SUNY Adirondack puts on 'Rocky Horror'

QUEENSBURY,  New York (Oct. 15, 2024) — Put on your best boa and grab a bag of gags! SUNY Adirondack’s Theater Club will deliver glam, camp and laughs in “Rocky Horror Picture Show” Shadow Cast performances Oct. 30 and 31.

“Last year, we put on a shadow cast, expecting fewer than 50 people, and more than 70 came,” said Xandria Smith, a second-year Broadcast Media Production student who last year reinvigorated the college’s Theater Club and serves as its president. “So, I said, ‘Why not try doing something bigger?”

The result is two performances: Oct. 30 at The Strand Theatre in Hudson Falls and Halloween night in SUNY Adirondack’s Theater in the Humanities Building/Adirondack Hall.

“‘Rocky Horror’ is something I’ve loved since I was 10,” Smith said. “It’s more an experience kind of show because it’s a really bad movie.”

“Really bad,” added Ethan Potter, a second-year Math & Science major who is on the tech crew for the show. “There’s a tradition that has been done for a long time, where they play the move on screen and a shadow cast plays out the characters in real time, in their own type of style.”

Bags of props — toilet paper, streamers, confetti — to throw at the actors are part of the experience. “People have been doing this for many years,” Potter said. “It’s very niche.”

“The movie’s a cult classic for a reason,” Smith added.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is a 1975 independent musical comedy horror film that became a cultural phenomenon, in part because of shadow cast performances. The original movie stars Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick as a young couple stranded near a castle, where Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite mad scientist played by Tim Curry, creates a living muscle man named Rocky. In this homage to B-rated science fiction and horror movies of the mid-20th century, even famed rocker Meat Loaf makes an appearance.

“This is one of the biggest queer representative shows out there,” Smith said. “People go dressed as whoever they want; it doesn’t matter that night.”

Doors open at 7 p.m. for both nights of the show. Tickets are $10 and available at the door. Those who attend The Strand performance receive a voucher for $5 off the Halloween-night show. A bag of gags is $5.

Vendors, a photo booth and refreshments will be available in the lobbies both nights. A costume contest is part of the experience, so guests are encouraged to come dressed up.

“This is very much an experience, with community built around it,” Smith said.