As Valentine's Day approaches, many men and women will be making every effort to think like the opposite sex. This weekend they can dress the part, too.

The Auburn Public Theater will host a weekend of cross-dressing craziness beginning on Friday with two screenings of the cinematic monument to tranvestism, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The following night, Auburn resident Jesse Kline will host her 10th annual Valentine's Cross Dressing Party on the theater floor, where rice, toilet paper and toast may or may not remain from the previous night's ruckus.

The film screenings are an outgrowth of Kline's party, which she has been organizing in order to lighten the stress of the swollen emotions people tend to experience every Feb. 14.

“It's kind of taking the pressure off of Valentine's Day, people always seem to put false expectations on the romance,” said Kline, who is coordinating both events with Tim Fox, Tim Reitz and the theater's artistic producing director, Angela Daddabbo.

Kline has previously hosted the party at her house, but this year the Auburn Public Theater has provided her with a much grander venue. Admission to the party is only granted to people who come dressed as the opposite sex.

A cash bar and food from Premiere Catering will be available for party-goers. The music of DJ Jane Stebbins will serve as the soundtrack for the night before performances from hostesses Madison DeVine (Reitz), of Auburn, and current Miss Diva New York, Lexi Lic'Orwish.

The gender-bending gala will also attract a share of seemingly familiar faces.

Kline and Fox have seen guests of the Cross Dress Party come as Elizabeth Taylor, Wonder Woman, Hugh Hefner and several other star personalities.

Kline herself will be donning a mop top to form a female incarnation of the Beatles with three of her friends.

“It's as infinite as infinite gets,” Fox said. “From streetwalkers to men in suits and pretty much everything in between.”

A costume contest will reward the most creative and compelling guises with prize ribbons and a romance basket for the first-place masquerader. The full spectrum of costumes, from the glamorous get-ups to the fashion disasters, will be on display when the cross-dressing revelers form a midnight parade.

“It's really a Mardi Gras kind of atmosphere,” Kline said.

Several of Kline's friends have traveled to her annual soiree from out of state. This year she sought to occupy them the night prior with a second event in the spirit of the party. There was no better fit than two screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which will play in Auburn for what Kline believes is the first time in the past decade.

The area's “Rocky Whorers” will likely come prepared with all the items needed to participate in watching the film. But for the film's “virgins,” the Auburn Public Theater will also provide “Rocky Horror Survival Kits” containing the rice to throw at the screen during Brad and Janet's wedding, the newspapers with which to cover their heads in the midst of the on-screen rainstorm and other items pivotal to the film's audience participation. The Town Shop Trannies of Camillus will also be acting out the film as it plays on the screen above them.

Proceeds from both events will benefit the Auburn Public Theater, but Kline believes the two-night party will pay off for the city in another way.

“We're trying to spread the good word of accepting everyone for who they are, no whiners,” Kline said.

Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or at david.wilcox@lee.net

If you go

What: “The Rocky Horror

Picture Show”

When: 9 p.m. and midnight Friday

Where: Auburn Public Theater, 108 Genesee St.

Cost: $15

For details: Call 253-6669

What: Valentine's Cross Dress Party

When: 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday

Where: Auburn Public Theater

Cost: $20

For details: Call 253-2693