Month: March 2016

It’s not so much a hobby…

Posted on by Tana

12377941_1647235615528555_9173395950882087030_o…and more like I sold my soul to Los Bastardos, the longest-running Rocky Horror Picture Show shadowcast in DFW. All for the low price of a tremendous amount of stress!

I’m kidding. Well, sort of.

The hobby I devote the most time to is my part in the live shadowcast that we put on each month. I am a Transylvanian (the header on my blog makes much more sense now, huh?), and have been since about August of 2015.

transie thing

So what does that mean?

I am a mean, behind-the-scenes prop-setting machine.

The Transylvanians (or Transies, for short) are responsible for being the set, background and even some of the props in the show. We hold trees and smack Janet around with them during “There’s A Light” (and even do a fun little flashlight dance during the chorus). We hold sheets and flashlights during the bedroom scenes to silhouette Brad, Janet and Frank N. Furter for the audience. We do a little bit of everything, in almost every scene.

The film is a cult classic and draws a lot of devotees. The audience at Rocky is encouraged to cheer, yell out “call-back” lines and when the time comes (and it will come), they are pulled into the aisles of the theater to do the Time Warp along with us. The audience has to be one of my favorite parts of being a Rocky performer.

However, I have really come to love Rocky Horror for the community. The people I have met through Rocky have become like a family to me, with Madame Leah (a Director) and Alex-dad (a Founder) at the head. They boost us up when we’re worried about a show, and always remind us “We are still the best, in case you forgot.”

Don’t worry, guys. I’ll never forget.

To commute or not to commute?

Posted on by Tana

When you think of the “college experience,” how do you imagine getting to class every day?

If you were like me in high school, you imagined living in a dorm room, decorated to the nines with the coolest stuff, with a roommate you (secretly) hated. I imagined that I’d wake up every morning and stroll out my front door onto campus, without the need for a car or even a bike.

Needless to say, that’s not how my college experience has gone. Ask my car about it.

Of UT Arlington’s nearly 51,000 students, less than 20% live on campus or within 5 miles of campus. That really doesn’t fit with how most people imagine college, especially a Tier One university.

So how do we fix this?

To be honest, I’m really not sure. Maybe build more affordable on-campus housing? Make it easier for students to live closer to campus? The fact that UT Arlington in in the middle of the DFW metroplex doesn’t make it easy.

Until we can shake that title of “commuter school,” however, I don’t think UTA will be considered a real Tier One school.