The con takes place in a few settings opening night is on July 31 with the Rocky Horror Floor Show at Alchemy. But I feel that I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I had my Rocky Horror cherry popped in 2014 by Bill Lange, a longtime member of the RKO Army. They are christened with a big red “V” on their head and, well, I can’t tell you the rest. In the Rocky Horror community, a virgin is someone who has never seen the show before. There are awards, pre-shows and plenty of virgins up for the taking. The main event of the convention is when more than 30 shadow casts from around the country join together to put on the main event: The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
(And if you want to see it, it’s at 10pm on Thursday, August 1 at Dave & Buster’s in Providence Place Mall.) The con also features exclusive panels like costuming, information on partici…pation and plenty of dance parties. Can you imagine The Room with a shadow cast? It’s happening, and it’s glorious. It’s four days of Rocky Horror goodness, but also includes RKO Army’s Shadow Cast as they’ve begun to do other movies with the same Rocky Horror idea. This is the third time that PVD and the RKO Army have hosted it it seems to come around to PVD every three years or so. Now enough history, let’s talk convention! August 1 – 4 (with a pre-event on July 31) RKO Army will host The National Rocky Horror Picture Show Convention. Since it began, Rocky Horror has provided a temporary escape from whatever normal life is for people by providing an environment for their inner expressions to come out.” Normal life necessitates we do things we need to do to survive and thrive, but it may fall short in fulfilling one’s inner expressions. Rather it is a temporary escape from normal life. Roy Rossi, who oversees the RKO Army and RKO Con says, “ Rocky Horror is not life. They are people of every shape, size, gender and age, and they all have one thing in common: they love Rocky Horror and in one way or another, it’s helped them learn something about themselves. There’s something about the cast of the RKO Army that is plain inspiring. The cast continued to perform with some regularity, though bouncing around from theater to theater, until the early 2000s when what is now known as the RKO Army was born. It was originally known as the Rhode Island Rocky Horror Picture Show Cast, then the Creatures of the Night Cast, which came to the A.P.P (Absolute Pleasure Players) in the late-1980s, early-1990s. It had a rocky (ahem) start with many different casts coming and going. The shadow cast RKO Army had its genesis in 1981 when members from multiple casts came together. Frank-N-Furter climbs up to try to save his creation, Rocky, at the end of the movie. You might also remember the nod to the company in the song, “Science Fiction, Double Feature,” and it is the tower that Dr. The RKO Army takes its shadow cast name from RKO Pictures (meaning Radio-Keith-Orpheum), which is a film production company that is referenced in Rocky Horror. In RI and the local Massachusetts area, if you’ve gone to see a Rocky Horror movie, you’ve seen the RKO Army. Picture it, you see Eddie singing “Hot Patootie,” and in front of it, there’s someone dressed as Eddie mimicking his motions, dance moves and generally rocking out to the song, just like you would in the privacy of your own living room. Shadow casts are the dedicated lovers of Rocky Horror who don costumes, makeup and sometimes a motorcycle to act out the film in front of the screen while The Rocky Horror Picture Show plays behind them. It’s through this tradition that the cult following of The Rocky Horror Picture Show was born, and from that, shadow casts began gaining popularity.
#DAMMIT JANET MOVIE#
It gained so much popularity that people started interacting with the show - yelling insults and praises, and throwing things (hot dog, anyone?) during the movie screenings to show their enthusiasm. A commercial flop in its initial release, the movie was re-released as a midnight showing in 1976 at the Waverly Theatre in New York City and was selling out, with many people seeing the show multiple times.
RKO Con is a celebration of 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s just a jump to the left, then a step to the right … into Downcity Providence.