As the actors practiced their final bows, they joked loudly with each other, the room ripe with the kind of adrenaline only felt in the final minutes before a show. The director rushed around, called here and there, while lighting made its final checks and the doors opened. In streamed a costumed and rambunctious crowd ready to experience the iconic 5C “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
The original 1975 film follows newly engaged couple Brad and Janet, who stumble into the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a flamboyant scientist whose household turns their conventional ideas about gender and sexuality upside down.
The 5C production, performed in Pitzer College’s Benson Auditorium on Thursday, Oct. 29 and Pomona College’s Rose Hills Theatre on Friday, Oct. 30, featured shadow casting, with actors silently acting out the characters while the film played. The show stayed true to its cult legacy as a bastion of queer expression often reiterated through shadow-cast productions, featuring staples of the Rocky Horror tradition including call-outs and props given to audience members to use throughout the show.
The 5C tradition itself is only a few years old in its current form. Shadow-cast productions of Rocky Horror had faded from the 5Cs until students brought the show back over Halloween weekend in 2022, with the goal of starting a tradition future students would carry on.
Tim Deegan, who marketed the film for 20th Century Fox, creator Richard O’Brien and fan club president Sal Piro told TSL how audience call-outs turned a box-office flop into a cult tradition in an exclusive interview following the revival of the show on campus.
While the performance has been put on multiple times per year at the 5Cs, this year was different. Tim Curry, a prolific actor who played Dr. Frank-N-Furter — the charismatic star of the original 1975 film, passed away this August.
The cast responded to his passing with a heartfelt, lively performance.
“We have to do [the show] right, perfectly actually,” director Ren White PZ ’27 said.
White said the show has been kept alive largely by word of mouth passed down through previous cast and crew members. Many of the choices by past performers are still in the show today. Each new director, usually someone who has acted in or crewed a past production, keeps pieces of earlier shows while leaving their own mark.
“The 5Cs is the first place I’ve ever existed in that [is] just completely full of self-expression … this show is kind of a celebration of that,” White said.
White was stage director for the show as a first year, and directed it this year as a senior.
“I never thought I could do anything like this in my life,” she said.
The production was funded through a patchwork of sources. White said a small amount came through Spotlight Musical Theater, which handled the show’s logistics. More came from the Queer Resource Center, and Pitzer’s Agnes Moreland Jackson Diversity Program covered most of the costs.
Rocky Horror, an embodiment of early subversive queer expression, might be a hard thing to perfect. It utilizes elaborate sets and complex characters, and carries a storied impact on the queer community. But the essence of the show lies in its joy, creativity and resistance to norms.
“It’s not supposed to be exact. It’s just supposed to be fun,” said Morgaine Jebian SC ’29, who played scientist Dr. Scott.
And fun it was. In true queer fashion, the show started off with a dip into taboos. In the first call for audience participation, the ‘virgin’ audience members — in Rocky circles, slang for those who haven’t been to a show before — not knowing what was to come, were volunteered into a moaning competition on stage. There was thunderous applause for each participant and a feeling, after that fourth wall was broken, that everyone was a little closer.
“It’s basically a drag show,” Jebian said. “It’s awesome.”
Once the film began, the first performers onstage were the Lips, a group who performs a dance to the opening credits. Noura Coulibaly PZ ’27 had never danced before joining the troupe for this production.
“[In my first] year when I went to this show, I was just like, ‘Oh my God, it’s so fun, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that,’” she said. “So it felt very full circle to actually do it senior year.”
Coulibaly said her first experience being in the show had electric energy.
“It was exhilarating. I wanted to do it again and again and again,” she said.
True to its historical tradition, audience participation was a focal point of the show. In addition to the call-outs, which many Rocky Horror veteran audience members had memorized, the audience was quick to employ their various props. At one point, audience members held crinkled newspapers over their heads in solidarity with the character Janet, who was desperately trying to shield herself from the rain. Another notable scene called for audience members to don rubber gloves and snap them in time with Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Some students described how despite many viewings, they keep coming back for more, making Rocky Horror a Halloween tradition.
“This is my fourth time and it’s always … a beautiful and wonderful student production,” Abigail Green SC ’27 said.
Above all, the heart of the show was the production team’s guiding philosophy of having fun and being yourself.
White described particularly valued the unique experience of directing a queer play at the Claremont Colleges.
“The 5Cs is the first place I’ve ever existed in that [is] just completely full of self-expression … this show is kind of a celebration of that,” White said.
Jebian echoed the welcoming, inclusive nature of the production.
“It has people of all body types, people of all genders, sexualities. It’s just a show for everybody,” Jebian said.
Coulibaly echoed Jebian’s sentiment, emphasizing the importance of the show’s presence at the colleges.
“Everybody is so kind and just funny and queer,” she said. “It’s what you would imagine — put a bunch of gay people in a room, it’s going to be fun.”
White additionally noted that the quick timeline leading up to the show helped each of the cast members develop relationships with each other. Without a formal producer, White said, the whole team had a hand in shaping the show.
“Everyone is somewhat involved in every part of the process, which makes it a lot easier and a lot more fulfilling, because so many people add to this creative experience,” she said.
Throughout the production, the excitement of the audience was palpable, and their participation extremely involved. More than just a replication of Rocky Horror, it was a testament to the inclusive spaces that cultivate artistic and personal self-expression at the 5Cs, especially for queer students.
The cast and crew were able to conjure up a slice of the 1970s at Pitzer and Pomona auditoriums in 2026, a fitting homage to the late Tim Curry.