The Columbia Chronicle’s Ava Simone Forster covers Columbia’s ‘Rocky Horror.’ Columbia’s fourth annual shadow performance brought students and Chicago residents to the Dance Center for a night of costumes, callouts, and connection:
Chicago resident Grace Neudek had seen “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” but never performed by a live cast. Before Columbia’s fourth annual shadow performance, she described the gathering as “a celebration of expression.”
Later, seated in the backrow, Neudek began joining in the dancing. Around her, audience members laughed together at remarks from nearby seats. More people began calling out as the performance continued, adding their voices to a room where speaking up was part of the experience.
For students and Chicago residents gathered at the Dance Center on Friday, Oct. 30, the show offered a place to dress up, join in and express themselves alongside others. That sense of community was central to how attendees and the director described its continued appeal.
“I think it’s because it creates this beautiful, safe space for queer people to express themselves, to be weird, to be freaks in every sense of the word,” said director Felix Spencer Lee, a senior film and television major.
The one night performance, presented by the School of Theatre and Dance as part of “Wicked Week,” brought Columbia’s annual production to the Dance Center for the first time. Tickets had sold out before the show began….
…Onstage, the shadow cast lip synced and danced alongside the film, which played on a large screen behind them.
Lee said that energy from the audience changed what the cast alone could bring to the show.
“It’s so cool to see how a show can be really good on dress rehearsal, but then the energy of the audience can really bring it to that next level during the actual show,” Lee said…
Banner photo: courtesy of The Columbia Chronicle, photo by Anthony Hernandez.
