In the small college town of Statesboro, Georgia, the home of Georgia Southern University, Statesboro residents and college students look forward to an annual fall tradition: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It began to take root in Statesboro in the early to mid-2000s says Megan Bowen, the producer and organizer of the Rocky shadowcast. She says Rocky began as “a low- budget, closet-costumed, thrown-together performance.”
Taking place in downtown Statesboro for the past eleven years in the Averitt Center for the Arts, Rocky has had a shadowcast where ushers wear fishnets and shiny underwear, actors and dancers reenact the movie while it plays and Transylvanians dance in the aisles, pick virgins (first time audience members) to be sacrificed (play games on stage) and act as a guide to use prop bags during the movie.
Rocky began as a musical in 1973 and became a movie in 1975. The shadowcast has become a longtime Rocky tradition since the movie debuted and became a Statesboro tradition since 2008. With fishnets, corsets, red lipstick and consensual butt touching, Rocky gives audience members and virgins a chance to yell out call backs, dance and get weird in a safe place.
In a conservative, small, southern town, Rocky is one of the few events where queer people can openly conglomerate and connect. “I have had so many cast members come through the show over the years who felt comfortable coming out for the first time in their lives because of our show, or who had their first experiences ever of not being judged for their identity, by being a part of our cast,” Bowen said. “That has been the crowning achievement of our show – not selling out the theatre (which we have also done for years).”
In May, the shadowcast announced on Facebook that it was no longer playing at the Averitt Center for the Arts, who had decided to go in a different direction with the broadway version of Rocky last fall. Although the shadowcast was offered to be involved in the broadway Rocky, they declined due to creative differences.
“I understand that the stage show is the original,” Morgan Carr, the director of the Rocky shadowcast, said. “With a live stage version, that requires more time requirement, more ability to sing and dance and more downsizing. We usually have about 30 to 40 people.”
The shadowcast went on to collaborate with GSU’s student organizations Gay-Straight Alliance and Theatre South to produce the show in the Russell Union Theatre, located in Georgia Southern University’s campus. The RU Theatre is also where Statesboro’s Rocky Horror Picture Show first took place, according to Bowen.
GSA will be facilitating advertising, reservations, etc. for Rocky, according to Carr. Theatre South member David Michael Singleton, a senior communication studies major, will be assistant director and choreographer.
Although the Rocky live stage will be new to Statesboro, this will be the fourth Rocky liveshow that Robert Cottle, the art director for the Averitt, will be directing this year. Cottle has previously served as a music director at Savannah’s Bay Street Theatre for Rocky’s live stage shows. Melanie Moore will be serving as this year’s assistant director.
“I’m excited to share this project,” Cottle said. “I’ve had a wonderful cast and I hope that the audience has much fun as I do.”
The live stage includes the same storyline, the same callbacks, and an additional song, according to Cottle. The Rocky liveshow will be taking place in October from the 10th to the 12th, starting at 7:30pm in the Averitt Center for the Arts. Admission is $20. You can get tickets at the Averitt Center for the Arts website. The Rocky shadowcast will be taking place on Oct. 25. The time is to be announced. Admission is free.