Star Chambers

The Rocky Horror Show 2

Actor Joe York scrapes the ceiling of the men's dressing room at the Zachary Scott Theatre Center wearing his full Frank N. Furter regalia. The platform shoes and headpiece boosted his ordinarily imposing 6' frame to more than seven and a half feet. When he's getting ready for a performance, York doesn't like to tempt fate. "As far as superstitions go," he says, "I won't say anything before a show like, "Thank goodness my mike hasn't gone out on me yet' or "Thank goodness this costume piece hasn't ripped.' Because as soon as I do, that thing will happen. If I hear somebody whistling in a dressing room -- I don't even believe in that, but I always ask them to stop." What he does like to do is talk -- before a show, he typically chats it up with other actors. For Rocky Horror, he says, "That was our socializing hour. We would talk about anything, and the talk got really graphic and raunchy and sexy. It was like boys' camp. "