Seeking Sugar: An Exploration of Verbatim Musical Theatre

Abstract

Seeking Sugar: An Exploration of Verbatim Musical Theatre is a research-creation project investigating the world of verbatim theatre, and how it intersects with contemporary musical theatre. It is an experiment to set found text about the sugar dating industry to music, in the genre of musical theatre. The final product is a song cycle of five original compositions with lyrics sourced from the online forum Reddit and other websites that discuss the sugaring world. This thesis includes analyses of pre-existing works in the verbatim musical theatre canon, an exploration of the sugar dating phenomenon, the feasibility of alternative collaboration, the future of verbatim musical theatre and AI musicals, and a reflection on the process of crafting Seeking Sugar.