The Rich Weirdos become official, expand into community

By OLIVIA TAYLOR

Staff Writer

From club volleyball to the video game club, most everyone can find something that interests them at UMW. There is a new club on campus whose name might not be as familiar or straightforward, they are called “The Rich Weirdos.”

While the group has put on performances on campus in the past, as recently as spring of 2017 they became an official campus organization.

The Rich Weirdos are a shadow cast troupe for the cult classic film, Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Elayna Gladstone, president of the Rich Weirdos club, talked about what a shadow cast does. “There are similar troupes all over the country,” she said, “and what we do is perform Rocky Horror Picture Show while the movie plays behind us in the background.”

In addition to these performances, the club has several other activities. “We also watch cult classic movies every week and discuss their cultural impact on America,” said Gladstone, who is a junior art history. She will be playing Trixie in the performances this semester and also serving as director.

This year, the club will be branching out into the Fredericksburg community for a performance. “The Fredericksburg Arts Commission has asked us to perform in downtown Fredericksburg on Market Square,” said Gladstone. “That show is on October 20 and will begin at 9 p.m. It’s free to anyone in the Fredericksburg community and the goal is to attract the generation of the community who grew up with Rocky Horror. If all goes well, we will perform downtown again next year.”

“Each troupe has their own personal way of spicing up the movie and the performance,” said Gladstone. “For example, we do something called ‘seduction scene gags’ where we cast shadows on a sheet to make it look like the characters are doing ridiculous things.”

The unusual name, Rich Weirdos, “comes from a line in Rocky Horror Picture Show,” said Cartland Berge, the faculty advisor for the group, “when the two main characters first enter a spooky mansion and encounter the Transylvanians having a party there. Janet asks ‘I’m frightened, what kind of place is this?’ and her fiancée, Brad, replies ‘It’s probably some kind of hunting lodge for rich weirdos.’”

In addition to their off-campus performance, the group will be doing the “Time Warp” on the UMW campus again with three performances this semester. The shows will take place Oct. 27 at midnight and Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. until past midnight in the Hurley Convergence Center Digital Auditorium.