It’s hard to overstate the effect of representation in culture, particularly in TV and films.
For example, Jordyn Fitch’s first viewing of “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the 1975 cult classic in which a young couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) loses their innocence, was transformative.
“It just, like, changed everything,” Fitch said in a phone interview.
To be clear, the screening Fitch saw at age 15 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where they grew up, was accompanied by a shadow cast, a group of people who get together to act out the movie during the screening and who encourage audience participation. It’s a regular feature of “Rocky Horror” shows.
“There’s just this culture around it,” Fitch said. “Immediately you just get pulled into this whole new world.”
Seeing queer people on both screen and stage can feel like a homecoming for viewers who seldom see themselves reflected in stories that come out of Hollywood or Broadway.
“Rocky Horror” has gotten new life in the Upper Valley, and to a degree in the Twin States, with shadow cast performances cropping up with greater regularity. Fitch is at the center of the revival, which continues with a performance at 9 on Saturday night in Lebanon Opera House.
Fitch moved to the Upper Valley to attend Dartmouth College in 2016 and never got word of any shadow cast performances of “Rocky Horror.” But the ingredients were here.
“One of the things that surprised me the most about living here, there’s a surprisingly large queer community here,” they said. “It’s incredibly vibrant and rich.”
The shadow cast shows started in 2023, first in the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, which is operated by JAM (Junction Arts and Media), where Fitch and other shadow cast members work, then last year at Lebanon Opera House.
The aim is enjoyment, but also to make the experience available for someone who, like Fitch, might not know they need it. And a dollar from every ticket sold supports the Cobra Lily Collective, a mutual aid organization for trans people in the Upper Valley.
The Creature Feature Club, from which the shadow cast is drawn, is a core group of around a dozen people. They make such a production out of “Rocky Horror” that they commit to only one show a year, much as they would like to do more. (The first show Fitch saw in Florida took place every weekend at midnight, which was a common thing in the 1980s and ’90s, though probably not in, say, Hanover.)
If there’s a reason for “Rocky Horror’s” cult status, it’s that it creates, as many performances do, a temporary shelter, a glittering reprieve from a world of grim conformity. It’s no mistake that it flourished during the beige orthodoxy of the Reagan era.
“Rocky Horror” screenings popped up in Randolph, Middlebury and Montpelier, in Vermont, and in Bethlehem, Concord, Portsmouth and, indeed, Hanover, in New Hampshire, to mark the film’s 50th birthday last year. Perhaps between those events and the creeping repression under the Trump regime, “Rocky Horror” will generate some sustained momentum.
In the meantime, enjoy it for what it is: the best of American camp, and a place to be both yourself and someone else for a couple of hours.
“It’s going to be weird, it’s going to be silly; we’re going to be up there, having fun,” Fitch said.
Lebanon Opera House presents “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at 9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31. Pre-show festivities begin in the lobby at 8 p.m. For tickets ($25) and more information, go to lebanonoperahouse.org or call 603-448-0400.
Writing the Valley
Nonfiction books that examine life in the Upper Valley are uncommon occurrences. I was trying to think of the last one and came up with “This Brilliant Darkness,” Jeff Sharlet’s 2020 account of his father’s death and his own heart attacks, which is set partly in the Upper Valley.
Now there are two that deserve our attention. On Friday, “Moving to My Dog’s Hometown,” Norwich author Betsy Verecky’s memoir about moving from New York to Hanover in her 30s, hits bookstore shelves. The Norwich Bookstore is holding an event at 7 p.m. on Feb. 12. Verecky unexpectedly found love and companionship after her move, so the event coincides nicely with Valentine’s Day.
And “Homesick,” a study by Dartmouth sociology professor Emily Walton of race in rural New England, has been out since November. Walton, a Lebanon resident, interviewed Upper Valley residents of color about the ways in which they are excluded from the dominant white culture. Walton is slated to facilitate a group discussion about the book at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 18 in Hanover’s Howe Library.
Looking ahead
Randolph’s Chandler Center for the Arts opens a fresh season with a performance on Feb. 13 by Nomfusi, a celebrated South African soul singer. The season kickoff also includes an exhibition of handmade quilts in the Chandler Gallery and a community mixer. For tickets ($15-$40 adults, $10 students, free for children 12 and under), to register for the mixer or for more information, go to chandler-arts.org.
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