{"id":8452,"date":"2020-11-03T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=8452"},"modified":"2020-11-03T12:59:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T17:59:13","slug":"dont-toucha-toucha-touch-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2020\/11\/03\/dont-toucha-toucha-touch-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t \u201cToucha-Toucha\u201d touch me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Molly Ryan

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pictured Above: Nearing the show\u2019s end, the onstage Dr. Frank-N-Furter unveils the classic costume with a red corset and stockings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy of Robert Anderson\u00a0<\/em>|\u00a0The Lakeland Gazette<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Photos click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Molly Ryan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never thought my first experience at the Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em> would entail a drive-in theater, face-coverings and watching the cast dance on the beds of two tow trucks \u2013  but here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Oct. 10, the Silver Moon Drive-In in Lakeland, hosted the cast of \u201cHell On Heels,\u201d a Tampa-based group that exclusively performs the cult classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026It (was) a very different type of show,\u201d Susan Belliveau, the producer for \u201cHell On Heels,\u201d said. \u201cRocky<\/em> is typically a very intimate show and thrives as an intimate show. We enjoy being able to be close with our patrons\u2026 and (we) share a small theatre yelling callbacks together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, in the era of COVID-19, that just isn\u2019t safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The patrons began to take their seats (parking spots) and arrange lawn chairs and blankets on the pavement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the show\u2019s lengthy opening played, the famed bright red lips sang \u201cScience Fiction\/Double Feature\u201d while the Rocky<\/em> frequenters shouted snappy responses \u2014 an audience participation tradition known as \u201ccallbacks\u201d \u2014 at the screen. On the make-shift stage danced a woman, unmasked, in a red dress emulating the lips projected behind her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the show didn\u2019t remain unmasked for long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brad and Janet arrived on stage cautiously mirroring the movements of their on-screen counterparts played by Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was when Bostwick and Sarandon kissed during \u201cDammit Janet,\u201d the masks of the actors onstage gingerly touched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur cast had on masks at all times,\u201d Belliveau said. \u201cIn addition to mask-wearing and casting, our cast members were allowed and given permission to change any and all blocking to allow for distancing if at any point they were uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show\u2019s famously raunchy choreography was subdued, but it wasn\u2019t absent from the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did our best to cast as many people who (regularly) share exposure with each other,\u201d Belliveau said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drive-in aspect just made the first-time experience of seeing the show all-the-more unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailing great popularity in the \u201850s and \u201860s, the drive-in phenomenon started to decline in the early \u201880s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October of 2019, the United Drive-In Theatre Owner Association reported<\/a> that there were only 305 drive-ins remaining in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Bloomberg CityLab<\/em><\/a> article published in September, they said \u201c\u2026 during the coronavirus pandemic, the promise of a shared entertainment experience from the comfort of a controlled, socially distant environment has fueled a drive-in resurgence\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And apparently, Rocky Horror<\/em> isn\u2019t the only production taking the drive-in direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome drive-ins reopened after having closed permanently last year,\u201d the article said. \u201cThe Goleta West Wind Drive-In in California, which had officially closed its gates last April, made a coronavirus comeback this summer with a Harry Potter<\/em> double feature on Memorial Day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the show went on, the irony of a \u201csocially distant\u201d Rocky Horror <\/em>really sunk in when (the onstage) Janet sang \u201cToucha-Toucha-Touch Me\u201d to Rocky from a distance of roughly six feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the show, as far as I knew, upheld its humor and unpredictable nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA drive-in challenged some of the core features of our show, and those were challenges we had to work around,\u201d Belliveau said. \u201cWe did our best to bring as much passion and positive light into the show as we would any other night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the cast lined up on the tow truck stage to take a bow as the credits ran, I just couldn\u2019t help but eagerly anticipate a Rocky <\/em>show without the limitations imposed by COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRocky<\/em> is all about community,\u201d Belliveau said. \u201cSo even though the experience was different, we hope that patrons still know that this community is here, no matter what is going on in the world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow \u201cHell On Heels\u201d on Facebook<\/a> for more information about upcoming shows and events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Molly RyanOctober 18, 2020 Pictured Above: Nearing the show\u2019s end, the onstage Dr. Frank-N-Furter unveils the classic costume with a red corset and stockings. Courtesy of Robert Anderson\u00a0|\u00a0The Lakeland Gazette… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}