Inside Chapman’s own ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’

Photo courtesy of Zoe Poyeton-Wolf

About halfway through “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the shadowcast Criminologist got out of his chair, paused the movie and shouted a hearty “fuck you” to the audience. The entire show, they had been mocking him, calling him out on his yet-unseen neck.

“I’ve had it up to here with you and your insults!” he shouted. And with that, he flipped his chair over and stomped backstage. The audience, murmuring to each other, was somewhere between chuckling and concern as someone off the tech team quickly came down and resumed the movie to bring back everyone’s good spirits.

Anyone familiar with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” will know that this is all just fun and games, a goodhearted chuckle at the on-screen actor’s expense. For those unfamiliar with the cult-classic 1975 horror musical film — “virgins,” as the shadowcast will call them — this might seem exceedingly strange. But there’s nothing that isn’t strange about this program, performed each year by The Player’s Society (TPS) at Chapman with a live shadowcast reenacting the movie as it plays projected behind them.

“I think the appeal really comes from the community. ‘Rocky Horror’ is camp, fun and sexy and the community makes it a space for unabashed self expression,” said sophomore English literature major Kaiya Williams, who plays the main antagonist Frank-N-Furter. “Also who wouldn’t want to come make fun of such a bizarre movie with a bunch of flamboyantly dressed hot people?”

Williams’ descriptions of the show isn’t far off — ‘Rocky Horror’ is dazzlingly promiscuous, sexually charged from the first to the last minutes of its runtime. The shadowcast, often dressed in lingerie, corsets, or stripped down to their underwear, perform ridiculous and campy sex acts in the mansion of maniacal Transylvanian scientist Doctor Frank-N-Furter. It’s as raunchy as musical theater gets — and the audience isn’t safe from the action.

The “virgins” in attendance (those who have never seen the film with a live cast before) are randomly selected and sent to the stage before the show begins. Tasked with competing in the “Virgin Games,” they’ll be sent into the audience for an impromptu scavenger hunt — first one to bring back lipstick and a condom wins — or tasked to bob for weiners (hot dogs) in a trough, among other challenges. As a virgin myself last year, I went head-to-head in a scavenger hunt and my close friend had to help the main cast come up with new sex positions on the fly.

As terrifying and anxiety-inducing as it may sound though, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is as safe and inviting a space as it gets.

“One of the greatest challenges was making sure that everybody felt comfortable,” said freshman psychology major Hazel Behl, co-director of the show. “Making sure we weren’t doing anything that was pushing anyone out of their comfort zone, but also making sure that the show was as original as it can be.”

As challenging as it may be to inject a nearly 50-year-old film with originality, TPS has certainly succeeded. With the aforementioned scene of actors pausing the movie and arguing with the audience, on top of chaotic moments of the shadowcast’s show seemingly falling apart before the directors’ eyes, virgins dragged from their seats to fill in for the actors (at least partially staged) and a new sense of musicality, there’s plenty left to tinker with. Inspired by the infamous “Glee” episode “The Rocky Horror Glee Show,” the directors noted how they were able to inject their song and dance numbers with a heightened sense of theatricality than they had in years prior.

As if it wasn’t enough to manage all that, the timetable that TPS works on is extremely tight, making the show all the more complicated to put together.

“We practice four hours a week. But practices are such a small chunk of the time we’ve actually worked on it. I did the math, and aside from tech week we only had 24 hours of rehearsal, essentially putting the show up in a day,” Behl told The Panther. “But so much other work has gone into it, getting the costumes and all the shopping. And just thinking about how we’re gonna make it look good and what we can do, I would say (getting the show running has taken) a couple months overall.”

It’s taken long hours and plenty of restaging — the directors noted that they can only practice in Irvine Lecture Hall, where they perform, for two days, utilizing various classrooms in Argyros Forum until they could make the move. But in many ways, the jam-packed schedule has brought their merry band of actors and technicians closer together.

“The time when I felt the best about it was two days ago when we were doing tech rehearsals — but without any tech because we didn't have the theater reserved, so we were just rehearsing in one of the AF classrooms again — but at the end of the night when everyone was getting back out of costume, it just turned into such a sweet thing,” said junior theater and philosophy double major Henry Davis-Morales, co-director of the show. “Everyone started hugging each other as they were leaving, and I think that was the first time when I realized that we’ve started to get to know each other through the process. It's been so much work, but it was really nice to see just… people.”

Davis-Morales continued: “It’s also the height of being experimental in college. Everyone that does their experimenting in college with whatever you want it to be, I think this is the best place for that. Whether you’re in it or just coming to see it, it’s so fun to be outside of your comfort zone and outside of yourself. The people that you see here and that you interact with… you don’t bring it into your life when you see them the next day. You can just remove it and have it be an isolated experience.”

For a campy musical about mad sex fiend scientists and alien kidnappers, it’s truly noteworthy how unifying “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is. There’s a reason it’s an annual tradition, not just at Chapman University, but at midnight theaters and drive-ins across the world. It’s a show to bring people together for laughs, comfort, fun, exploration and safety. A looming gothic mansion in the rain may not seem inviting — but everything else about the show is.

“The first time I saw ‘Rocky’ was the summer after I graduated high school. I remember just smiling so hard because everyone was just so welcoming,” said Helm. “‘Rocky Horror’ has really shown me that sometimes all we need to bring people together is fishnets and glitter.”