ROCKLAND — Kids growing up in the 1970s and 1980s who were invited to a midnight screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show were never quite the same afterwards. It became a shared cultural experience for left-of-center young people and it was the first time an audience ever interacted live, ad-libbing with the characters on the screen.

Now, a live version of the movie is coming to the Strand Theatre Nov 17-20. The Barn Arts Collective, a theater performance and residency organization based out of Mount Desert Island, first debuted their production of the live show on Halloween weekend at Bar Harbor's Criterion Theater in 2015. Lindsey Hope Pearlman, an NYC based director, was invited to lead the production.

“The group of artists that were in residency at the time happened to make up the perfect cast to the show,” she said. “And since someone from the Strand was in the audience,that is why we’re coming back to do the show again in Rockland.”

The very same cast, who now all reside between Maine and NYC, will be coming back to reprise their roles. The high-energy live production will combine the interactive elements of the movie’s cult midnight screenings with the drama and spectacle of a live rock show.

To find out how it all started, a Rocky Horror fan site shares that the 1975 American premiere of the Rocky Horror Picture Show first took place in the Westwood Theater in Los Angeles and limped along with an uninspired following, until a year later when the movie played at the Waverly Theater in New York City. Actor Sal Piro and his friend Marc Shaiman, who’d seen the flick multiple times, began throwing out ad lib lines, much to the glee of the audience. Those lines repeated by audience members at every subsequent show catapulted the movie into cult status.

Pearlman remembers the day she first attended a midnight screening of Rocky Horror herself as a virgin. (Note: The Rocky Horror definition: 1. VIRGIN / v noun/ (n) - anybody who has never seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show).

“I loved how free and joyful and silly the audience was,” she said. “I was also watching it as a director thinking about how to incorporate those elements in our own production, but now I’m fully in the Rocky community today.”

The audience is encouraged to use props, such as newspapers and playing cards, when they appear on stage and the production at the Strand includes a pre-show event to warm up the crowd.

“We are going to rock Rockland with Rocky,” Pearlman promised. “You can expect all of the songs from the film that you love and performances in full costume. You can get up and sing and dance.”

For the Rocky Horror virgins who don’t know what to expect, here is a primer. And a prop list. The performance will also include props for the audience to use. One is also encouraged to dress up as a character from the movie, but it’s not required. Read carefully and thank the poor staff of the Strand when you exit.

Tickets are $22 in advance and $25 at the door. Showtimes and tickets can be purchased here.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com