Hot patootie, bless our souls! Lost Flamingo Theater Company’s annual performance of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is just a time warp away, set to open at The Union Bar and Grill on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
LFC is bringing its shadow cast production to Athens for the 22nd year, but the tradition has been around since 1975, when a group of misfits rallied around the box office failure and turned it into a cult classic. Shadow casting is a form of theater as unique as the film itself, involving a group of performers acting out the film as it is screened behind them.
“We’re different from some other shadow casts,” Alexis Butt, a senior studying marketing and business analytics, said. “I’m in another one in Dayton and we don’t have any rehearsals at that one. In this one, we rehearse three times a week so we’re definitely more screen-accurate.”
This is Butt’s second year as the show’s assistant director, helping out with odds and ends in the rehearsal process and assisting the show’s director Anna Martin, a junior studying hearing, speech and language sciences. Martin is in her second year holding this position and spearheads the efforts to honor the show’s history while bringing a fresh angle to it every year.
“Bringing those characters to life in a new way, having new members be these new characters always brings a new side of these characters that we may not have thought of that someone else would see and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to do it this way and it’s going to make the crowd crack up … I’m going to do something a little bit different, but still very in the role of that character,’” Martin said.
One of this year’s returning faces, but playing a new character, is Evan Green, a senior studying creative writing, in the leading role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. It is at Frank-N-Furter’s mansion that an unassuming couple, Brad and Janet, seek refuge during a rainstorm and are immersed in the scientists’ weird world of sexual freedom, erotic science experiments and overall eccentricity.
“It’s always been my dream to play this character,” Green said. “I joined this club so I could audition for this role, and so to be able to take it on and step into the shoes of this character has been really fun.”
After spending last year as a member of the Whorus, the show’s ensemble of lingerie-clad dancers, Green is stepping into the heels of this significant role with the full support of the cast and creative team.
“Last year, Evan Green … was my partner for all the dance numbers, so getting to see his growth from being with us in the Whorus to seeing him as Frank … has honestly been one of my favorite (parts),” Lily Sellars, a senior studying media arts production, said.
Another favorite aspect shared across the company is carrying on the 50 year legacy of the provocative and ever-prevalent film.
“When this movie first came out, it wasn’t accepted, and then when it was accepted, the entire community that did embrace it embraced the culture and embraced that lovingness of being themselves,” Martin said.
The microcosm of that community in Athens never fails to show up for the annual production; the show consistently maxes out The Union’s approximately 500-person capacity and leaves even more Rocky-hopefuls waiting in line around the block.
“You never get to see, in Athens, all of these people dressed up in lingerie and all of these guys in skirts and corsets and stuff, and people just being able to freely express themselves,” Sellars said. “I’ve never seen a group of people happier to be in a bar and hanging out, and I’ve never felt safer in a community, with my cast specifically, but also just being in the room with everybody that’s seeing it.”
This sentiment is something Sellars developed during her three years in the show, but it is shared by new cast members as well. Elle Mitsch, a junior studying production design and technology, is playing Columbia in this year’s production after years of auditioning for a chance to bring that experience to the Athens audience.
“You are in the dark as an audience member, but you're so in it, so it feels like you’re so a part of a community,” Mitsch said. “I think that’s what LFC is all about, we’re the lost flamingoes and we’re finding the lost people in the world and gathering them and becoming one community.”
For those looking to join in the fun, tickets will be available at $10 for attendees 18 and older and $8 for those 21 and older. The show will run until Saturday night, giving show-goers four opportunities to enjoy the science fiction double feature with the cast and crew.
“I’ve really had no other theater-going experience quite like this,” Green said. “It’s wild, it’s crazy, there’s audience participation. For people who have never seen it, I would say expect to have a crazy time. Dress crazy, get into it … really buy into the fantasy because then you’re going to have a lot more fun.”
