The RKO Army put on a shadowcast performance of the 50-year-old musical comedy movie “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at Edwards Auditorium on Oct. 31 in an event organized by the University of Rhode Island Gender & Sexuality Center.
A shadowcast is when actors go on stage and mimic the movements and dialogue of the characters while the movie is playing. This performance featured elaborate props and costumes that matched the scenes of the movie.
Before the movie started, a cast member introduced the show and the concept of a shadowcast and encouraged audience participation in the form of dancing and callbacks, a hallmark of the “Rocky Horror” experience. Cast members invited first-time viewers of a shadowcast, whom they referred to as “virgins,” to the Edwards Auditorium stage for what they referred to as a “cherry popping ceremony,” where the audience members blew up a red balloon and then popped it.
For many audience members, such as first-year communicative disorders major William Frechette, this was not their first time seeing the movie, but their first shadowcast performance.
“I have loved ‘Rocky Horror’ since I first watched it two months ago, but this will be different,” Frechette said. “I’m expecting to get shot with water, to get popcorn thrown at me and to get tarred and feathered.”
Some audience members knew even less about “Rocky Horror,” such as third-year pharmacy student Elsa Robinson, who said she only heard of the song “Time Warp” before attending this event.
“I am expecting chaos and insanity tonight,” Robinson said.
Second-year theatre student Zoe Ziegler came in with even less knowledge about the movie and shadowcasts and said they had heard of this event from fellow students.
“I don’t know much about ‘Rocky Horror’ as a show, so I’m looking forward to seeing this,” Ziegler said before the performance.
After the prelude, the movie began; the shadow actors took to the stage, and the audience broke into song.
The RKO Army and the URI Gender and Sexuality Center have been organizing a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” performance for the last several years. Janine Anthony has been a part time cast member with RKO Army since 2012 and has done several shows at URI.
“It’s a necessity for Halloween for sure,” Anthony said. “It’s a lot of fun and another opportunity to dress up and get in your costumes and throw and yell things at people.”
Anthony said they started becoming interested in “Rocky Horror” when they were around 16 or 17 years old and joined the RKO Army with a friend.
“My favorite part of it is just being able to get on stage with a whole bunch of people where you don’t necessarily have to have extravagant acting or singing experience or anything like that,” Anthony said. “It’s just so much fun to get up there and do your thing.”
The less formal nature of the show can make it more fun, according to Anthony.
“It’s fun, it’s raunchy, it will give you a good laugh every time and it will be different every single time,” Anthony said.
For future events put on by the RKO Army, visit their website at rkoarmy.com. For more information on the Gender and Sexuality Center, visit their URI webpage.
