The Rocky Horror Picture Show played at The Kent Stage Oct. 5, the first of two showings for the month of October. The event is run by Kent’s Rocky Horror Picture Show Club, named The School of Rocky, and usually takes place monthly.
The event plays the 1975 movie with a projector screen on stage while a cast acts out the scenes.
Sasha Gough, a resident of Kent, has been a part of the School Of Rocky cast since 2018.
“[Rocky Horror] really gives me an opportunity to play with gender and sexuality. I get to be unabashedly myself,” they said.
The show was at an earlier time than usual, with doors opening at 9 p.m. and starting at 10 p.m., two hours earlier than the regular midnight shows. Tickets sell at $10, with a special discounted rate for those in costume.
The venue offers alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. A merchandise table sold bags of props for the audience to use during the show.
Rocky Horror is known for its strong LGBTQ+ roots, and the live shows continue to uplift those roots. Various additional lines are added to live shows and members yelled out additional phrases, jokes and threw props, like rice and playing cards, into the air.
Ari Alcorn, a senior music education student, watches the show with his friends regularly.
“I think [the show] is a really great place to be able to go to express yourself,” he said. “We’ve been coming every month recently. I love Rocky.”
Cast members greeted the audience as they walked into the venue, labeling “virgins” with a red “V” on their forehead. This has been a classic trope for Rocky shadow casts: “virgins” are audience members who have never seen a Rocky live action show.
“There’s this air of mystique coming into it, if you haven’t seen the show before,” Gough said. “We love our veterans, but we also love our ‘virgins.’ I wish everyone could experience it.”
A pre-show event featured a dancer named Undead Devon who lip synced lyrics to various songs while dancing on stage. The performance had deep drag show ties and the audience had a chance to tip the performer afterwards.
“We want to make sure we’re bringing something new to the table, so one of the things that we do is we change our cast every show,” Gough said. “Everybody gets the chance to do a different character every show. That’s one of the ways we keep it fresh.”
The School of Rocky is hosting another show this month at The Kent Stage for Halloween.
“The Halloween show is usually a themed show,” Gough said. “This year we’re doing Pink Pony Club. It changes every year to make sure that the Halloween show is just a little bit different, a little bit special, from all the other shows of the year.”
The School of Rocky hosts casting for the show one to two times a year. “It’s a very relaxed casting process,” Gough said.
Casting will be opening soon. More information about the process will be posted on the School Of Rocky Instagram.
“It’s always a lot of fun,” Alcorn said. “I feel like a lot of my peers don’t really know about [the show] a whole bunch and I do think it’s something that we should get out there. It is really great that there is this safe space here.”
Aryn Kauble is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected]
