Creepy aliens in racy lingerie and bright party outfits will parade the stage of Moore Theatre in song and dance as "The Rocky Horror Show" returns to DePauw on Thursday, Oct. 3.
Richard O' Brien's cult classic "The Rocky Horror Show" takes place in the 1950s when engaged couple Janet Weiss and Brad Majors experience a flat tire and seek help from the mysterious home of Dr. Frank N. Furter. The couple is greeted by Transylvania aliens who dance The Time Warp and along the way uncover their true sexualities.
Steve Timm, director and professor of communication and theatre, had the opportunity to direct the "Rocky" production in 2005 and decided that it was time to reintroduce it to the Greencastle community. When faculty member Steve Michael asked about playing guitar for the production again, it gave Timm more of a reason to put on the show.
"There's a political angle in this," he said. "There are people in campus factions on campus that don't want us to do it, there are people in town that don't want us to do it."
Timm said signs and a big banner promoting "The Rocky Horror Show" have been torn down by people who were against the production. The banner's disappearance for a show is something that many of the students in the production have never had happen to them in any other performances.
Junior André Williams who plays a leading role as Rocky believes that the themes of the play shouldn't be taken so seriously.
"I'm very liberal with my choices and I think that it's art and if a musical is put on and it's played with all transvestites, then so be it," he said. "I don't think it's something that should be so criticized-it's just a way of life."
Despite some of the disapproval against the show, many students in the production decided to participate because of the excitement they've seen from older generations who are fans of the show. Senior Elise Lockwood who plays the character of Columbia became familiar with the cult tradition through her mother.
"My mom actually played Columbia when I was younger and I wasn't allowed to see it," Lockwood said. "So I knew it was a show that I wanted to be a part of."
Lockwood is also in charge of all the public relations and marketing for the show. Lockwood wanted to spread the word about "Rocky" because of its tradition of its popularity with older generations.
"The cult phenomenon is because it has absolutely no inhibitions," she said. "The audience gets to yell and throw stuff and the actors get to do it right back."
Lockwood created theme nights where audiences are encouraged to bring a friend and dress up based on the theme to get half price tickets. The themes include bring a Republican, bring a zombie, lingerie night, bring a transvestite and bring a virgin night.
Although many are familiar with the movie adaptation of the show called "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," the group decided to stick to the play script for this production. Along the way the cast found how flexible the script was and decided to make it their own.
"I had all these people who could tap dance and so we made this decision of Columbia's 'ability' because all these other people could dance really well," said Timm.
In addition to playing Rocky, Williams also is in charge of costumes and choreography. Williams' creativity was tested when he realized that the costume shop did not possess many of the pieces needed for the show.
"Normally in the costume shop we do a lot of building and things, but with the production being more lingerie and unusual articles of clothing," Williams said. "We had to do a lot of buying even though we'd done this production a few years back," he said.
The well known "Time Warp" number with the Transylvanians is still included in the show in addition to a number of different dances. Williams and junior Jacob Peterman worked on adding some swing dancing to their version of the show.
Senior Rick Allen also faced many challenges as he took on one of the lead roles as Dr. Frank N. Furter. Allen's character is the transvestite in the show who challenges the sexualities of both Brad and Janet. For the role, Allen had to utilize both is masculine and feminine sides in order to give justice to his character.
"It's kind of a constant consciousness thing where as somebody who is straight, it's kind of interesting in keeping yourself in check for both sides of the spectrum." he said.
Allen said the hardest aspect of playing Frank is the straight part rather than playing a homosexual. He also mentions that learning how to walk in heels was difficult.
"I have a much higher amount of respect for women at this point for putting up with that crap, because that's awful," he said.
The whole production wouldn't be possible without the music that pulls all the themes of "Rocky" together. Junior Jennifer Peacock is the music director and in charge of teaching the music to the cast, directing the Rock band and playing the piano.
" A lot of people know its [music] really well and so there's this weird thing I have to balance of doing it the way people are used to but also giving it something of our own and unique and not like the movie." she said.
Peacock worked with a cast that's made up with a majority of students from the school of liberal arts with the exception of lead characters Brad and Janet, played by senior Dakota Dalton and junior Brooke Addison. She worked with harmonizing the songs so they had a different feel to them.
Sophomore Laura Loy who worked alongside Timm as stage manager hopes that people who come to watch the show come with an open mind.
"I just want people to have a good time and not say anything bad just because it's something they haven't seen before or because it's something they're not used to."