COLIN PERRY
Assistant News Editor
Fans of the annual “Rocky Horror Picture Show” shadowcast screening may have to do the Time Warp themselves if they want to see it this year, as Pride Alliance has announced the cancellation of the live-action portion of the event.
For the last three years, students have dressed up as characters from the cult-musical and mimed performances of it as the film screened simultaneously. While the screening, with all of the shouting and participation that is typical of “Rocky”, is still scheduled for this Friday, there will be no shadowcast performance.
The decision to cancel the shadowcast was first made known via a statement on Pride Alliance’s Facebook page from the group’s president, Brandon Harris.
“It has come to my attention that some members of the shadowcast were attempting to indulge in alcohol and other substances before our event with the purpose of performing while under the influence,” Harris’ statement began.
Harris went on to cite Statute F-14 of the Student Association Constitution, which contains the alcohol policy for all constituted groups. Among other things, the statute requires groups to “strictly adhere to the college policies concerning the use of alcohol,” and that any group wishing to serve alcohol at a non-licensed establishment must do so without “any recognition or funding whatsoever from the Student Association.”
According to Harris’s statement, “certain cast members” held an unsanctioned rehearsal where alcohol was allegedly served. While some may believe such an event does not fall under the purview of Statute F-14, Pride Alliance Events Coordinator and senior theatrical production and design major Graham Caulfield disagrees.
“Any time ‘Rocky’ rehearses or meets, it’s a [Pride Alliance] event, essentially,” Caulfield said. Furthermore, Caulfield said that the cast members at the unsanctioned rehearsal “did not go through the correct routes to have Pride book the rooms and sanction it, which also breaks our constitution and breaks a line of communication that’s so important to having “Rocky” as a part of Pride.”
Caulfield added that attempts were made to set guidelines for appropriate behavior at rehearsals after initially hearing about the nature of the “Rocky” rehearsals, but these attempts were found to be unsuccessful.
Freshman theater arts major Emma Hyvarinen was slated to appear in the shadowcast in the role of The Criminologist, and said that, to her knowledge, only one cast member encouraged the consumption of alcohol at rehearsals. She also said she was unaware of any plans to perform while intoxicated, but did not discount the possibility.
“I’ve heard that ‘Rocky Horror’ is only fun when you’re wasted,” she said. “I guess it’s just the culture around it.”
However, Hyvarinen was quick to defend the majority of those involved with the shadowcast.
“Not everybody in that cast was intending on [drinking]. A lot of them don’t even drink at all,” she said. “I think there’s a negative stigma against the cast now, that we were all going to get wasted beforehand, and I don’t think that’s true.”
For Caulfield and the rest of the Pride Alliance leadership, the decision to cancel the event comes from a desire to ensure safety for all students at Fredonia and to reinforce Pride Alliance’s reputation as a safe space on campus.
“The [marginalized orientations, gender identities and intersex] community is hyper-sexualized and associated with drinking culture, and we don’t want to keep perpetuating that stereotype,” Caulfield said. “There are some people in our group who are just uncomfortable with it, and we don’t want to oppress that upon anyone.”
Caulfield is aware that the cancellation of the shadowcast will be disappointing for its fans, but said people ultimately understand the decision and many agree with it.
“I can’t [speak] for everybody, but a lot of the people I’ve talked to support what we did,” Caulfield said. “The existence of Pride as a group on campus and ensuring the safety of our groups and our community is more important than having a shadowcast for them.
“We’re not happy about cancelling it and the cast isn’t, but we had to do what we had to do for the sanctity of Pride,” Caulfield added.
Caulfield did not rule out the possibility of Pride Alliance sponsoring a shadowcast screening in the future but stressed that it was not possible at this point in time. Students are still encouraged to attend the regular screening of the film this Friday at 8 p.m. in McEwen 202.