Kelly Trom
ktrom@mustangdaily.net
What do a piece of toast, a newspaper and a water gun all have in common?
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
It’s provocative, it’s interactive and it’s coming to San Luis Obispo at Fremont Theatre on Thursday.
“The Rocky Horror Show” is a musical-turned-cult movie that has inspired audience participation throughout the world for almost 40 years. The picture show version premiered at the Westwood Theater in Los Angeles in 1976. Since that year, it has had the longest running release in film history and has racked up nominations for both Tony and Drama Desk awards.
Going to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” isn’t a new experience for a college student. Many middle age people have seen the show as well.
“Whenever I told older people or my parents that I was going they were just like, ‘That’s still showing?’” psychology and kinesiology sophomore Audrey Schlachter said. “When they were in college, they had hordes of people going weekly.”
Schlachter’s first Rocky Horror experience was during her freshman year at a church with an audience of about 40 people. It was a theater performance accompanied by a live band.
“There were a bunch of different age groups, surprisingly,” Schlachter said. “The loudest ones were like the 70-year-old women. They were trying to jump onstage with the actors.”
With the small, but varied audience there was a lot of opportunity to get involved in the show, especially if it was the audience member’s first time, Schlachter said.
“Rocky Horror Picture Show” virgins, or people who have never seen the show before, are sometimes marked with a red “V” drawn on their forehead in lipstick.
“It was intimidating in the beginning, but when you see how much fun everyone is having you kind of get sucked up into it,” Schlachter said.
The charm of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” can be difficult to describe to those who have not experienced it firsthand.
“There’s something that is both really childish and really grown up about it at the same time that is alluring,” animal science sophomore Sarah Reggiardo said.
Perhaps it’s this quality that makes it so popular and timeless among college students, she said.
The excitement and unique qualities of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” have been perpetuated by references in current movies and television shows. “Glee” devoted an entire episode to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” It is also featured in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” novel and movie.
“It’s not like it’s anything that is going to go out of style because it’s always going to be fun,” Reggiardo said. “It’s always fun to throw toast at a movie screen and spritz people you don’t know with water and watch virgin sacrificees squirm up there.”
Whether it’s your first time or twentieth, the excitement and energy is a common thread that brings the audience together. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” veteran and graphic communication sophomore Connor Foltyn-Smith said she applauds the show’s liberating quality.
“I think everyone has a super sexual side to them and I think it really brings it out,” Foltyn-Smith said. “It allows you to be who you want to be when you want to be it.”
Foltyn-Smith created an event on Facebook to encourage Cal Poly students to buy tickets to Thursday’s show. He said he wants as many people as possible to be able to get a chance to see “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
“I’m not sure everyone is going to get tickets because I don’t think the venue is really big enough for how big this is,” Foltyn-Smith said. “I would like to see them bring a shadow cast every Saturday night. I think SLO needs that.”
The 8 p.m. showing at Fremont this Thursday will be interactive, but will not feature a shadow cast. Tickets are for sale online and at the door, but because of popular demand it is recommended to purchase them early.
“I would definitely encourage virgins to get out there and get their Rocky on,” Reggiardo said. “Get sacrificed, get initiation, because once you’re in, you’re not getting out. You are going to get addicted.”