My husband and I were “Rocky Horror Picture Show” virgins all those years ago…prompted at the last minute to go a midnight showing at a nearby movie house with the younger cast members of a play we were in together. We had little turnaround time between the ending of our on-stage performance and the start of the movie, so we were frantically getting instructions on things to bring (with no time for explanations as to why to bring these items): newspapers, rice to throw, toast, etc. So we rushed home and did our best to gather the necessities. No rice in the cupboard, but I found a small box of tapioca and figured it would have to make do. Hmmm….it seemed like throwing a heavy box could be painful to someone, so I emptied it into a ziplock bag, figuring a baggie would be softer. Of course, the cinema folks would not want the actual individual rice grains thrown as that would be a horrible mess to clean up. (Like I said, we had never done this before.) So….off we went to the movie! In line we found that the employees of the theatre had to search our belongings, so we proudly presented the items we had toted from home. When they came upon the bag of uncooked tapioca, they examined it cautiously with puzzled expressions. I explained it was tapioca because we didn’t have rice, and the inspector just gave me an odd glance and proceeded to consult with a second inspector who also gave me an odd glance, then confiscated my tapioca and took it to the manager’s office before allowing us to enter the building. (Sigh….) Embarrassing, to say the least. The movie was fun, and we discovered that the staff do indeed sweep up the individual grains of rice! Somehow, I managed to live that down.
Until….20-some years later, when sitting in a coffee shop with a friend, we were near a group of folks doing needlework together and overheard them talking about “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. Gregarious person that I am, I bit the bullet and tapped the one fellow on the shoulder to say I had seen the show once upon a time many years before. He asked what theatre, and I told him, to which he replied that he had been the manager there a number of years ago. I pointed out that our visit would have to have been before his time (as he seemed quite a bit younger to me) but that I had a funny story to tell him. And I told him the tale of the confiscated tapioca. When he was able to stop laughing, he stated that he indeed had been the manager that day and recalled the incident well. He said he had always wondered who in the world could be that dumb….at which point I offered a handshake and introduced myself.
Ah, the good old days! This recollection was prompted by a recent viewing of “The Rocky Horror Show”, an excellent and raucous stage “extra” production by the Ohio Shakespeare Festival. We even stood and did the Time Warp; however, apparently I am dyslexic, disorganized, and laterally challenged in regard to both right and left as well as up and down. (Hard to know whether to mirror the performers, or use the same hands they do while facing them.) Oh, well……more embarrassing moments. But what a fun life!