Religion professor stars in Rocky Horror Revue

An Austin Community College professor is probably the last person people think would take the feather boa out of the closet, put on heavy makeup and go to the nearest Rocky Horror Picture Show screening for a sing along party.

However, ACC religion adjunct professor Melinda Rothouse started rehearsing for a full-cast Rocky Horror Revue on August 2010.

Rothouse joined the members of Chasca, a band self-entitled as "cerebral glam power pop" for a live, full-cast rendition of the best songs from the musical Rocky Horror Picture Show. The revue is not an exact reproduction of Rocky Horror Picture Show, it is a theatrical entertainment that combines the greatest musics and choreographers from the movie into a live show that promises a lot of glitter and fake lashes.

"I used to feel some tension between teaching and performing, but I have been doing both things for long enough now that it doesn't seem strange anymore," said Rothouse.

The religion professor has taken voice lessons since she was in seventh-grade and studied classical voice all through high school and college. She studied opera and performed a senior voice recital in Vassar College. After that, she decided she wanted to do more contemporary music, so she started to write and sing her own music and learned to play the bass, which is her main instrument.

Rothouse, who is also a solo performer, was playing a gig at the Irie Bean Coffee Bar last year when she met the members of Chasco and quickly became friends with them.

Rothouse joined the cast of Chasco's Rocky Horror Picture Show rendition during last year's Halloween. She performed as Columbia, half of the psychedelic and burlesque duo, Columbia and Magenta, that dances and singes provocative lyrics dressed in a glitter suit jacket.

"What I like about [Columbia] is that she is a really fun character. She is very different from me, but I enjoy getting into her role and being different. She is kind of light and bubbly. I'm enjoying it and having a lot of fun with it," said Rothouse.

The cast is made of all-local musicians, featuring Chasca's frontman, J.T. Martin, as Frank-N-Furter and Riff Raff, Linda Henderson as Janet Weiss, Justin Dent as Brad Majors, Cameron Healy as Magenta, Rothouse as Columbia, Robbie Doyen as Eddie and Dr. Scott and Sean Palmer as Rocky.

After studying the human mind through a biological perspective at Vassar College, Rothouse became fascinated with the social and psychological study of the human behavior. That was when her interest for religion was born.

Rothouse taught at Tulane University in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina passed through the city. She then moved to Austin, and started to teach at ACC shortly after.

Rocky Horror Show Revue will glamour the audience with sweet transvestites and cabaret glitter on Oct. 28 at 11:30p.m. on The Lucky Lounge and Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 at The United States Art Authority next to Spider House Cafe.