Sigma Lambda sponsored their annual showing of the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show last week. Between 120 and 150 students, faculty, and townspeople crowded into Berthoud 243 to watch the film and eat pizza, according to Sigma Lambda’s President, Jon Pritchard.
As the film began, the crowd chanted, “Lips! Lips! Lips! Lips!…” until a pair of luscious red lips appeared on the screen and began singing. Several crowd members came prepared with scripts for audience participation and Sigma Lambda provided props for even better audience participation.
At the beginning of the film, when main characters Janet and Brad were caught in a terrible rainstorm, crowd members covered their heads with Oredigger newspapers and shot each other with squirt guns.
Other props provided for audience participation included latex gloves, cards, noisemakers, toast, party hats, flashlights, and toilet paper. Throughout the film, audience members made vulgar and cynical remarks during pauses in characters’ speeches and soliloquies, including a regular series of insults about the criminologist-narrator’s neck.
One highlight was the audience doing the Time Warp dance. “It’s just a jump to the left and a step to the right, put your hands on your hips, bring your knees in tight, but it’s the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane…”
Toward the end of the film, when the character Riff Raff pulled out a gun from Transylvania to shoot Frank-N-Furter, Dr. Scott, another character in the film, commented, “Great heavens, that’s a laser!” Riff Raff replied, “Yes Dr. Scott, a laser capable of emitting a beam of pure antimatter.” An indignant audience member shouted “Then it’s NOT a laser!”
Following the film, a costume contest was held, in which contestants were required to do the Time Warp dance. Costumes included Frank-N-Furter, Cat, Bane, the Mad-hatter, a Storm Trooper – scout class armor, a Batman and Robin superheroes duo, and Gene Duran, an anime character. The first place winner was Calin Meserschmidt, a Mines CE student, who dressed up as Frank-N-Furter.
After the event, Berthod 243 was quite a sight to behold, with toast, cards, toilet paper, papier-mâché, and other props covering the floor. With great effort from a large team of Sigma Lambda members and friends, the room’s classroom-like appearance was restored. For those who attended the film, it can be said with certainty that Berthoud 243 will never be thought of as just another lecture hall again. Fanatics can look forward to another epic Sigma Lambda Rocky Horror party next year.