Christmas has “Home Alone”, Valentine’s Day has “When Harry Met Sally”, Thanksgiving has “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” Almost all of our celebrations and holidays have a themed movie that comes to mind when we think about them.

For Halloween, there’s likely many gruesome, gory flicks that conjure up that spooky sentiment, but there’s one that adds comedy, music and just plain weirdness to the fright, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it’s coming live to Crowsnest Pass.

The Twisted Tree theatrical group has spent the last several months creating a live musical theatre production of the 1975 Halloween cult classic that will be performed at the Polish Hall around Halloween.

The idea for the project was a group initiative that was inspired by a desire to bring something different and fun to the community.

“All the people that we were talking to thought it would be a lot of fun,” says the performance’s producer/director Debbie Goldstein. “We found an easy way of producing it and although there was lots of commitment, it wasn't for a long period of time. We thought it would be fun and it would be something that the old crowd and new crowd would know. All ages could enjoy it.”

The performance will be an adaptive version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, meaning that the film will be playing on a projector and, while it’s playing, the actors will act out nine scenes as they are play out in the film.

In total, there are 22 people involved in the production, from actors, musicians, lighting and sound technicians, backstage crew, and team members checking tickets at the door and running the concession and bar.

“It’s been a blast. We all look forward to every rehearsal. We no longer call each other by our character names,” says Columbia – eh, Goldstein. “Come see us in our corsets.”

The other special feature of the night is that after the Rocky Horror Picture Show performance, audiences can sit tight for a viewing of the 1980 sci-fi flick Flash Gordon.

The Twisted Tree Players first came together this spring to perform at the choir concert and, now, has evolved to bigger productions.

“We did one song called Cell Block Tango from Chicago and it worked so well that we thought we had to do more of this,” says Goldstein, the impetus for the Twisted Tree.

They then performed five songs from well-known musicals at the Crowsnest Community Market, another successful performance, and are now on to Rocky Horror with hopes to produce more theatrical performances in the Pass.

Goldstein says she sees herself as a community organizer and looking at all the events and projects she is involved in, there is no doubt of that. You’ve probably seen her at the helm of the Crowsnest Pass Community Choir as conductor, but she is also the producer of Music in the Mountains and runs the Big Beat Project. In the past, Goldstein has directed a number of community theatre groups in Edmonton and Chicago.

With no theatre group in the Pass, Goldstein says her whole purpose was to bring showcase different musically.

“About 10 years ago there was a theatre group that disbanded and really, there is no musical theatre or theatre here. I thought it would be fun. I like to sing, act, dance, and to do a larger picture and make the production happen. I like all that community activity,” she says.

If you’ve ever seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, you’ll know it deals with concepts of sex, cannibalism, aliens and other mature themes. For this reason, the musical theatre performance is for mature audiences only.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show live performance will take place at the Polish Hall on November 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. Tickets, $20, can be purchased at the Servus Credit Union 20$ or at the door, cash only. There will be a cash bar and cash snack.

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