Sophia Crabbe, Dept. of Theatre A Very YouTube Musical: March 22, 2021 This research was supported by the Team Starkid and accessible theatre made for the internet age Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Scan the QR code to Award, University of Victoria read the authors full Supervised by Dr. Alexandra Kovacs, research paper. Sophia Crabbe — University of Victoria Dept. of Theatre

Introduction Setting the groundwork for success Conclusions Team Starkid has been producing comedy musicals for live and Team StarKid's premier musical became a Team StarKid’s success demonstrates that there is a market for digitally internet audiences for the past eleven years. viral phenomenon among the fan community after accessible theatre. Currently, they have produced twelve musicals all of which are being published on YouTube. When approaching integrating film to theatre productions the most available on their YouTube channel. Even during its live performances, the theatre was full of effective way to include it is by examining how it can create a different Seven of their musicals are parodies of popular franchises and five are audience members eager to watch it. but equal experience for digital audience members that suites the tone of original concepts. Sarah Marie Coon says of the company: “[t]he proliferation of the show. By examining Team StarKid's musicals released through YouTube and StarKid's works, the mediation of their performances, their focus By providing more avenues for theatre consumption theatre companies the company's approach to filming The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals on parody, and their production values all create an will open their work up to a much larger audience including people and , it is possible to understand how theatre productions environment to foster a community online" (Coon 15). facing financial, geographic, and disability barriers. can be produced and distributed for live and digital audiences, thus In reflecting on her own experience as an exclusively online audience opening the theatre experience to people who are typically excluded member of Team StarKid, the author finds that she has always enjoyed from the live theatre event. their work as much as if she were a part of the live audience.

Fig. 1 Screenshot of Fig 2. Screenshot from actor Team StarKid's The portraying Harry Fig 3. Screenshot of Guy Who Didn't Like Potter in the Black Friday A Very Potter Musicals' finale cast performing Musical, 2009. Team "Inevitable", 2019. Starkid, "A Very Potter "Wiggle", 2020. Team StarKid, The Musical Act 1 Part 1", Team StarKid, Guy Who Didn't Like , Black Friday, A Very Potter Musical Musicals, https://www.youtube. https://www.youtu https://www.youtube.c com/watch? be.com/watch? om/watch? v=wmwM_AKeMCk& v=Bqt4_tHLSB4&a v=IrxKX44qBJ0&ab_c b_channel=TeamSt ab_channel=TeamSta hannel=TeamStarKid rKid. arKid.

Methodology Effective filming Works Cited The methodology for this research was based on performance In both The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals and Black Friday the camera Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. 2nd ed., Routledge, analysis and an auto-ethnography of the researcher’s personal is used effectively as an audience member, although an audience 2008, Taylor & Francis Group, doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9780203938133. Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Prism Key experience as an exclusively digital audience member of Team member with all the best angles to view the shows in. Press, 2010. Starkid productions. Both shows use varying approaches to their filming depending on the Coon, Sarah Marie. “Crossing the Aether-Net: Community and the Theatre of Team StarKid.” , , 2015. This project pulled from the theories on film and live performance of content. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center Bowling Green State University Ohio LINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view? Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Mechanical Age of In The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals the musical numbers are all acc_num=bgsu1429204552. Lang, Nick, director. . , 29 Feb. 2020, Reproduction, Peggy Phelan’s Unmarked: The Politics of Performance, diagetic creating a more Brechtian experience and to compliment this Black Friday YouTube the filming breaks the fourth wall more often by capturing more shots of www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqt4_tHLSB4&ab_channel=TeamStarKid. and Philip Auslander’s Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. Lang, Nick, director. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals. YouTube, 23 December 2018, both the live audience and of the many scene changes which both The primary sources of this project were the Team Starkid musicals A www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrxKX44qBJ0&t=3094s&ab_channel=TeamStarKid. further break the shows fourth wall. Phelan, Peggy. “The Ontology of Performance: Representation without Reproduction.” Very Potter Musical, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, and Black , by Peggy Phelan, Routledge, London, 1996, pp. 146–166, doi- Black Friday has a more cinematic approach, with fewer shots of the Unmarked: The Politics of Performance Friday. These are their first, eleventh, and twelfth musicals org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9780203359433. respectively. live audience and the camera work hides many of the scene changes, Team StarKid. “A Very Potter Musical.” YouTube, 3 May 2016, these changes enhance the different tone of the musical. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC76BE906C9D83A3A