Collegiate Times

Have you lost your virginity yet? The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club encourages as many Virginia Tech students as possible to come out to their shows and see exactly what that means to them.

"'Losing your virginity' is a term within the Rocky community that means to watch the movie with a shadow cast for the first time," said Mary Wilkerson, math major and events planning coordinator for the club. "Watching it alone is really just masturbating."

Shadowcasting involves a live cast acting out the movie's scenes with sets, props and costumes while the actual movie plays in the background. For decades it has become a tradition among fans to put on their own performances of the cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in this manner.

Tech's RHPS fan club and cast also focuses on shadowcasting other cult classics besides "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." They are currently preparing for their "Welcome Back" performance of the 1981 horror movie "Evil Dead," which shows at 10 p..m. on Aug. 28 and 29 in the Litton Reaves Auditorium.

"'Evil Dead' has something special that we can use to our advantage. The characters in 'Evil Dead' tend to freak out a lot. It's your classic horror movie, but we take it, mix it up, and make it funnier and more interesting," said Robert Sebek, faculty adviser of the club.

The club traditionally does not perform "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" as their Welcome Back performance. Through "Evil Dead," the club hopes to generate interest in time for their first performance of "Rocky" for this school year, which will be held on Halloween weekend.

"I attended a show with a couple of my friends who were in the show and got sucked in," Wilkerson said. "You can't take it too seriously, which makes it entertaining."

Though the show has a very eccentric reputation, upon viewing a film with a shadowcast, many "virgins" feel a desire to return.

 "Going to the 'Evil Dead' performance is a great way to be introduced to one of the interesting sub-cultures at Virginia Tech," said David McGrath, sophomore computer science major and club member.

Sebek, university library Web master, has been a part of the club since it first began in 1993. Sebek has seen the group continually grow and generate more interest as the years pass.

"We've gotten a bigger group of club members probably because we try to reach out beyond theatrical people interested in getting up on stage. One of the biggest purposes of this weekend's show is to recruit new members," Sebek said.  

The club differs from other "Rocky Horror" casts around the country in that they try to open up participation in their performances to anyone who is interested.

"There aren't really tryouts, it is very informal. People volunteer for roles and we choose randomly according to what slots need to be filled. We just want everyone to have a chance because it is just about people having fun," Wilkerson said.

The actors' main focus is to enhance the audience's experience of watching a campy film.

"The whole point is to make fun of the movie in a constructive and fun way. We just want everyone to enjoy the experience," said Charlotte Oliver, sophomore biological science major and club member.

So what can a "virgin" expect from the Welcome Back performance?

"It's not just a movie ... it's going to be very funny," Sebek said. "One of the themes for the 'Evil Dead' show is cardboard, and I think it'll be stylistically very different from our other shows."

Sebek said the majority of their audiences are generally "virgins." The club encourages participation from all attendees, with the warning their role may one day escalate into becoming a part of the shadowcast itself. Many current cast and club members themselves saw "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" for their first time as students at Tech.

"Rocky Horror made audience participation something completely new and it's still a big deal. Here at Virginia Tech it can be a coming of age experience - we get a lot of 'virgins' every night," Sebek said. "It's a rite of passage."