Dakota

Susan Sarandon: I took [my daughter] to see [The Rocky Horror Picture Show] for the first time, last summer [...] to go see it. Um, the show in front of [...] the movie was great, but the everyone screaming things out was just completely-- you couldn't understand a thing anybody was saying, on the screen [or] off the screen. It was just complete anarchy, so, um, there's been some deterioration [...] of the response thing that used to be quite like a mass, I thought. I guess that's pretty blasphemous to say, but [...] it used to be you could hear what they said on the screen and then the response was, but it has... you couldn't understand a thing.
- Interview, as seen on disc two of The Rocky Horror Picture Show DVD

Last night's show disappointed me. The performance was fine; Sarah was in top form as Magenta, and Willow did the best Floorshow I've seen her do as Columbia. Lots of us were impressive. Danielle and I were Janet and Brad - something that hasn't happened since January, and for our Rocky Horror anniversary, that was both very cool and gratifying.

I was really angry with some of the audience, though. It really bothered me - and has been bothering me for some time now - that they seem to have this disrespect for us. And I'm being general, 'cause I know that not everyone in our audience comes every week, nor are they annoying or rude when they are there. But during R&A, they refuse to listen or hear... during the show, I've been called "George" repeatedly as if they're expecting a conversation mid-song during the show... It just gets mind-boggling.

As Brad, I accept it a bit more... Well, more than I do as Frank. As Frank, I'm a complete bitch. I take an exceptional ammount of pride in the cast as a whole; I love us as a theatrical experience. And when we aren't treated with respect during a preshow or the Show as a rule, I get very upset. I'd like to think we're entertaining, and if we aren't... Well, we aren't a television screen; you can't switch us off. We don't have a mute button. Even during dinner theatre, you don't heckle the troupe. And of course, we [meaning the cast] get bitchy or somewhat overzealous and ask the audience to be quiet during a scripted preshow. That doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference. Larry last week said that a scripted preshow was to follow his introduction, and people were still acting as if we were a screen to yell lines at.

I like audience participation, for the most part. I love the movie more, though. I love performing more. And I like a lot of our audience members, some less than I used to. I want the audience to have a good time, to be involved. But there's a pretty obvious line, I feel, between mocking Tim Curry on the screen, and mocking the group in front of you. Tim Curry can't hear you. We can. Sometimes a lot more than we'd like to.

I've rolled my eyes violently through many abortion call-backs from people I used to respect, gritted my teeth when I've been preparing to make an entrance and someone decides to peer over the rail and wave, and resisted the urge to strike when instruction is called that is both inappropriate and distracting to the scene. Yeah, I remember reading "this ain't Broadway folks" a year ago on the Home of Happiness guestbook. It isn't, it's true. We hang with the audience. We're in the lobby; they know us by first name, and Broadway actors don't do that. We've never really seemed to imply that we deserve a professional courtesy. Yeah, we're here to entertain you, but we're not clowns at a children's birthday party, and I can state for a fact that we all put a lot of effort into this show, whether through funding, costume-making, advertising, prop-building, performing on stage, or mixing with the audience.

Asking for respect from the audience has oftentimes been equated with being an elitist. And posting it on Livejournal has often been equating with posting a flame-war ready to begin. I do not represent the Home of Happiness. Members of cast may or may not agree with me on some or any of these points. Go, them. Me, on the other hand... I'm sensing a serious lack of respect for many of our performers and our show in general that has only grown since we moved to the Bellevue. And it bothers me.

I don't know how to change it or fix it. And that bothers me. But that's what's going on right now. And it bugs me. It's not making me stop performing, 'cause I'm not dead of hope. I'm just looking for more of it at the place I haven't ever called my second home, but has replaced the building I once did.