By LIO KAMMEULLER
Every Halloween-adjacent weekend is a holiday on the Beloit campus. An extremely sober, professionally dressed, and well-behaved student community gathers in the Wilson Theater for the annual shadow cast performance of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
As usual, this year was a smashing success without a dry seat in the house. Beloit’s “Rocky Horror” tradition – the amount of work that goes into the student-directed show and the collective enthusiasm and support for it – is truly wonderful. But what is it about this production that makes it such a highlight for our campus year after year?
One big thing “Rocky Horror” has going for it is its status as a fully student-led show. It’s an opportunity to see and support something our peers have created, which is such an exciting experience as an audience member. For those in the show, “Rocky Horror” is a chance to do something different artistically and take on more leadership roles. This year’s director, Deveroh Gray’25, said they had a wonderful experience, “Definitely stressful at times and exhausting by the end of tech week … But the cast was great and had so many awesome bits with other people.”
Producer and cast member Kalee Lewis’26 shared the same sentiment, saying, “It was a balancing act that I’ve never had to do before, but that I really enjoyed, and I like to think I did a good job. Doing behind-the-scenes stuff to build up the show while also being onstage as an actor is something I love to do.”
Actors also appreciated the experience of the student-directed show. Ben O’Connor’26, who played a beautiful looksmaxxing Riff Raff, said “Rocky Horror” was their first time working with a student director, and that “this process was different. I am glad we can partake in a way like that!” As something of a theater kid myself, I can attest to the high quality of this year’s production. It was nonstop fun and incredibly well executed, and the fact that a group of students put it on only makes it more impressive.
Another important point that should be emphasized about “Rocky Horror” is its queer representation. While the queer and trans characters in the original source material are very much caricatures, they are reinterpreted by actors and directors into a more authentic expression. In Gray’s words, “It wasn’t inherently made as a queer story, but the songs and themes and portrayal of many of the characters are often a reclamation or celebration when the cast and crew are queer and gender nonconforming themselves. Our production, while I won’t interrogate all of our actors’ identities, was made up of a vast majority of trans actors.”
Rowan Wilson’27, a stunningly accurate Frank-N-Furter, also mentioned the value of “Rocky Horror” as a queer show. He said, “I’ve never had a lead role before, as all the shows I’ve been in before didn’t really have space for queerness, and I was always pushed to the side, relegated to comic relief through middle and high school. Being in a space for where a couple hours it feels like cishet people are an oppressed minority and I’m on top of the world has been insanely healing for me.”
That energy reaches the audience, too, and I think that’s a big part of why we keep coming to “Rocky Horror” every year. There is something so striking and beautiful about having a space where deviating from the norms becomes the norm, where there are no rules or expectations for actors or attendees, and we can just exist together. So shout out to the cast and crew of this year’s “Rocky Horror Picture Show” for putting on a great performance and bringing this campus together over sexy drag aliens.
Come again next year!
Featured Image: Svea Jones’25
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