Inside The Culture of Musical Theatre Teens and Casting Broadway Musicals on Instagram

Growing in the years ever since the addition of video services to Instagram are Broadway musical "fandoms" and teens casting one another in musicals after posting video auditions.

Kids from all over the world are participating in this phenomenon. One account will post an "audition notice" for a certain musical, be it Wicked, Hamilton, or Be More Chill, and in order to audition they'll either have to post a public video using a hashtag given out or send a direct message to the account. The casting account puts out a cast list and then that's it, onto the next Instagram musical.

BuzzFeed took a closer look at this topic, interviewing many of the teens who are active in this Instagram musical community.

"You shouldn't feel like you're going to get judged for being a geek and coming out to do a fake casting," 18-year-old Megan told BuzzFeed "It's not weird, it's not being 'too obsessed' - it's just a chance to put yourself out there and see what happens."

"It's pretty much a chance for them to try their dream roles," said Mickey, a 13-year-old from New Jersey. "But instead of having to go to months of rehearsals after being cast, they add points to their profile."

Almost all of these accounts stay relatively anonymous. This can help with nerves or shyness and put them deeper into their character's audition.

Abbey Carlson, 15, from Dayton, Ohio said "I know that I'm not usually comfortable showing my face, just because I hate my facial expressions when I'm singing."

Above the auditions and casting, a real community is built between these teens.

"Everyone is super nice and builds each other up," said Abbey. "We're all pretty much no-negativity, and it's just a safe place for theater people to come and share their nerdiness."

Even Broadway's own Andrew Barth Feldman (Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway) took to instagram yesterday to share he both used to run an Instagram musical casting account, as well as auditioned for a number of them.

Feldman, who started auditioning on Instagram for musicals when he was just 12, now aged 17, stars in the title role of Evan Hansen on Broadway.