Richard O’Brien is tonight being awarded an honorary doctorate from the Waikato Institute of Technology. The Rocky Horror Show creator will receive a Master of Arts for his contribution to the arts and commitment to the Waikato arts community. On accepting the honorary award O'Brien says: "A Master of Arts Degree? How splendid to finally be able to prove that my teachers were wrong about me. It is true that the school play that I was in, was lifted out the mundane into a richer brew of theatrical wonder after I had combed white gunk through my fourteen year old hair and shape-shifted myself into the form of an old, railway stationmaster in Cornwell. "For a fleeting moment I felt that school and me may have been able to call an uneasy truce but then, Pythagorus turned up, once again, with one of his theorems and the bitter winds of truth blew frost upon that cosy moment of rosy glow. "Now I am an academic. Eat your hearts out all those without honours. I am most grateful and truly excited by this thoughtful and kind act of Wintec." O’Brien’s character Riff Raff has since been made into a statue on the site of Hamilton’s former Embassy Theatre in Victoria Street.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 15th May 2013 - 10:09am