Shadowcast – or Shadow Cast – is a term that surfaced in the late 1980s to describe the performers and performances that developed around The Rocky Horror Picture Show. During a shadowcast, a group of performers act out a film live on stage while that film is being screened in the background. The acts often use screen-accurate costumes, sets and props mimicking the movie’s characters and scenes. Audience participation is a key element in most shadowcasts.

After the original 1975 release of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, fans began dressing up and acting along with the film at revival screenings in the U.S. During these early events, the props used were relegated to items such as throwing rice during the wedding scene, water pistols to simulate rain, flicking your Bic, throwing toast and rolls of toilet paper, and tossing playing cards as “cards for sorrow, cards for pain.”

As the fan base rapidly grew, casts became more and more integrated into the movie’s entire experience, becoming a standard at movie theaters.

The first officially known “Shadowcast” was The Rocky Horror Revue, which was conceived in Los Angeles by Michael Wolfson in 1976. Wolfson constructed his first Frank N. Furter costume after seeing the film multiple times at the UA Westwood in 1975. He began appearing in costume soon after. After several months of developing the costume, Wolfson went forward with an idea to create a Rocky Horror performance group after meeting his Riff Raff, Corky Quakenbush, at a 1976 costume contest. Before organizing a cast, Wolfson and Quakenbush frequented the Tiffany Theater in Hollywood, where they met Sa Winfield, who became the character Columbia.

The Rocky Horror Revue had a private, invitation-only debut at the Fox Venice Theater in Venice, California on September 25, 1975, the night before program’s official opening at the UA Westwood. The Revue went on to perform 2-times per night during a monthly revival screening series at the Fox Venice, along with the Tiffany Theater in West Hollywood, between 1977 and 1980.

Over time, Shadowcasts for other cult fan movies began appearing, primarily for the films Shock Treatment (1981), Clue (1985), and Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008).