Regional Rocky Horror director self-cyberbullied to avoid cast, say cops

While this is the kind of interpersonal, seemingly low-stakes drama that’s easy to chuckle about from a distance, it sounds like Grenier’s actions did cause harm to the theater. Aside from the time spent on rehearsals for a show that never made it to the stage, the all-volunteer troupe had already invested $11,500 into the production that it was unable to recoup through ticket and concession sales. 

The production sounds troubled from the beginning. Seven Days reported in a previous story that the Essex Community Players had only chosen to do Rocky Horror in the first place because Vermont Stage beat them to the rights to Murder On The Orient Express. The group wasn’t used to putting on a musical, leading to reported mismanagement of rehearsal time and money. But the biggest problems came when a gender-blind casting process ultimately resulted in a cast that was entirely “female, trans and/or nonbinary.” It was the casting of a female Rocky that most upset some members of the board. Somehow, Concord Theatricals, the company that licenses the show, found out about the changes to the characters’ genders and pronouns and sent the troupe a letter forbidding changes to the script in March. The group ultimately decided to portray Rocky as a male character but to keep the female cast member.  

In late March, Grenier and a board member received a text claiming to be from someone named Billie Davis, senior vice president of amateur licensing and compliance at Concord, threatening to revoke the rights to the show. Subsequent texts mentioned Grenier and director/board president Patrick Cope by name, which prompted people involved with the production to go to the police. Then came the text “I’m part of the cast and I heard you guys went to the police. Well Patrick and Kenny need to go. They are weak human beings,” and another that said: “Oh just you wait for rehearsal tonight. It’s coming and you deserve it.” At this point, by now early April, the company decided to pull the plug on the show, which was scheduled to open on April 17. 

Cast member Jess Wisloski admitted in the latest Seven Days article that the police conclusion “solved a lot of the mysteries,” saying that she had seen Grenier complain about the cast in a Facebook group for music directors. When confronted about it, Wisloski said that Grenier “had a real difficult time even genuinely apologizing in that setting,” adding, “I guess the easier solution is to create a fake attack on yourself.”