Media Consumes Me

It’s been more than six years since Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer came to an end, yet the series still lives strong in the hearts of the fans. One such groundbreaking, fan favorite, and Emmy nominated episode was that of the Season 6 musical episode entitled “Once More, With Feeling”. Shortly after Buffy is raised from the dead by her friends Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya, a mysterious force sweeps through Sunnydale causing everyone in town to burst into song and dance. As nice as that may sound at face value, each song causes those to reveal their innermost secrets and break into dance numbers that result in their erupting into flames of spontaneous combustion. It soon becomes clear that living in a musical may not be as much fun as it sounds.

Since this episode aired, many fans and acting groups have tried to put on performances reenacting the musical, or showing sing-along screenings only to be shut down due to copyright infringements. However, as Henry Mazza (co-founder of buffysings.com) has proven, it can be done. On September 19, 2009, one such showing was held in Houston, TX, brought to us by the organizations SWAMP (Southwest Alternate Media Project) and Discovery Green, complete with a special guest appearance by Amber Benson (Tara). Benson who was there promoting her new book, “Death’s Daughter”, met with fans prior to the screening for a Q&A and book signing. While the screening itself was free, tickets for the meet and greet with Benson sold at $40 a-piece at the door and goodie bags filled with props to use throughout the screening could be purchased for $2. Despite the small fees, all profit made was generously donated to charity as was stipulated by the rights to hold the screening.

After the meet and greet with Benson, over 200 fans gathered at Houston’s Discovery Green park to watch the episode on a blow up screen under the stars. While waiting for the sun to set, Mazza took the stage as MC of the event and got the crowd pumped for an unforgettable night. During this time the winner of the online Twitter contest was brought up to the stage along with Benson to perform Buffy-oke, which is the reenacting of a scene from the series. In this case the scene was of Buffy and Angel at Angel’s apartment after their night of passion from Buffy Season 2’s “Innocence”. The surprise twist for Benson was that she would play the role of Angel! Both did a wonderful job with their roles, and if nothing else gave everyone a good laugh despite the heartbreaking content their performances were based on. Fans were also ecstatically surprised with a special showing of yet another Emmy nominated episode, season 4’s “Hush”, preceding the main event.

During the OMWF screening itself fans were encouraged to not only sing along, but to partake with the “tools” found in their goodie bags. This included blowing bubbles for Tara’s song “Under Your Spell”, during the line “spirits and charms in the air”, throwing streamers in the air for Tara’s “climactic” moment at the end of “Under Your Spell”, getting up and dancing with Anya and Xander during “I’ll Never Tell”, putting on a pair of plastic vampire fangs during Spike’s “Rest In Peace”, holding up lighters or cellphones during Giles’ ballad “Standing” and the group number “Let it Burn”, getting up and holding hands with each other during “Where Do We Go From Here”, continuously shouting “Shut Up, Dawn” over any of Dawn’s lines throughout the episode, and waving monster finger puppets at the end of the episode, while “Grr Argg”ing with the Mutant Enemy logo.

Personally, I felt yelling over Dawn’s lines was a bit distasteful, even if the character was annoying at times, but all in all it was a fantastic night that this Buffy fan will never forget. There were even some moments that had me tearing up while singing along with such a huge crowd that shared my love for the show during “I Have Theory”, “Standing”, and “Where Do We Go From Here”. Call me a geek, I admit it myself.

Find out more about SWAMP at http://www.swamp.org

Find out more about Discovery Green at http://www.discoverygreen.com/

Find new screenings or how to host your own Buffy Sing Along at http://www.buffysings.com