PHOTO | Crissy Musick Photography
The cult classic “The Rocky Horror Show” will be performed in the Savas Kostas Performing Arts Center on the Logan campus of Southern WV Community & Technical College on July 15, 16th, 22, 23, 29 and 30. All shows start at 7 pm. The show is being produced by Southern Coalition for the Arts.
The Southern Coalition for the Arts is gearing up for a three-weekend production run of The Rocky Horror Show.
Richard O’Brien’s gender-bending spoof of horror and science fiction B-movies will open this Friday, July fifteenth at the Savas-Kostas Performing Arts Center on the Logan campus of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College.
Approaching its fiftieth anniversary, Rocky Horror has reached cult classic status as both a play and film, exploring themes of sexuality and self-exploration to a rock-n-roll beat. The Rocky Horror Show premiered on stage in London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1973 and leaped to movie houses two years later with the release of The Rocky Horror Picture Show starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Meatloaf. Midnight screenings of the movie has evolved an interactive element where audience members, or “shadow casts,” would shout back to the screen or act out scenes. The movie has become one of the top-grossing musicals of all time.
The story opens on a stormy night, a naive couple, Brad and Janet, get a flat tire and seek help at a nearby evil castle.
Rocky Horror is unique and special because of its openness,” said co-director Rachel Noe-Maynard. “It throws off binary gender roles and it has this very "be yourself no matter what" message. “Don’t dream it, be it” is the main theme of the show."
Maynard studied theatre at Marshall University and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
“It has always attracted people who maybe feel a little bit left out,” she added. “When the film got midnight movie status, all of the people who felt they couldn’t go out dressed as they liked in the middle of the day could go out at midnight and no one would judge them. You see these new generations that keep finding the musical, and especially this generation that is just so lovely and open with who they are. It speaks to them.”
The play is the first musical from the Arts since COVID outbreak. “The Pandemic just shut us down. We wanted to come back in a big way,” according to Leah Clay-Stone, co-director and another Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from the Marshall's theatre department. “You can’t get bigger or bolder than Rocky Horror as a comeback show.”
The cult classic “The Rocky Horror Show” will be performed in the Savas-Kostas Performing Arts Center on the Logan campus of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College this Friday and Saturday(July 15 & 16) and every weekend for the rest of the month.
All shows start at 7 o'clock each evening.
Advanced tickets can be purchased locally at Hot Cup in Logan, at the door the day of the show and online at https://artsrockyhorror.brownpapertickets.com/.
The show is intended for mature audiences and carries an “R” rating for strong language, adult themes, and sexual innuendos. Tickets are available at the door.