you're putting Columbia in a sock cop costume. And of course, the Transylvanian have the best theme night costumes. Oh, man. Could you imagine having Transylvanian's? Hm. Must be nice. Wait, go on. Why did the Transylvanian have the best theme night costumes? Let's, let's hear a little bit about that. When we started doing our theme nights. Everything was very like if you play Dr Scott, you get a tie, you know, in that theme. Maybe it's Fourth of July. Maybe it's Saint Patrick's Day. If you play Eddie, you get a scarf. If you or Columbia might make you a new bustier or bow type. If you're Transylvanian, you're gonna have a really cool Mardi Gras vest with Mardi Gras beads coming down your arm connecting to a cuff. Or you're gonna have like a, um, a revolutionary coat for Veterans Day. Really cool poodle skirt with a giant lightning bolt instead of a Poodle. Oh, I love that. So show. And you know, it's the Transylvanian's love their costumes. We have some actors that go back to playing Transylvanian for a particular theme night because they like the costume so much. That's awesome. Oh man. People fighting for Transylvanian roles who would have Thunk? OK. So we're hearing about all of these different theme nights. We got sock hops, we got Mardi Gras. Can you tell us about some of the shows that have been your favorite to create costumes for or maybe some of the most challenging ones? Some of these sound like fucking doozies, man. Some of them are very simple. Uh Like I've said before, once we started Mardi Gras, it became a much larger undertaking, right? So Mardi Gras Veterans Day, the upcoming Versailles show for barely legal. That will be my largest show I've ever built all challenging but incredibly rewarding and the actors are great to collaborate with, to be able to talk to. How do you see your character in the time of Versailles? How do you see your character during the time of our founding fathers? And that's a great collaboration moment with the actors, but definitely the most challenging theme night had to be with indecent exposure, Wednesday night, sitting at a bar and we had no Franken Furter. So how do we cast the show? We're like, let's do a Star Trek theme night because that's what you want to do three days before a show when you, when you don't have nine actors yet, right? We got to, we have to shuffle everybody around and find somebody to play Frank. So the idea was the Transylvanian's were gonna be the original star Trek series and then the actors are going to be next generation. Three days. Let's go. And somehow we pulled it off. I, to this day, I don't know how a lot of coffee, a Brady Bunch marathon and while sewing and I, it happened and it was a fantastic show. Definitely worth it. Um, we had gin rollerblading through different scenes with shots, plausible deniability as to whether or not there was liquor involved. That's so cute. I love that. Oh man. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You, you had mentioned that uh Jamie had worked on that theme night a ton with you. That's so cool. That's so I'm a huge, huge, huge Star Trek fan. Uh always have been and like, I've never done a Star Trek theme show. I don't, I'm, I'm, I'm weary of us doing the shows all the time. But boy, if there's one that, that would get to me, it's definitely Star Trek. So many great costumes now too. You got your whole pick of 50 years of Star Trek. Now. You really do, right? But you know, I was Deanna's Magenta. It was a blast. Those super hot. What was uh what was the rest of the cast? Do you remember? Q was Frank? Oh Yeah, Janet was the good doctor. Mhm uh Brad was Darius Riker Magenta was Dianna Troy. I'm completely blanking on the rest of them. But, but you get the picture. Yeah. No, that sounds that, that sounds super fun. And that's a really hot uh Riff Magenta combo. You like did him real nice. I love that. Um And you mentioned that one of the things that you really prioritize as a cast leader is teaching your cast members how to sew and make costumes so that they can help putting the shows together. Uh Can you tell us a little bit about how you teach your newbies, like just the basics of making costumes and maybe talk about how that impacts their involvement in the cast as a, like a larger entity. I think it has a huge impact. You know, I have cast members that have come down here and go bring pictures of costumes they want to create whether it's Rocky related or otherwise. Like, I'm gonna make this costume. You'll start with a bow tie. Right, right. With the basics, a bow tie, a Transylvanian vest, pick a fabric. What's your favorite color? Let's go. And they realize that it takes a lot of effort just to make a bow tie. Yeah. And I had one actor. It took him about three months to make the bow tie in the best. And when he finished, he danced out of this house, he was so proud. I was so proud. I had another actor who just recently made their very first Janet Pride dress. And we spent two Saturdays down here first going through all of my patterns, finding fabric blocking it all out cutting out the pattern, putting it all together. And they said to me, you watch me on Saturday. I'm gonna tell everybody I made this, this I make. So there's a lot of pride that goes along with it and they take really good care of their costumes when they make it so that the truth, right? And they, they learn and they, we don't just sit here and sew, we stitch and we bitch, you guys, we're bitching the stitching and we cry down here. I'm in my basement. By the way, I should mention that we c down here we cry, we laugh, we, you know, sometimes have really heartfelt discussions. Other times we talk about our favorite musical. Sometimes people burst out in song. It's really a lot of fun. Yeah. One thing you mentioned earlier that, that I, I definitely clocked was talking to the actors about how their character would interpret some of these theme night costumes. What would, you know, uh a sock hop brad actually be wearing and it seems like a great both learning opportunity. Uh you know, both from a history perspective or from a period perspective. And also just like getting into the head of the character, which you expect with a stage show. But isn't something we do a lot in shadow casting. Right. Right. So there's multiple pieces to that because when it comes to creating something for a theme night, when we were reimagining our Veterans Day show to become a tribute to our founding fathers. We sat on the deck and we were having cocktails talking about how we were going to do this. Should Janet wear a dress? Yes, of course, it should be pink. We should throw some pink gingham in there. But one of my actors said to me, this is a formal time. He cannot be Eddie, he must be Edward. So cross cross chest and green glitter in old English font, his shirt says Edward. So you know, you just, you just talk it through and everyone's like, what if we did this? And you know what if for the Pirates Night, Trixie was a mermaid and Rocky was the treasure because it's gold and that's really cute. That's actually really cool. I like that. Yeah, bra. She wear underwear. X marks the spot. I mean, oh my God, this show sounds freaking amazing. Pirate site is gonna be a lot of fun. It really is. I'm in the process of creating all the costumes right now. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. And then on the other side of it about getting to know your character better as a cast leader. Uh Often we would have our actors do character analysis, tell me, write, write down for me in the first person. How your character got to the point they were in the film. How did Columbia get on the jukebox? How did Eddie get in the freezer? Tell me about your relationship. If you're brad, what's your relationship with, with Ralph and Betty, what's your relationship with? Doctor Scott? They would walk in and like, here's my character analysis. I love that. That's, uh, I, I mean, being such a huge geek, that's the kind of stuff that really gets me going about Rocky is, you know, going past the screen, going past the script, going, you know, past the stage show and into your own world where you're like, what do these characters mean to you? I, I love that and I love that. It's part of your process, you know, um that it all comes together to kind of like build a huge foundation for all of these actors to work on. Absolutely. And they, they learn a lot about not just the characters but the costumes and it's amazing when you put an actor into a certain costume help makes them feel they may have had a hand in creating it. And then when they put like a veteran's day costume on, you see their posture instantly change. So just to pick your brain a little bit, maybe reveal some more secrets to our listeners. And you did touch on this uh during the costume panel at R K O K four, what are some of the best resources for costuming from scratch? Right? I mean, you mentioned that you use uh some off the shelf patterns, maybe like simplicity stuff. I'm sure you've accumulated huge number of patterns over the years, but also you modify a lot of bases and things. How, how do you go about finding all of these resources to kind of build these costumes? Well, I think if the Amazon delivery truck did not stop at my house at least once a week, they'd stop and find out what's wrong with me. Um, I use Amazon a lot, particularly when it comes to floor show corsets. Uh The exception of course is Pirates Night. We are making those from scratch. But generally speaking, if you like Saint Patrick's Day, right? You order a bunch of green and corsets orange for Frank and you embellish them with, you know, gold and orange sequins. A lot of the stuff can be done by not spending a lot of money because the courses from Amazon are not that expensive, right? Or you have just the opposite, you know, something like Veterans Day or Versailles because of the time periods, the fabrics are far fancier, far more textured. You look, you might use a silk or a velvet or brocade. So you go to the different outlets. I've been to Chicago San Francisco L A shopping for fabrics for particularly to build a show. Um When it comes to how do I find that gold sequin fabric that vin of stuff that you can't find anymore? Honestly, your e-commerce websites, ebay A Macari um have to do the employee disclaimer right there for Macri, um, those e-commerce websites if you search gold sequin dress jacket coat and sometimes you have to misspell sequin because people sequence so auto correct attacks again. Exactly. Or they just, you know, think that sequin is spelled like differently. So I also encourage people to write to the seller if you don't really see what the fabric looks like. Is it what I want? I think it's what I want. So rather than spending the money, ask for photos, ask for close up photos and see if it's really what if it's really the taff of a backed gold sequin fabric you want? Absolutely. No, that's, that's great. I I've never ripped apart old stuff. Uh Fortunately I, I stay pretty current. I'm picking up, you know, when, when the community makes some of that stuff, but I'm not making 15 tail coats, you know, every year. So, uh that's, that's great resource for everybody out there looking, especially right now where it's really hard to find these fabrics. It is very hard to find some that gold sequin vintage fabric. So definitely, you know, keep searching because eventually it comes up for sure. And, and I, I gotta ask you while, while we're on this one, is there like a pattern that you have refined so many times that you wish you could just stop seeing it? Like, is there one that like you just can't get right? Or you, you, you've nailed it down to the point where you're like, OK, never again, I'm gonna always use this one. Always, uh, clearly there is the, um, simplicity pattern for the Columbia Bossier that we use all the time. The tails coat pattern, which is the old Uncle Sam pattern. Um, things like that. Right? So, yes, there's always definitely because we make a lot of coats, you know, Versailles, Pirates, uh, Veteran's Day, all very similar. So you can kind of use those patterns but change them depending on the theme. So definitely we make a lot of coats love it. Now, I got to ask inquiring minds, really want to know uh what tips would you give to any casts out there that might want to start like dipping their little toes into more complicated costume intensive theme shows, collaboration, communication and call me. So first of all collaboration, you know, your actors know their characters better than anybody, right? Again, like I said, what would Frank wear during a rock star tribute? What would Frank, what would Eddie wear if he was a rock star? Would he be Elvis? Would you put him in the jumpsuit? But instead of the eagle on the back, you'd put the baby and the rising sun in, you know, rhinestones and studs on the back of it. What would you do? You have to put, you know, with the flared bell bottoms, you put the leopard in there. Like how do you incorporate those pieces into the theme that you're having. Um, so definitely communicate with your actors because nobody knows those characters better than them. And if you ever need any help, hit me up, oh, that's a dangerous offer to make because I know there's so many people out there that are just like, well, I mean, Becky said I can call so it's also a very, very sweet offer. But no, that's great. One of the best parts about the community, right. There's so many people who are willing to help. You just got to get out there, you gotta get out there post on the groups, ask people what they're doing and, you know, it's, it's, it's fantastic. So, on that same vein, um, what do you think really makes a good theme show costume? Like, I, I, I find that a lot of the times when people do theme shows they go, well, it's Star Wars Night, I'm gonna go buy 10 Star Wars bag costumes and that's our theme show. So, what are some of the tricks that you found to, like keeping the characters identifiable yet? Still allowing for that creativity that lets the, you know, the theme kind of play through? Oddly enough, Meps has never done a show with licensed characters. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I mean, we, we did a wrestling night earlier this year but you know that they're not really licensed, they're classic wrestlers, but we generally stick with, you know, whether it's a holiday theme. Um, like I said, the upcoming Pirates Night, you can always make your characters identifiable. You know, Eddie would throw in something with the leopard leopard, the cheetah fabric, right? Sorry, the fabric, the uh Colombia bow tie for us is always present one way or another. Whether it's the color of the Boer, we're throwing the bow tie on a Tricorn hat for Veterans Day. Somehow the bow tie is always present with Colombia. Janet is traditionally in pink. We try to fill the Gingham in there somehow and, or purple depending on the costumes. Some people, sometimes we don't make two costumes for Janet. Sometimes it's only one. It's a lot for a five minute scene. Right. That's, yeah. Save a costume change too. Exactly. Exactly. So, it's really just about the identifying parts of the character as it is in the film, you know, you know, that you're probably gonna put cream in something that's gray that and something that's, you know, resembles the Ascot in the red maroon color. Maybe throw some, definitely throw Ascot in. Even for Pride Night. It's like a, a rainbow Ascot, but it is, we took Mina's pattern off of Columbia's closet and just recreated it but, and embellished it all in the Pride colors. I love that. I, uh, I have a, a crim mascot that I did several years back, took me like three days to do it and then I six hours before a pride show when you one day went. Oh, I did this once I can crap another one of these out real quick. No, I could not. I, I could not. That, that took way more effort than I remembered it. Taking. It's, it's making sure that you have the right amount of time and, and all of that and not, not to, not to overshoot too, you know. Right. And I do think it's, it depends on the, in the, you know, the theme night, if it's like a theme night where you're just going to change, like, just basic pieces. Right. You're gonna give Magenta a Shamrock Christina and apron for Saint Pat's and Riff of Vest. The rest of the costume stays the same. Or maybe they might wear an orange bra. Right. So it's the little touches that you change. You don't have to go all out and create a whole new costume. You can just change pieces of it and still make an effective theme at Eddie's. Just change our Eddie's scarf. We have a bunch of scarves here for Easter and, uh, Fourth of July and Valentine's Day that are all in the appropriate colors for that. Those holidays, the costume stays the same. Yeah, that's great. I, I absolutely love that. And especially for holidays. Right. It's an easy way to add flair and not have to go crazy and, you know, make a pink and purple, you know, something for kind of, you know, change the character. Yeah. I love that. Here's a question that might be a little bit of a hot button issue. I'm just very curious since we were talking about Crim Becky. How do you feel about stripping crims? Have you ever costumed one of those? No, I have not. It sounds like we had, we had a crim once who performed in, uh, Valentine's Day boxer shorts though. No pants. That, that worked, that worked well. Um, no, have not done that before, but I'm all about it. We keep our crim on the show for, on the stage for the entire show. Oh, cool. So, crim has like their spot and they're on stage the entire show. Oh, very stage show style. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. He gives them something to do and interact with the whole time. Exactly. And they do, they have the opportunity to interact the entire show. So that's great. And actually that reminds me of another good, uh, question about this Trixie. Trixie always strip. Do you have any tips for Trixie? So that they don't end up in that situation where they're sitting there trying to undo buttons. Couple of things. Um, always make sure it's a costume, I think Dotty who's one of our directors said it the best. Always make sure whatever you wear is actual costume, like throw some sequins on it, throw some rhinestones on it, make it a costume. Right. Um, as far as stripping is concerned, practice, it's a long song. A lot of people don't realize that. Ok, I was gonna take my clothes off in 30 seconds. Like, no, there's another like three minutes to the song. Yep. Yep. Time it out because, you know, you don't have to take off everything at that particular moment. Um, practice taking the clothes off, make a plan if you have to add snaps and fake buttons in the front and add snaps underneath it. do that. Some people use magnets. Other people practice how to tie and untie things. So it's all about what you're going for. The effect that you're going for, how to make it work and to practice in it incredibly important because you don't want to like, take off your clothes in the 1st 30 seconds and have nothing to do for the last three minutes. Absolutely. I, I it's one of the number one things that, that, uh we always, you know, tell our Trixie is like you have free rein do whatever you want, you can wear whatever you want, do whatever you want, but make it look intentional, you know, make it look like you put some effort into putting this, get up together and then it comes off cleanly, you know. Exactly. Exactly. So, stepping a little bit back from theme shows for non theme shows, this is more of a broader question. How would you compare the community's devotion to screen accuracy and costume now versus in, you know, the past. What trends have you kind of noticed over the years back in the day, in the 19 hundreds, we did not, we did not have a blu-ray. A DVD A V H si mean, we literally had to sit, you ask the theater to run the film and sit there and, and take notes on our costumes or the old Rocky horror picture show movie novel go through that. There were, there were not a lot of resources back in the day. So making something screen accurate was a challenge that we accepted. And luckily for the community now we have, you know, Minna Ruth Jamie who all were like very much into screen accuracy um and created, you know, Minna and Ruth their respective websites, which are fantastic resources. I still use them to this day. Oh, yeah, same, same. All right. I think the biggest difference today is that we're seeing more people make their costumes their own. I have a friend that likes to create like their leather jacket. It's all gonna have kitty cat buttons all over it, you know. So it's make something. Yeah, they have a boss tattoo that has a sewing needle. She's also a customer. Oh, very cool. So it's, you know, it's all about making it your own. I think that's truly where the community is evolved to. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I, I was kind of born into the screen accuracy, you know, era a bit of it, but but in, in recent years, um, I don't know whether it's because it's become so much easier to kind of find all that stuff. Or maybe, maybe it's just that the amount of effort to do it has been made much clearer, uh, where you're not just kind of building it up. But, uh, a lot of people come in and go. No, no, I want to do Frank, like the, this, in, in this kind of a thing. I think it would be really cool. And that's great. That's awesome to me. I think that part of the excitement of going and seeing other casts is not just seeing their different blocky and their different everything, but also what are those choices their actors made? What are the different costumes they're using? It's, it's what makes every show unique and definitely having theme nights, helps with that. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Because it gives you an opportunity to refresh every time. Absolutely. We just had our summer beach bash and our Transylvanian's were, you know, in Hawaiian shirts and, you know, they were running around stage, taking selfies and injected themselves into everything they possibly could. It was, it was fantastic. So, it gives them an opportunity to do something outside of a normal Transylvanian. I love that. I don't know if I trust any of our people with a selfie stick though that, that could get dangerous real fast. They're gonna sword fight with them. I know they're gonna sword fight with them. Somebody's phone is getting broken. There will be swords of Pirates Night. Yes. So as somebody who is very into fiddling with my costumes both to kind of a little bit and also for ease of use. If that makes sense, like I'll put snaps where there's not supposed to be snaps. I'll put buttons on my pocket so that my Janet purse can hang there and not keep slipping down my shoulder. Um For anyone out there with costumes that they're currently using and are pretty happy with, what would you say are some like low risk, low effort projects that they can do to give their costume little extra oomph or make their show experience just like more convenient. Number one, add more sequence, the world a better place sequences, right? Or rhinestones, whichever you prefer. I have rhinestones on my tap shoes. I know they're supposed to be sequences. But you know, why not have rhinestones when you can uh things like things like that. You know, if you, you know, really want to get into screen accuracy, take a look at the fact that does not have a zipper on his pants, things like that, you know, really get take a piece of your costume and you really work on it. One little thing can make all the difference as simple as adding an extra cotton liner into your magenta and riffraff gold space suits, right? You add an extra liner so you can just rip it off and throw it in the laundry because we all sweat on a hot summer night. Yep. Right. Add an extra line to that r A Magenta costume. Jamie suggested to me, you know, add some magnets, throw a cotton, extra cotton lining so you can take it off and throw it in the wash when you need to. That's brilliant. And I wish that we had done that when we got our current spacesuits. Yeah, those are green now and clean your costumes, please. Yes, please, please. Your costumes, right? Vodka bottle. 50% water. 50% low shelf. Do not go buy the top shelf. Fancy stuff. Use the low shelf stuff. I usually use like a 60 40. Put it in a spray bottle. Spray down the costumes. Yeah, we uh we have our spray jug it all. You got them, man, they stink. Otherwise it's so important that even if all you've got is top shelf just, just pour it in there. Like the gray goose. I have, I have, I have, I have sprayed a costume with gray goose before and I didn't feel bad about it. Like the alternative was worse. The alternative is always worse. That's true. So, Becky zooming out from the costuming side of things a little bit. You are one of the longest running community members that we've got. Um what are some of the biggest positive or negative changes that you've seen over the last few decades. And how do you think Rocky will look at 50 and beyond? I think Rocky is gonna look fabulous at 15 and beyond and has a lot to do with the community, uh, today, just seeing everybody R K O K and wanting to communicate and open up the doors of Rocky even more to be able to have more participation, not just from, you know, particular coast, but throughout the United States and throughout the world, you know, um whether you're going to a con or to see a local theater to go visit other shows, right? I think that Rocky is headed in a really great direction. No, it's, it's, it's fantastic. Just the amount of um effort and renewed vigor that we've seen out of the community in the last couple of years has just been enormous, like the number of people putting out content and doing really great shows and just the amount of traveling that people are doing and, and seeing everybody at a was just so much fun. It, it was a blast. And, you know, well, we're incredibly grateful during the days of a decent exposure that we did not have social media. I think that it's great now to be able to keep in touch with everybody. There's more communication and better conversation that's happening within the community now. Oh, and I just, I just love that I can pop on Instagram and I can see somebody's theme night costume and I don't have to wait, you know, the, the five weeks for a crazed and imaginations issue to come out with photos and, and like, I can just see them, oh, Friday, they were performing right now. That's what they, that's what they did. I got to see it. It is great to see you. You can write them up and go. Where did you get those boas from? Because I need a set of those. So on that. What, what are you most looking forward to working on uh with your cast and, and the wider community at large just in the near term in the future? Any time, I think it's a good time to plug the three Cons coming up. Uh Con Jovi, I wish the new in New Jersey is what I'm referring to next year uh with F N S our friends at Friday Night specials. It's gonna be fantastic. Y K two in 2024. Yeah, it's gonna be Fanta in Pittsburgh with our friends at J C C P and of course, returning to Providence for R K O K five following year in 2025. So a big plug for uh all three of those casts putting on a con is great effort. It's a lot of work. So kudos to them, we look forward to that. Definitely. Uh on a more local level. Merz is celebrating its 10th anniversary. I can't believe it's been 10 years 10th anniversary next year. So we're really looking forward to that. We're gonna bring that in with the roaring Twenties theme night I'm told. So I have a lot to look forward to. It will be very exciting. Said, I can't believe it's been 10 years and this coming spring we are launching with barely legal of Psy theme night. Now, in 2019, I didn't have a theme night to build and I asked, you know, Nate, hey, can I build your cast a theme night? And he said, sure, I, we talked to the cast and they gave me all kinds of fantastic different ideas. I gathered them all up. I sent them off to Nate and he said for, I'm like, ok, could have been Fourth of July. That would have been so much easier. Let's go for Versailles. So that's happening in the spring of 2023 in the Bay area. And I'm really looking forward to seeing that show launched. That's so cool. I mean, they couldn't have picked a more complicated show. It's period. It's very specific, ornate stuff. That's gonna be so cool and everybody gets a costume. So even if you're on crew, if your props lights merch security, you're going to get a costume that's gonna be so cool. Wow. Yeah, I saw it. Uh or maybe you had mentioned this at that, uh even for your local theme shows and stuff like you, you outfit the, the theater staff and everything for, for the, our theater staff was so excited. Like, ok, we get bowties for this one. When's the next theme? Like you start? Do we get bunny ears? I'm like, yes, I'll buy you bunny ears. So, the theater manager said to me recently they even wear the bow ties when it's not a rocky night. I think that's great. Yeah, they love wearing their bow ties. Oh, that's cool. That's really fun. I mean, it's something they get to enjoy too. Right. Like, not just dealing with, uh, you know, a bunch of drunk people come to a show. They get, they get, they get spiffy bow tie out of it. Yeah. Right. That's nice. Keep them happy. Keep them engaged. We keep the theater staff happy. We are incredibly lucky. We have an amazing staff manager and owner at our theater. They've treated us very well. Awesome. So, uh, that's some of the stuff you've got coming up. What? On the, like, far distant? Maybe, not even distant. Maybe it's just a pipe dream. What kind of like? Crazy Rocky Aspirations, something that you think may be really cool to do. Uh, but may or may not ever happen. What's your go to there? I would like to go back to Oakley Court. Had opportunity to do that in 2018. It was, there's something about driving up to the hotel and seeing the Transylvanian flag flying. That was an amazing experience and meeting everybody at the UK. They were just incredible. And, um, you know, we all know that the picnic is not gonna happen in the foreseeable future, but I hope he comes back soon. This, we can all be turned to the Oakley Court and see our friends in the UK. Absolutely. I was sad when I heard the news that, uh, time where picnic wasn't going to happen and the foreseeable future. But, uh, Oakley is still a great destination and, uh, you know, lots of, lots of awesome fans out there that, you know, I love to see and, uh, maybe, maybe sometime soon, maybe, maybe they'll figure it out. I hope so. Yes, because I think everybody who has really invested themselves into the community should make that trek out to Oakley Court at least once. It's a great experience. Oh, yeah, there's a reason a lot of people call it a pilgrimage. Right. It, it is very much that kind of, you know, it, it, oh, I'm here. This is where they did it. Oh, wow. You know, kind of feeling. Yeah, it's, it's a very cool place to be. There is no elevator. No, but I, I, I assume you got your banister photo. Of course, of course, that's like the first thing I did. You walk in, you put yourself on the banister? Damn. Right. Meg. Got one of, uh, Meg, got one of her in her wedding dress on the banister. My most extra moment and it has to be done. Oh, yeah, absolutely. You gotta get that. You got to get the, uh, the gargoyle photo right when you're right outside the door, all the stuff, all the stuff. It's a great place. So, Becky, we would love to hear about the rocky moment or the accomplishment during your time in the community that you're most proud of. Like, what's your, your magnum opus so far? I have two thinking back. Um Great Lou Lou Adler came to when I was with the decent exposure. In 1990 Lou Adler came to our show and took a lot of footage um of I E which luckily made it on the Blu Ray. And a few weeks later said, come down to L A and we met with him and he's like, all right, we want you guys for the 15th anniversary. We were lucky enough to be on the 20th century Fox studio stage with uh our friends at midnight Insanity and since of the flesh and voice to contention all from Southern California. And I was lucky enough to uh play Columbia Time Warp and it was awesome. I was sitting on my jukebox and watching Magenta and riffraff do their thing and I could hear my cast members go, Becky. Becky. When I look over right in front of me is Nell with the camera. Oh, that's not nerve wracking at all. Don't drop the top hat. Don't fall off the jukebox and don't drop the top hat. You can do this. And um I took off the top hat. Did the whole time. Warp solo. Toppa came off, twirled it and caught it and I could hear my cast just scream. Um And I, which was a great moment and she's sitting there taking photos and then the tap dance comes up and I jump off the jukebox and I'm tap dancing the hat. You know, you take the hat off and I could see out of my side view that Nell was tap dancing with me. No pressure. Oh, that's so cool. So after that's over, she comes up to me and says, I hope you don't mind me tap dancing with you. But that was, it was a fantastic experience. Um Others in 1995 when indecent exposure retired, our final few months were chaotic. Insane. There's no other way to put that. We did multiple road shows. Um I got to watch my cast perform and win many costume awards. Uh Not my costumes their own at the 20th anniversary, the Pantages in L A. Um We got an award from Richard o'brien that night, which was a definitely moment. We'll never forget. We got to, we got to perform our Transylvanian Rhapsody number at the Roxy in L A the night before which was very cool. You know, uh Frank and Furter. I'm going home. Wait, I can explain. It. Goes right into Bohemian Rhapsody. Very cool. It on videos. It's definitely on video. It's out there. And, um, you know, we closed out our retirement with an AIDS benefit. And then our final show, which uh the U C theater held over 1300 people and getting everybody in for our final show. I think we probably started at two AM in the morning. It was crazy, but it was a marvelous last few months and it's something I'll never forget. And when the U C theater closed, um stopped doing Rocky, I wanna say 99. Um we didn't think we'd see, they closed the U C theater down. We didn't think we'd see it open again for a really long time and it was, somebody bought it and started just gonna turn it into like a music venue. And when they were remodeling it, they kept asking, are you gonna bring Rocky back? The community was asking, are you bringing Rocky Horror back to the U C theater? So, in 2016, they did and a lot of our indecent exposure, cast members were there graciously, the cast had barely legal invited us in and it was a magical night to be back inside our home theater that um it looked better than we had ever seen it before. There's no more seats in the U C theater but there are like four bars and we'll take that. Um Yeah, it was, it was fantastic. And then in 2018, I had the opportunity to uh perform with barely legal and some 90 exposure alumni. And on my stage, once again, after 23 years of being off the stage and it was something else, no pressure at all. Again, my, some Michigan cast members came with me and they're right there in the front row and you're thinking, don't drop the hat, don't drop the hat going back to 1990 all over again. And I trolled the hat caught it and I could hear the screams and yells from my Michigan cast members. It was, it was awesome. Um You know, creation scene came up and I'm on stage realizing that I'm there with all of my decent exposure, cast members. It felt so surreal like a, like a real time war. And it's like, because I planned it that way. I'm like, you're a good man. Oh That's a fantastic story. I, I love, I love those stories that are like just moments in time that are captured and like, it's because of rocky. It's because of the people. It's because of all your friends. You know, it's so cool. I've been incredibly fortunate. I mean, even the cast are barely legal. They are an amazing group of people. I formed some lifelong friendships and incredibly grateful. That's fantastic. That's so sweet that they were all there to cheer you on. That's great. I was so happy because when you know there so many times you twirl the top hat and like you hit Riff raff in the head with it because that's multiple times. They like, you know, it and poof Riff in the head or Transylvania gets hit with it and you're just with those moments where you catch it at the right time. Makes for a good show. I think the only time I ever played Colombia, I went to spin a top hat and it just went flying across the stage. It was just gone. And I was like, yeah, that seems about right. That's exactly what happens. And most people spin it up instead of just spinning it around. That's the biggest difference. That's the trick. All right. I'm gonna have to get out, get out a top hat and start practicing now. You know, for next time, don't, you wouldn't do me like that. I certainly would. I think you should do it. It would be fun. I haven't done Colombia in years. That's not a challenge. Sweetie. Don't, no, she's the one I haven't done either. So maybe we can do like a back to back situation. That would be fun. Wow. I hate that. Right. A trip to New York coming on. Yeah. Um, let's just, uh, switching gears here a little bit, Becky. Uh, I want to talk about your time as a cast leader, which you, you were a cast leader for a long time. Uh, and I'm very curious what's been your most challenging moment because we know that there's lots of happy stuff. There's lots of really wonderful things that go along with it. But there's also some stuff that's a little, a little rough there is, I think the most challenging part of being a cast leader is when you lose a cast member, it's one thing when a person leaves the cast to go to school or moving out of town or, you know, they're done with a rocky portion of their life. But there's something else when you find out that you've, a cast member has passed away and you're the person who has to pick up the phone and make the phone calls. You're the person who's asked to write the eulogy. And you're like, I can't write a eulogy about John and a 24 year friendship. And I luckily, you know, um, my brother from another mother, um, Rob, uh, he's, uh a great writer and I, I didn't have to say hello. I called him and he picked up the phone. It's like you want me to help you write the eulogy, don't you? I'm like, yeah, because I have nothing. I just a complete blank. I didn't know how to put a 24 year friendship done on words. Um, he saved me that day, that's for sure. But, um, th those hearing and, and sharing the grief with your fellow cast members is something you never forget. And, um, you know, we had, I'll never forget the time Kevin who was one of our frankfurters of I E when he died and watching his casket leave the funeral home and they played the Roxy version of I'm going home and we were all just sobbing. And those are the moments when you support each other and you stand in strength with one another. And it's, um, it's hard to say goodbye to them in September 11th of 2020. You know, I had friends over at the house and my phone was off. It was, it was, it was charging and God, he was getting hold of my husband. Like I need to talk to Becky and she doesn't contact Nick unless it's incredibly important. So I call her, I'm like, you need me. She's like, don't look at your phone, I'm coming over. Ok. That's not normal. And she comes in the house and I looked at her and I said, why don't I wanna see you? And that's the moment she told me that faith had died. Meps had lost its founder that night. Faith unexpectedly passed away. And during lockdown. And so we really couldn't even be together as a cast. So we got on a Zoom call that night with the cast and alumni and we asked, uh, Bill, who's our current president, if he could get a hold of our owner, theater owner, Corey, because the next night was supposed to be a show night. Of course, again, we're in lockdown. So, um is it can you, is there any way we can get into our theater? And, you know, Bill talked to Coy and being the fantastic theater owner. He's like, absolutely, yes, come to the theater, I'll open it up for you. And he and our theater manager were there and we sat in our theater that night and just talked about faith and just mourned together as a cast. And, um, you know, he asked us, can we do a memorial service later on, I'd like to dedicate the theater to faith. I said, absolutely, yes, let, let's put this together. And, you know, the entire leadership team came together and we created a fantastic memorial service for the cast alumni alike. And we had a chance to once again mourn together our very first show back. We dedicate it to Faith's memory and her 90 year old father, 90 years old comes to our show at midnight and it was, it was an amazing moment. We had a beautiful photo of Faith during I'm going home and we didn't have a performance. We just laid out roses during the number. And um it's a difficult, it was a difficult time, but we got through it together as a cast. And again, our theater owner, the mayor of Wayne Michigan was there to dedicate the theater to faith. It was, it was a beautiful night. But um we go through a lot of challenges leading a castt, but never one is difficult saying goodbye to a cast member. Well, thank, thank you for sharing that, that, that story. I mean, I, I, I feel very lucky that, you know, we haven't lost, uh, anybody when I've been on cast and, and I can only imagine how difficult that is and, uh, having, having the support, you know, of everyone being able to, you know, remember all the good times and mourn together. That's a touching story and, and definitely a difficult experience. It is. It is. And, you know, it brings you even closer together as a family. Yeah, it's, it's, it's always very difficult. I mean, even, even with people, I don't know personally very well in the community when I hear, you know, of their passing it, it's tough. We, we, we write more obituaries on rocky talky than anyone would want. And, uh I have a real hard time even, even for people that I don't know super well because, you know, it's part of our community that's, um that's not there anymore. It's gone. Their influence will live on their, their effect on the community, the memories they made well, but, you know, they're not going to be there screaming their favorite line or, you know, tap dancing across the stage. So it's, it's difficult. It's always really, really tough. It's very tough. We just lost Marty from Scotland recently and I met Marty at the Oakley Court and he was so kind as to give us a tour and show us. This is, this is where dinner scene is. This is where the criminologist office was, you know, and giving us all the tour of Oakley Court. We had this fantastic dinner, uh with Marty and uh a few of our friends from the UK and Hillary Ron and Ruth and talking about American politics. It was, it was great. Uh Clearly, you, you have gone through some rough shit during your time as director and I know that anyone who's been around the community for, for more than a few years has probably had the thought of. Well, you know, maybe this is it for me, maybe my time here has run its course and it's time for me to move on, you know, to, to another phase of my life. I've, I've certainly thought that and I've, I've only been around for 10 years. Um And I know, I know Aaron and I have discussed it a couple of times. I would imagine. You've probably had that same thought too. And we asked you during show prep, if there's ever been an instance where you seriously considered stepping away from the community. And instead of giving us an anecdote, you mentioned your 72 hour rule, which I thought was really good and really poignant. And I wondered if you could share that with our listeners. I think everyone's had those moments where they are ready to walk away for whatever reason. Maybe something's made you really angry. So the philosophy is, first of all, walk away for 24 hours, you're not better and we've all this time like, nope, not better. Right. Walk away from it for 72 hours. It's a long time. Right. Come back. Can you find resolution? Is there a happy medium somewhere there? I, I think that's the biggest thing. You have to leave it alone for three days. I think that's, that's really good advice. And I think that that tends to be what ends up happening. At least for us, you know, we'll talk each other down and go, just, just give it a minute, just, you know, it's Saturday night at three o'clock in the morning. Like, just, just relax for sometimes you just, sometimes something just hits you the wrong way, gets under your, gets under your last nerve and you like, walk away from it for three days, 72 hours just, you have to leave it alone. Um Has there ever been a time where I was gonna walk away? Yes, actually faith. And I talked about, um, you know, I, we were going to step down from our positions and um, particularly when we came back from lockdown, that was the intent. And when we lost faith, I realized how much I needed them. I'd liked being in the presence of the cast. And so, you know, I wanted to stay, I wanted to help. I felt like I had more to offer to me. And um I was, you know, fortunate enough to become coo step down as director and watch our two current directors just do a fantastic job, you know, um, as directors of Mercs and I've had that opportunity to still be able to contribute, whether it's taking care of social or, you know, working on more of the operations section of it or making more costumes for them. So it's been a huge benefit for me and hopefully it's a cast as well. Oh, I mean, unquestionably it, it, it sounds absolutely like it. And I mean, you've just shared so many wonderful, you know, tidbits and, and information and words of wisdom. Um but we'll ask you for some, some more specifically, what would you share with any brand new future leaders of Rocky cast? Maybe the, the guy who's been around a few years and he might be looking to, to step it up to, to there might be a, an opening in his cast where he can do more. What kind of advice would you give to those folks? Try not to please everybody. If you know, there's always an issue, try to find the happy medium and also spend time with your cast members outside of the show. Get to know them. Having a stitching bitch is a great idea. Yeah, you just have like a pizza party, right? You can sit down and get to know one another because running around on a Saturday night or Friday and Saturday night, like you all used to do in New York. It's hard to really spend quality time together because you're busy putting makeup on, putting that costume on, being on the stage, take time outside of the show to get to know your cast members. That's great advice. I mean, they're the reason that you're there. Right. You want to hang out with these people, find time to hang out, you know, some pretty cool people. Mhm. Yeah. Hopefully you're bringing them on. I hope they're cool. Um, Becky before we close out. Do you have any other words of wisdom or bits of advice for our listeners about costuming cast leadership doing their taxes? Anything really I would say with regards to costuming, have a lot of patients, collaborate with your actors and always have more than one seam ripper available because you're going to need it. You're going to make me, don't be afraid to make mistakes. It happens with every single project. I was just seam ripping a course set earlier before we started this podcast. So by all means use the seam ripper there for a reason, but with regard to directing, learn from those that you lead. Mhm. Mhm. Yeah. I think that's important because you have to listen and you have to learn and always be willing to change with the times great, great advice and I think that wraps us up. So we wanna absolutely extend a massively huge. Thank you to Becky for joining us this week on air. Uh, and for any of our listeners who might want to check out you or your work and your upcoming shows. Where can we find you online? You can always find me on Facebook, a whole album there. Theme night costumes. If you want to check them out. I'm also reach you all via Instagram. Um We have, again, we have a Pirates night coming up September 24th. Our Veterans Day, also known as the Rocky Hor Hamilton Show, November 12th in October, we, we're at the Capitol Theater in Flint with Barry Bostwick. And as we said earlier, our barely Legals for Cy Night will launch in the spring of 2020 three. Amazing things to look forward to. That's so cool. Yeah, if you're a local to any of that or want to vacate, please check them out. They're going to be out of this world, Becky. Thank you. And of course, as always, we would like to thank our editor Aaron from Tennessee for making us sound like we know what we're talking about. You to the lords of work, man. You are a legend. Thank you both so much. If you're enjoying Rocky Talkie, please help us out by rating, reviewing and subscribing to the show. It makes the podcast more accessible to new listeners which you know, helps us grow the show. And if you want even more Rocky Talkie content. Please check us out on Facebook, youtube, Instagram and tiktok, all at Rocky Talkie Podcast. We'll talk to you all next week. Bye.