Matt Peters
map006@marietta.edu
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the hit musical comedy “Rocky Horror Show”. The cult-classic, which made its Broadway debut in 1975, will be performed by the Marietta College Theatre Department Oct. 30 through Nov. 7.
Cast and crew are eagerly preparing for opening night, each member expressing a special affinity for the ‘wonderfully weird’ musical.
“It’s actually my favorite musical, hands-down,” Andy Felt, director and associate professor of theatre, said.
“The first time I saw it, I was 15 years old. I was supposed to be at a Mormon dance and one of my friends kidnapped me and took me to Hollywood to see the whole ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ experience.”
Felt said he has been a fan of the show ever since, and is thrilled to be directing it for the first time in his career.
“It’s hard to find a piece of art that does a better job at doing what it intends to do,” he remarked.
Senior theatre major Morgan Massaro has also been a long-time fan of the musical. Massaro will be playing Janet Weiss, a character she says has been a “dream role” of hers for a very long time.
“Janet has a very dramatic change throughout the entire play. She starts as a very polite, proper and sweet small-town girl,” she said “She ends up becoming less and less so as the play progresses on.”
Sophomore Matt Yates will be playing the monster – Rocky. Not only is this Yates’ first musical, it’s also the first theatre production he has has been a part of.
“Everyone’s been fantastic about the learning process and explaining why we do things a certain way,” he said. “With it being my first production, I’m really excited to see everything coming together.”
Felt says that more than half of the cast is made up of non-majors.
“It’s sort of a small department. We only survive by having involvement with non-majors,” he said.
Felt believes that this variety of backgrounds enriches the experience for everyone involved, and he hopes that this musical will draw even more non-theatre majors.
“I’m hoping we get students that have never seen a theatre production at the school. Hopefully this is the one that they’ll say, ‘okay, I’ll give up an hour and 45 minutes of my time to go see a theatre production.””
Both Massaro and Felt added that there are certain unique challenges when preparing for a musical like “Rocky Horror Show” – one being the sheer number of people involved with the production. Musicals usually require multiple directors, a large cast, and careful planning. However, Felt says he enjoys this aspect of the show’s preparation process.
“There’s something that’s awesome about that collaborative team effort,” Felt said. “And theatre is, I think, the most collaborative art.”
Even the audience will have a chance to contribute to the show. As is customary with “Rocky Horror Show”, there will be special “audience participation” performances at 11p.m. Oct. 30 and Nov. 7. During these performances, cast members will be interacting with the audience throughout the show. For $5 audience members can purchase goody-bags containing the various items they will use to participate.
“There’s gonna be a ton of interaction – more than you would get from just your average play,” said sophomore Zebulon Suzelis, who will star as Eddie in the musical.
According to Felt, the show’s unorthodox subject matter is something that students really enjoy.
“It’s just a piece of literature that young people connect with, and particularly the misfit toys that end up in theatre,” he explained. “It’s this show that’s designed to celebrate otherness. It’s designed to celebrate being a weirdo or being a freak.”
Felt expounded; “It ties into LGBTQ rights. It ties into sexual experimentation, and the goal of the show was to celebrate that.”
Apart from its cultural significance and sociopolitical undertones, cast members say the musical is also fun to perform.
“It’s not often that you get to do something that is just truly fun,” Massaro said.
Those who have never seen “Rocky Horror Show” can expect to – in the words of Dr. Frank-N-Furter – “give themselves over to absolute pleasure.”
There will be seven performances of the show, beginning Oct. 30 through Nov. 7 at the Hermann Fine Arts Center. Tickets can be purchased at this link, and must be purchased in advance: www.marietta.edu/~thea
