Over 300 joined together to do the time warp again for Edmond Town Hall’s screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show featuring a live shadow cast performance on October 19. There was also a screening of the movie, without a shadow cast, the previous night.

The beloved musical comedy horror cult classic returned to the theater bigger than ever last weekend, when dozens of people poured into the town hall’s entrance early Saturday night to grab the best seats and celebrate the movie’s 49th anniversary.

Shadow casts — people who dress up as characters, act out scenes, and use props to perform alongside a movie screening — are a long-standing tradition of Rocky Horror screenings. The shadow cast performing Saturday night was Come Again Players, a passionate all-volunteer, nonprofit group out of South Hadley, Mass., who perform Rocky Horror across western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Guests who entered through the front doors of Edmond Town Hall on Saturday were greeted by red and white lights hanging throughout the room. People lined up at the bar towards the north side of the lobby, where they found several drinks such as domestic beer and wine, and the event’s specialty drink, The Time Warp, a cocktail made with Malibu rum, pineapple juice, and other ingredients.

Red streamers dangled in every entryway, and Friends of Edmond Town Hall members who helped run the bar and check people were also in the spirit of the season, dressed in costume. Music from the film’s soundtrack blared out in the entrance as people lined up for concessions and tickets. Anyone who had never seen Rocky Horror with a live shadow cast before was marked with a red V on their forehead. Dozens of audience members had even celebrated by dressing up as characters from the movie.

Countless traditions have appeared over the years of Rocky Horror screenings and shadow cast performances. Fans do not only dress up as the characters, they also shout at the screen when certain characters introduce themselves or other action takes place. People put newspaper on their head, waved glowsticks in the air, threw toast out onto the stage, and so much more.

Since audience participation is such a staple of the Rocky Horror community, Come Again Players helped audiences prepare and outlined the etiquette of how to participate. Even those who didn’t buy a prop bag filled with items such as noisemakers, toilet paper, sponges, and other screening-appropriate items were able to still interact with the film by calling out certain phrases.

As one final treat for the audience before the screening began, Come Again Players offered two pre-show performances, dancing to Chappell Roan’s “Hot To Go” and Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl.” They even had a few audience members participate in one of the first few scenes of the show.

From there, the audience enjoyed the immersive experience of Rocky Horror. People shouted out iconic quips that are long-standing traditions of the live Rocky Horror experience and used their props at their special designated scenes. The crowd, filled with newcomers and veterans alike, laughed and danced the night away to the iconic movie.

Paired with Come Again Players’ magnetic energy, there might not have been a better way for people to finish off their Saturday night.

‘A Whole New Level’

This is not the first time Edmond Town Hall has screened the movie, nor is it the first time Come Again Players has performed in Newtown. This marks the fourth consecutive year Edmond Town Hall has screened Rocky Horror during the weekend, and the third consecutive time Come Again Players has performed as a shadow cast. While relatively new in Newtown, the tradition is quickly becoming a hallmark of Edmond Town Hall, and is now one of its biggest events of the year, according to Edmond Town Hall Operations Manager Anthony Sartori.

For Sartori, the goal is to create an experience like no other. Each time the town hall has hosted the Rocky Horror event, they try to take it “a little bit more to the next level,” Sartori said this week, with all of the lights, decorations, music, and more creating a special atmosphere. This way, from the moment people step into the entrance of Edmond Town Hall, they know they are in for something special, he added.

“Anyone who watches the movie alongside the shadow cast gets a whole new experience,” Sartori said. “The movie is fantastic of course, but to see it with the shadow cast is really special. Everyone in the audience gets involved, everybody goes all out and gets dressed up and just has so much fun together. It takes everything to a whole new level.”

Rocky Horror is just as special for Come Again Players. The group was established in 2003, according to Technical Director and Producer Matthew Jarrett. A number of people have been in the cast for a long time, he adds, but the vast majority of people have only been involved for the last several years.

Jarrett, who joined the group in 2016, says he joined because he was not a confident person in certain ways. He thought that if he learned how to be somebody else on stage, then he could “be somebody else whenever I wanted to on cue, to be a more confident version of myself.

“And, you know, in ways that was what happened, and in ways that wasn’t what happened,” he added. “So I think that I have developed that skill as a result of doing theater, and doing a lot of the organization and a lot of the encouragement of the community that we have.”

Erin Cohen, who directed the Newtown show, joined Come Again Players in 2018. She said she has been a fan of the movie ever since she watched it at a young age, and years later went to a shadow cast performance of Rocky Horror. She sang and danced throughout the whole show. One of the light operators noticed her passion for it, she said, and encouraged her to join the shadow cast.

“I went to the next rehearsal, and I had such a great time,” Cohen said. “And the passion really kept me to stay and just encouraged me to do so much more for the group. It’s really this community that comes together so well. Everyone’s just so upbeat and positive and so supportive of each other, it makes me start to cry, it’s just so touching.”

There are definitely pros and cons to being a touring shadow cast, according to Jarrett. The group used to have its home at Tower Theaters in South Hadley, which let them rehearse more often and have all of their props and other items to store there. At the same time, he says it was also limiting in several ways, since they did not get shares of ticket sales and did not have any merchandise to sell.

The group now takes its passion for Rocky Horror across western Massachusetts and Connecticut, and gets to share that passion with hundreds of people across both states.

Being a traveling shadow cast also comes with its own challenges. Jarrett says without a home theater — and therefore no central storage space — the troupe’s members have to keep props and costumes in their homes. This also means traveling to each show with all those props and costumes.

Nevertheless, Jarrett adds that being able to travel to all sorts of different areas, seeing new places, and engaging with communities like Newtown is very exciting for them. He says they love going to Edmond Town Hall every year.

“It’s a beautiful theater, and everyone there is always so enthusiastic. There was so much energy in the theater [Saturday] night, even from people who might not know everything a seasoned audience member might … These people were just so engaged.”

Another thing Cohen loves about the shadow cast is seeing all the freedom and joy their performances create.

“There’s just so much freedom that comes with it. You have the freedom to say all these things in public that you aren’t normally allowed to say,” Cohen continued. “With a shadow cast, for the audience and performers both, you can just be free and have fun and enjoy yourself.”

What anchors the group together to the point where they feel like a big family, Jarrett and Cohen both said, is their passion for performance, for Rocky Horror, and for the beauty of the community it creates.

To them, the ultimate reward of what they do is the community.

“We’re here to create a community where people can go and find a safe and supportive environment no matter where they are coming from and what they’re dealing with,” Jarrett said. “It’s a whole lot of work, and we’re an all-volunteer cast. Nobody gets paid for what we do, but the reward is the community.”

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.