2 - Rocky Horror Picture Show Audio Description Pre-Show Primer

In this episode, Audio Describer JJ Hunt provides pre-show notes to AD users attending the Disability Collective's 2024 presentation of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Listen in as JJ describes the overall look of the film, the characters, and the sets, as well as the Collective's all-Deaf shadow cast, and the visuals of Performance ASL. All capped off with a step-by-step guide to the Time Warp!

The Disability Collective's production of the RHPS was staged at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre as part of the Toronto Fringe's Next Stage Theatre Festival, on October 27th, 2024. Directed by Gaitrie Persaud-Killings.

For more information about The Disability Collective, or to learn about other upcoming events, please visit TheDisabilityCollective.com.

Transcript

Welcome to the pre-recorded, pre-released pre-show notes for The Disability Collective's presentation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, featuring an all-star, all-Deaf shadow cast. I'm your describer, JJ Hunt. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is being performed on Sunday, October 27, 2024, at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, as part of the Toronto Fringe's Next Stage Festival. Typically, we'd be delivering these notes in the theatre before the start of the performance, but Rocky is anything but typical. Audience members participate in the show. Many get dressed as their favourite characters or bring and share props and gags to break out during the performance. And the show is actually two performances in one.

First, we have the original movie on screen and on the speaker system. And then, in front of the screen on stage, we have the live shadow cast performing in-sync with the actors on screen. So, there's already lots going on both during the show and before the show begins. In order to properly describe the wild visuals of the original film, the costumes, the sets, the lighting, without talking over the dialogue or the songs or interfering with the all-important pre-show shenanigans, we're releasing these detailed notes in advance.

This will free us up for performance night on the 27th of October. At Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, I will be on location, ready to describe the visuals of the event as a whole, the audience participation, the shadow cast performance and key moments in the film with description delivered over headset as usual. Today, we're going to break down the visuals of the original film. I'll talk a bit about the overall look of the movie. I'll describe the characters, the costumes, and go over some of the key sets and scene locations. I'm also going to spend a few minutes describing The Disability Collective shadow cast, and I'm going to describe the look of performance ASL. Then, to cap things off, we're going to talk Time Warp. We're going to break down the era-defining dance step-by-step to encourage maximum audience-partici...pation.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a campy, sexy musical tribute to early B-movie sci-fi and horror films. It's the story of a young newly engaged couple, Brad and Janet, whose car breaks down on a rainy night. They go to a nearby castle to find a phone so they can call for help, but there, they discover a mad scientist, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, hosting a strange convention of sorts. It turns out that Frank-N-Furter is a self-described sweet transvestite, and he's been working to create a muscle man to act as his personal plaything.

And wouldn't you know it? This is the very night that muscle man is destined to be born and revealed to the castle's gathered guests. One of the key things to remember about this film is that it's a low-budget 1970s movie, paying homage to earlier B-movies, so it looks pretty cheap by today's film standards. And this is an intentional design choice, albeit a convenient one for a low-budget film. Some of the sets look more like backdrops from SCTV or Saturday Night Live. There are lots of flashing lights and funny sounds in lieu of complicated visual effects.

Sometimes the camera work goes handheld, which means the image is a bit shaky. Sometimes we quickly zoom in on an actor. There are even a few moments when actors break the fourth wall and look directly at us.

These are all nods to early sci-fi and horror films. Between the scenes there are transition wipes. With wipes, instead of abruptly cutting one scene and starting another, a filmmaker takes the audience from one scene to another with flair. The simplest wipes are from side to side, so the next scene literally slides onto the screen until it entirely eclipses the previous scene. But sometimes The Rocky Horror Picture Show editors use a shaped wipe, so we'll zoom in on the next scene inside of a heart shape or a question mark shape. Or the last image in the scene will rise like a curtain, revealing a new scene behind it. Unsurprisingly, this is called a curtain wipe.

Again, all of these wipes are very campy nods to early sci-fi. Visually, what really makes The Rocky Horror Picture Show are the costumes. They are outstanding. It's like the coolest 1970s rock and roll high school kids rated all the London and New York thrift shops for awesome vintage clothes. And they found a box of corsets and boas from a trashy Moulin Rouge drag troupe.

They then brought all that clothing back to their party flat and got dressed up, doing their makeup while watching glam rock videos. A lot of the characters from The Rocky Horror Picture Show are kind of iconic, but we're going to break them down one at a time.

Barry Bostwick plays Brad Majors. He's Janet's fiance.

Brad: Hi, my name's Brad Majors.

JJ: He's a tall, thin man with light skin tone and dark side parted hair. He's got big square glasses that were dorky in the 70s, but are now kind of back in style. He arrives at the castle wearing a tan windbreaker and blue gray slacks, but then gets stripped down to high-waisted, tighty whitey underwear.

Susan Sarandon plays Janet Weiss. She's Brad's fiancé.

Janet: I can't believe it. An hour ago, she was plain old Betty Monroe.

JJ: Young Susan Sarandon was a very pretty, doe-eyed woman with light skin tone, acute upturned nose, and curly shoulder-length brown hair held back with barrettes. She arrives at the castle in a pink-belted dress with a high button-up collar and flared knee-length skirt and a white cardigan over top. She also gets stripped down, revealing her white bra and slip.

Richard O'Brien plays Riff Raff, butler and handyman. He's the brother of Magenta.

Riff Raff: Hello.

JJ: He's a skinny, sallow man with pale skin tone, sunken cheeks, dark circles around his eyes, and a classic horror film hunched back. He's balding with long, scraggly, blonde hair around the sides and back of his head, and spends most of the movie wearing a tattered, filthy tuxedo.

Patricia Quinn plays Magenta, a domestic. Magenta is Riff Raff's sister.

Magenta: You're lucky. He's lucky. I'm lucky. We're all lucky.

JJ: She's a woman with very light, pale skin tone, blood-red lips, dark circles under her eyes, and extremely long eyelashes. She's got long, frizzy red hair, and she spends most of her time in a ratty French maid's uniform, black knee-length dress with white apron, fishnet stockings, and a small lacy white cap.

Nell Campbell, credited as Little Nell, plays Columbia, a groupie.

Columbia: You're very lucky to be invited up to Frank's laboratory.

Columbia is a quirky character. She's dressed like a sparkly circus ringmaster. She's a petite woman with pale, light skin tone. Short hair dyed cherry red, painted on arched eyebrows, and bright red lips. She wears a short gold sequined tuxedo jacket over a sequined strapless top, sparkly, tight, striped short shorts, and a red sequined bow tie, plus a gold sequined top hat. And of course, she's wearing fishnet stockings.

Jonathan Adams plays Dr. Everett V. Scott, a scientist.

Dr. Scott: Frank, we meet at last.

JJ: He's a middle-aged white man with wire-rimmed glasses and a mustache. He's got medium light skin tone. He uses a wheelchair and generally wears a red tartan blanket over his lap.

Peter Hinwood plays Rocky Horror, a creation.

Rocky: The sword of Damocles is hanging over my head.

JJ: He's a hunky, blue-eyed, white muscle man with a bronze tan and a platinum blonde bowl cut. He's ripped, virtually no body fat, so his every muscle is very well-defined. He spends most of the movie in gold boots and low-riding gold underwear.

Meatloaf plays Eddie, an ex-delivery boy.

Eddie: Whatever happened to Saturday night?

JJ: Eddie is a thick, beefy man with light skin tone, greasy dark hair, and mutton chop sideburns. He wears a leather vest with leopard fur lapels and ratty blue jeans. He rides a motorcycle, carries a saxophone, and has a long, raw scar across his forehead from when half of his brain was removed to make Rocky.

Charles Gray plays the criminologist, an expert.

Criminologist: I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey.

JJ: This is the narrator character. His scenes are all in a formal library or private office setting. He's an older, silver-haired white man with light skin tone who furrows his brow and wears a dark gray suit and a red ascot.

Then there are the Transylvanians. These are the conventioneers at the castle. Quirky folks in tuxedos with bright accent colours. They wear sunglasses and party hats. The Transylvanians all have different body types, some variety in skin tones. They act as the chorus and background dancers throughout the movie.

And most importantly, last but never least, Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, an eccentric transvestite scientist.

Frank: I'm just a sweet transvestite.

Now, I know the term "transvestite" is very much out of date, but it's how the character self identifies and it's in the title of the biggest song in the movie, so I'm going to be using that term tonight when referencing this character specifically.

Frank N-Furtter is a lean man with light skin tone, big dark curly hair, long sideburns and a mouthful of large teeth. He has a fair bit of body hair, leg hair in particular. He's got a tattoo high on his right arm near the shoulder. It's a heart with a sword through it with the title boss above it in imperfect cursive writing. His makeup kind of iconic, pale powder, glossy red lips with a thin black outline and dark purple eyeshadow that goes all the way up to his curvy expressive eyebrows. His primary costume is a sparkly black corset vest that's laced up the front. And he's got matching fingerless gloves that go up to the elbows, a matching garter belt and black panties. He wears thigh high fishnet stockings, a choker of oversized white pearls, and wears black and white sequined high heeled shoes. Frank carries himself with a rough and tumble sassy confidence. He sways his hips and walks with an aggressive stride. He's a cigarette-smoking, hard-gazing man who wears pearls, black lace corsets and ripped fishnets over his muscular hairy legs.

Okay, let's talk about some of the locations that are found in the film. So first of all, the castle. We don't get many glimpses of the exterior of the castle. It's always dark outside. But through the rain, it appears to be several stories tall. It's got spires, towers, arched, leaded windows.

And there's a geodesic dome peeking out from behind the main stone and brick building. Throughout the interior, the castle houses reproductions of famous artworks, the Mona Lisa, American Gothic and statues of Michelangelo's David. The castle foyer is covered in dust and cobwebs and packed with eccentric decor, taxidermied animals, a coffin grandfather clock, porcelain statues, bronze sculptures, and an ornate staircase railing.

The castle lab is sort of a pink marble and tile operating theater with curved walls. There's a ramp that runs around half of the space. It leads up to a catwalk where the Transylvanians gather. The catwalk has curving ramps at both ends. So you can run or say ride a motorcycle up one end through this gathering of Transylvanians along the catwalk and then back down the other side into the main space. There are marble statues of male nudes in the lab, specifically nudes that look like Michelangelo's David, but with loudspeakers tucked under their arms. There's also a small curtain stage in the lab, which I admit is unusual for an operating theatre.

There's also a giant steel freezer door. The freezer door and much of the lab equipment is painted a glossy fire engine red that really pops against the pale pink marble and tile.

About halfway through the film, Brad and Janet are put in separate bedrooms. These bedrooms are basically identical. Each one has a canopy bed surrounded by gauzy curtains. When lit from behind, silhouettes of the people inside the bed are projected against the curtains. This provides the audience with a rather titillating shadow play.

Near the end of the movie, we go to the Castle's Theatre, the Floor Show Theatre. This is a large theatre with a proscenium stage. It's got a rectangular stone arch marking the edges of the stage and a draped backdrop that is lower down behind the cast. The draping catches coloured lights that shine against it, so that backdrop can go from being purple to blue to red, depending on the lighting. When that backdrop is then raised up, it reveals a full set on the stage, featuring a practical recreation of the RKO Radio Picture logo.

Now, RKO was a major movie studio in the Golden Age of Film. The image and the beeping of the transmission tower in the logo are very familiar to fans of old black and white movies. The logo and the set features a giant lattice radio tower. It looks kind of like a simplified Eiffel Tower, and it stands on the curved surface of a relatively tiny planet, and it's broadcasting bolts of lightning.

Also on the stage is a built-in pool. It's a rectangular pool with steps leading in and out of the water on all four sides, and on the bottom of the pool is a reproduction of the painting The Creation of Adam. This is the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in which Adam and God reach toward each other with extended hands. That, but painted on the tiles at the bottom of a burlesque stage pool, right?

On October 27th at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Rocky Horror will be played on screen and over the speakers, while an all-Deaf theatre troupe directed by Gaitrie Persaud-Killings performs the show live in front of the screen. The live performance will be a combination of two cultural phenomena, sign singing and shadow casts. In sign singing, sometimes called karaoke signing, sign language users perform a song in sync with the music, usually signing the lyrics with the same emotion and cadence as found in the original song. Sign singers don't just translate lyrics into sign language, they perform the lyrics and convey the appropriate emotions by signing with a passion and intensity that matches the qualities of the song.

Now, shadow casts have been part of the Rocky Horror experience almost from the beginning. When the Waverly Theater in New York City began playing the movie for midnight screenings in 1976, fans would dress up as their favourite characters and then mimic the performances of the actors on screen. Those impromptu one-offs evolved into what we now call shadow casts, where a troupe of performers often in full costumes will act out the entire movie, while the movie plays on the big screen behind them.

At Buddies in Bad Times, The Disability Collective shadow cast will be combining these. They are a full shadow cast in costume, acting out the film as it plays behind them, and they'll be performing the entire show, dialogue and songs, in ASL. The visuals of sign singing and performance ASL might be new to many listeners, so I'm going to take a minute to describe the visuals of our brilliant shadow cast's performance style more thoroughly. But please keep in mind that I'm not an ASL user. Any description of mine that includes mention of a specific ASL sign is presented from the point of view of an observer, not someone who speaks or uses the language. Sign language use is a spectrum, with some users making fairly small, tight signs and minimal facial expressions when they communicate, and others making larger, more flamboyant signs with big, exaggerated facial expressions. The vocal equivalent would be someone soft spoken and more monotone on one end of the spectrum, and someone loud and emotional on the other end. Sign singing tends to be on that latter end of the spectrum; the same is true of performance ASL. Regardless of language, actors and singers are always performing for those in the back row, so they tend to be bigger and broader.

But performance ASL isn't just about being big and broad, it's about conveying meaning. The meaning of a line or a lyric can change with the delivery, whether spoken, sung or signed. Let's take a phrase from the song Dammit Janet, in which Brad and Janet confess their love for one another and decide to get married. During the song, Janet, played on October 27th by Talia Wall-Di Giuseppe, declares that they are mad for Brad. Their sign for mad looks something like making circles at the temple with an extended index finger. Now, if Janet were telling Brad that he was mad, as in crazy, a madman, Talia might knit their brow, glower and make the sign with tight, fast circles at their temple. But here, Janet is saying that they're madly in love. When Talia sign sings, "I'm mad", their expression is full of love and innocent passion. Their head is tilted, they're barely containing their beaming smile, and they sign mad with big, looping swirls at both their temples, using loose, floppy wrists.

The word and the emotional context are conveyed by the qualities with which the sign is used or performed. This also holds true for creating a character, or in the case of our shadow cast, mimicking an existing character's voice or persona. Riff Raff, the butler, for example, has a nasally voice, and he lingers on certain words for creepy, dramatic effect. When Riff Raff opens the castle door for Brad and Janet on that fateful, rainy night, his opening line is, hello, which he draws out with that long, odd error. To convey this in performance ASL, The Disability Collective's Riff Raff, Sage Lovell, performs the line with a matching cadence.

The ASL sign for hello looks a bit like a casual salute, so palm flat, tips of the fingers to the side of the forehead, and then you shoot your hand forward a few inches. To mimic the voice and performance of the on-screen Riff Raff, Sage makes the same hand shape and pulls their hand away from the forehead with a quick jerk, then slowly lowers their hand in a long, arching decline, drawing out the last half of the word. These are just two tiny examples of the nuanced performance style of The Disability Collective's shadow cast.

During the live show, when I'm describing the on-screen visuals, the shadow cast, and the audience participation, it will be impossible to convey the visuals of each line being performed in ASL, so I encourage you to keep these examples tucked in the back of your mind, and try to extrapolate on them when Gaitrie Persaud-Killings sign-sings and tap dances as Colombia, when JP Armani discovers his muscles and libido as Rocky, and when Robert Houghton, as Frank, throws off his cape, swivels his hips, and declares himself a sweet transvestite.

The Disability Collective shadow cast features Jaideep Goray as Brad. Jaideep self-identifies as a middle-aged man of Baraat Indigenous heritage. He has brown skin tone, a bald head, and a salt pepper beard, and wears glasses both as Brad and in real life.

Talia Wall-Di Giuseppe plays Janet. Talia is a young non-binary performer with medium light skin tone, straight strawberry blonde hair, and tattoos on their arms.

Sage Lovell plays Riff Raff. Sage is a tall, curvy, gender-fluid femme. She has medium light skin tone, and will be wearing a long, streaked, honey-blonde wig of greasy hair.

Courage Bacchus plays Magenta. Courage is a lean, muscular woman with dark skin tone. She has tattoos on her right arm, and will be wearing a wig of short, wavy, black, and purple hair.

Gaitrie Persaud-Killings is Colombia. Gaitrie, who is also directing the shadow cast, is an Indo-Caribbean Guyanese queer woman. She has a curvy body, medium skin tone, and has wavy, brown, shoulder-length hair.

Juan Jaramillo plays Eddie, Dr. Scott, and the Criminologist. Juan is a slim, middle-aged man from Colombia. He has dark, curly hair, a light beard, and brown skin tone.

Juanpablo Armani plays Rocky. Juanpablo is a lean, muscular man with light skin tone, short brown hair, hazel eyes, and tattoos on his right forearm and ribs.

And Robert Houghton plays Frank. Robert self-describes as a Black man of Jamaican American descent. He's bald, has dark skin tone, a mustache, and wears knee-high, black, vinyl, lace-up platform boots with six-inch heels.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is located in downtown Toronto at 12 Alexander Street, just east of Yonge, between Wellesley and College. Accessibility information is available on the Buddies in Bad Times website. There you'll find venue information along with a PDF Venue Guide available for download. That's at buddiesinbadtimes.com/accessibility.

The Disability Collective has also produced an accessibility guide specific to this show. You can find it on their website, thedisabilitycollective.com/rockyhorror2024. The Disability Collective will also be on hand on the night of the show to provide support and goodies in the theatre.  You'll find them in the Ante Chamber, where they'll have access kits featuring magnifying sheets, printed Access Guides, whiteboards and markers, and much, much, more. Props bags will also be available, so if you didn't bring toast to throw during the dinner party scene or bubbles to blow at the wedding, the kit has you covered.

Inside the translucent plastic Halloween bags, you'll also find pink rubber dishwashing gloves to snap on when Frank makes his speech in the lab, party hats to help celebrate Rocky's day of birth, newspapers to hold overhead in case of rain, glow sticks to wave in the air during the "There's a light" chorus of Over at the Frankenstein Place, and a few random playing cards to gleefully toss when Frank calls for cards of sorrow and cards for pain during the floor show. A photo booth will also be set up in the Ante Chamber. This will be a red, shiny backdrop with a black lace overlay, and some Halloween-themed handheld props will be available to fancy up your pose.

A cell phone tripod will be set up in front of the backdrop, so you can use your own device to take pictures. Candy and popcorn will be available, as well as a signature cocktail, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The signature cocktails will be served with a Rocky-themed straw, which features a pair of big red lips, like the Rocky poster in the opening song. And there will be a costume contest during the intermission. I'm going to do my best to describe people's costumes throughout the evening, but I'll certainly describe the winner of the costume contest.

One last thing before we wrap up. The Time Warp is one of the all-time great musical numbers, and it's a fan favourite because audiences are encouraged to dance. During the song, the dance steps are explained in the lyrics, with the Transylvanians demonstrating for us. But the steps can be a little bit hard to hear in the chaos of the moment, so we thought we'd leave you with a quick explainer, breaking down the Time Warp step by step. So it starts with a jump to the left.

Criminologist: It's just a jump to the left!

JJ: That's literally one hop to the left with both feet. If you're feeling rather pro, you can start with your arms above your head and waggle your hands as you bring them down, kind of like you're miming that rain is falling on you, and you can shimmy your hips a bit too. Then, it's a step to the right.

Transylvanians: And then a step to the right.

JJ: Either move your right leg one big step to the right so that your legs are now shoulder-width apart, or if you're up for it, move your right leg back and forth, in and out, just a few times, along with the wavering singers. Then put your hands on your hips.

Criminologist: Put your hands on your hips.

Big broad gesture here. Arms up overhead, spread them open to your sides, be a bit dramatic as you bring your hands back down and slap them on your hips. Next, bring your knees in tight.

Transylvanians: You bring your knees in tight.

JJ: So this is kind of a semi-crouch with your knees touching. Maybe you want to point your toes in a bit if that's more comfortable. And then a pelvic thrust that really drives you insane.

Transylvanians: But it's the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane.

JJ: Now, we all know how to do that. I'm sure you thrust at your friends, thrust at a stranger, thrust in a line, or thrust in a circle. Whatever floats your boat, just thrust your hips back and forth. On "that really drives you insane", you rotate your hips in a big wide circle. Then the chorus wraps up with, "let's do the Time Warp again".

Transylvanians: Let's do the Time Warp again!

JJ: So you've got a couple of options here. First, jump and spin from front to back. So jump and spin on let's do so you're facing one direction, then jump and spin on the time warp so you're facing the other direction. And then on again, you bend your arms in to touch your shoulders over and over again. Or if you'd like, just keep your left hand on your hip and repeatedly point up with your right arm and kick your left leg in unison. So let's do in one direction, the time warp in the other direction, and then again arms into the shoulders, into shoulders, into shoulders, or left hand on the hip repeatedly pointing up with your right arm, kicking your left leg in unison.

But you know what? If any of those moves don't work for you, don't let it hold you back. You do you. Let your freak flag fly. Go, go have fun you crazy kids.

Transylvanians: Let's do the Time Warp again!

Thanks for joining me for this Rocky Horror Picture Show description primer. I really hope to catch you at Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre on Sunday, October 27th, 2024 for The Disability Collective's presentation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show featuring an all-Deaf shadow cast staged as part of the Toronto Fringe's Next Stage Festival. 

Buddies in Bad Times is a fully accessible theatre. The shadow cast will be performing in ASL. The movie will be shown with open captions. I'll be there providing live description of the entire event and ASL interpretation will also be available. I'm JJ Hunt. Thanks for listening.