The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been an ongoing Halloween tradition at UW for years, and this year’s cast is excited to have their turn to bring it to the stage as the second performance since the pandemic started.
The musical tells the story of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad scientist, Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Unveiling his new creation, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, perfectly muscled man named Rocky.
“If I had one sentence to describe this show I’d probably call it Dr. Frankenstein meets psychedelic drag show,” Cast member Will Greiner said.
Will Greiner is starring as Brad Majors. Brad is a very traditional Christian man in the 80s. He’s very straight-laced and just tries his best to be a protective and caring fiancé to Janet, the female lead of the show.
The cast is performing this show in a style of theater known as shadow cast. This means the actors are acting alongside a projected version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show film, lip syncing to the voices of the actors from the original movie made forty years ago.
The actors not only have to memorize the lines from the movie, but the exact movements and timing of the original actors as well. This is very challenging as the actors are not allowed to face the screen, which makes it more impressive with how much work the actors have put into recreating the original show.
“This show is really interesting. I’m by far the youngest of the cast and I believe there’s only one other freshman in the cast. It’s really weird coming into the show because many other actors in the show have been in it before, plus the show is based on a lot of inside jokes,” Greiner said.
“We’ve all been in that situation where we go into a friend group and they have inside jokes, and you just don’t understand them. In this case, you get to learn those jokes and become a part of that community. I think that’s probably been the most fun part about these things.”
Greiner grew up in Firestone, Colorado and is a current freshman. Greiner started doing theater in third grade where he played a random gardener in a musical and he has stuck with theater ever since.
“The first time I ever made someone laugh on stage I was doing theater just for something to do because my parents wanted me to not be bored. After that, I realized that I can make people’s lives better by just being goofy on stage and I haven’t ever wanted to stop.”
The Rocky Horror Picture Show performance is this Friday, October 28th, at 10:00 p.m. in the Union Ballroom during Union After Dark.
