‘Lit up every room’: Husband, friends mourn KC theater performer killed in crash
It was 2017, and Louise ImMasche was performing as Dr. Frank N Furter in “The Rocky Horror Show” at Theatre Lawrence. Their now-husband, Zak Grant, was in the crowd watching ImMasche for the first time, and remembered feeling instantly captivated by them.
“I don’t mean to insult Tim Curry or any of the people that tried to do Frank N Furter, but Lou did the character in a way that really made you sympathize with their cause and have a much deeper understanding than just frivolous joy,” Grant said. “You understood when you watched Lou, that their character was really deep…”
ImMasche, a self-proclaimed queer artist who used gender-fluid pronouns, took their final bow as Dr. Frank N Furter at a sold out show in Lawrence Friday night. ImMasche was driving home to Kansas City around 10:29 p.m. on Kansas 10 Highway on the south side of Lawrence when a driver headed west veered out of their lane and hit ImMasche’s car head-on.
ImMasche was declared dead at the scene. The other driver was taken to Overland Park Regional Medical Center with serious injuries. Theatre Lawrence canceled the two Rocky Horror shows scheduled for Saturday.
“Louise was an immensely talented performer who lit up every room and filled the stage with remarkable energy and charisma,” Theatre Lawrence posted on Facebook. “They were kind, generous, and caring — making anyone they shared the stage with feel welcomed and accepted for who they are.”
Theatre communities across the country have been mourning Louise’s passing in the days since the wreck, describing them as a compassionate beacon of light who channeled their emotions through their performances and inspired many.
“I don’t know that I can convey what an incredible person she was, and what a huge loss this is, not just to the theater family,” said Susan Hires, music director for the Lawrence production of “The Rocky Horror Show.”
“My grief is not just for losing what we had, but losing what we had planned for the future, that’s the hard part.”
ImMasche, never a static performer
Hires was still in bed Saturday morning when she got the phone call that ImMasche had died.
“I just kept saying no, no, no, no she’s not,” Hires said.
Hires and ImMasche worked together for the five times “The Rocky Horror Show” was put on at Theatre Lawrence over the span of nine years. ImMasche always played Dr. Frank N Furter, according to Hires.
“There was nothing static ever about her performance,” Hires said.
“With every performance, there was something new happening on that stage. It might be something subtle, it might be something overt, but she was always reaching for that next degree of intensity or that next laugh, or a next bit for someone else to do with her,” she said.
The improv ImMasche added Thursday night, Hires said, was putting their foot on the armrest of Dr. Scott’s wheelchair, played by Tom Emerson Jr. For that scene, ImMasche punctuated every sentence with a tiny crotch thrust. It made Hires and the others backstage cackle with laughter.
“It was so funny,” she said. “It was so subtle but so funny for those of us who have seen (The Rocky Horror Show) so many times.”
Even though the shows scheduled for Saturday were cancelled, the cast and crew gathered at Theatre Lawrence so they could remember ImMasche.
In their life, ImMasche was very active in the LGBTQ+ community, wrote musicals, music and other forms of art that they felt compelled to do.
“...(ImMasche) was the kindest, most sincere, talented, charming, generous, loving person you could ever hope to have in your life,” Hires said.
One of the most important roles ImMasche played in their life was in the fall of 2024 when they were cast as Hedwig Schmidt in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” a rock musical about Hedwick Schmidt, a gender queer singer born in East Berlin, and their journey to Kansas in the search for stardom and love.
Kerry Roberts, who uses they/them pronouns, co-starred in the two-person production with ImMasche. This was Roberts’ first major role, so they were initially intimidated by ImMasche’s talent on stage.
“(ImMasche) almost immediately put me at ease with their vulnerability, with their generosity towards me, helping me to feel comfortable, helping me to see them as a collaborator, someone who wants to work with me,” Roberts said.
The production gave ImMasche the opportunity to showcase their love for the visual arts through designing and creating most of the art, set decorations and handmade costumes for the production, according to Grant.
“Some people just have magic in them and can transform experiences through art,” Roberts said about ImMasche’s performances.
In “The Rocky Horror Show,” Roberts played Riff Raff, who again was ImMasche’s character’s right-hand-man.
“Seeing Louise interact with, inspire and collaborate with a large group was really amazing to behold…,” Roberts said. “Seeing that they bring that same care and compassion to a larger group and to be able to make each person in that cast feel like they’re important I think elevated everybody’s work.”
‘Entire creative process’
A lot went on behind the scenes before ImMasche performed, according to Grant, who said ImMasche always gave 150% to everything they did. When assigned a role, ImMasche would begin embodying the character’s personality by thinking of what they would wear in their everyday life and even what kind of music they would listen to.
“It was very fun to just watch how they would have all these photos that they would print out, and they would gather all this material,” he said. “To them, it’s like a deep delve into research.”
ImMasche was also involved with many other community theatre productions, drag shows, burlesque shows, and open-mic nights. Some other big shows they played, according to Grant, included “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, “Willy Wonka”, “The Little Mermaid” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”
“All this art was something that they needed to make,” Grant said. “It’s how they processed the world, how they processed themselves and their feelings in dealing with pain and mental illness.”
One of Grant’s favorite memories was when ImMasche did a stage reading for a musical they wrote called “Louise,” which was before ImMasche took on the moniker. In it, Louise sweeps up all of her friends into a fantasy world to help heal their trauma.
“I was just so swept up with that story,” he said. “I had watched their entire creative process, and they got me on board with it, they swept me up into the fantasy.”
To ImMasche, being vulnerable was necessary to connect and inspire people while they also worked on healing from their own trauma.
“There were a lot of people who understood what they were trying to say, and that’s all Lou wanted, was for people to really resonate with their work and get something from it,” he said.
ImMasche first took the stage when they were four-years-old in 1988 as a shepherd in the Chase County Senior Center’s Christmas Pageant, according to their obituary. When they weren’t on stage, they worked as a caregiver at Goodlife Innovations in Lenexa, which provides housing and day services for adults with disabilities.
“The world has a little less sparkle without Louise in it, but they would want all those who remember them to don their brightest sequins and their tallest heels, and to dance under the lights in their honor,” ImMasche’s obituary said.
Celebration of life and ‘tour cabaret’
A celebration of life will take place at 11 a.m. Friday morning at Theatre Lawrence 4660 Bauer Farm Drive, where attendees are encouraged to wear colorful and sparkly clothes.
There will also be a Louise ImMasche Celebration Tour Cabaret on Nov. 22, which Grant describes as the sold-out concert ImMasche always should have had. Details have yet to come, but he anticipates group performances in ImMasche’s honor that will bring together the communities ImMasche impacted across Kansas and Kansas City.
Grant plans for there to be a pay-what-you-can at the door and some of ImMasche’s prints and recordings for sale. All proceeds will go to Louise’s Starving Artist Fund to help independent artists develop and produce art.
“They were something special. But they weren’t just something special for me,” Grant said. “They were something special for so many people, and I’m so moved how many people found them so special too.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2025 at 2:57 PM.
