A fan-made recreation of Hamilton inside Minecraft has drawn more than 1.4 million views on YouTube, and among its lead cast is a Filipina animation student.
Tech INQ spoke with Elijah ‘EdHed’ Densmore who starred as Alexander Hamilton and ‘Fleurontoxica’ or Poi as Elizabeth Schuyler.
Poi, an incoming fourth-year animation student at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, requested to be identified only by their nickname to protect their privacy.
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Landing the roles
The Hamilton recreation in Minecraft, or better known as ‘Schamilton’ was a concept by YouTuber, schpood.
In a QandA on his discord server, he revealed that casting began in late October 2025.
Densmore and Poi submitted their audition pieces, with Densmore performing a piece of ‘Wait for It’ and Poi originally auditioning for Angelica Schuyler.
Poi was working on their thesis at the time and wanted to have the character with the least parts.
‘I thought that maybe there were more talented people out there that had seen the audition,’ they explained. ‘I was like, let’s take the person that I like the most, that I can sing the best.’
Densmore auditioned at the last minute after a friend showed it to him. After he submitted his piece, he was immediately asked to try performing a part of ‘My Shot’ instead.
Because of their vocal talents, they were chosen as the musical’s leads.
Densmore worked as an editor and is currently beginning his own YouTube channel. During the process, he would drive to his dad’s to borrow his studio microphone.
‘I borrowed my dad’s studio mic, and I was like, it would be good to drive and get the extra quality. It was like an hour away,’ he recalled.
Rehearsals in Minecraft
The rehearsal process was described as having similarities with live productions. Schamilton had blocking, lighting directions, as well as vocal directions.
Uniquely however, there were directions on when to nod one’s head or click to perform actions so the character’s hands can move.
‘We worked with directors and producers who were very specific with instructions, like yeah, you should nod your head during this part,’ Poi said.
‘Sometimes they would just say to do whatever feels natural,’ Densmore added. ‘They would tell us if something feels wrong or if it feels too over the top.’
And just like preparing for a performance, the cast and crew bonded over rehearsals, backstage banters, or simply playing Minecraft together.
‘I have done some real life shows,’ began Densmore. ‘I found it hilarious how we had everybody getting together, setting time in their schedules to meet in the game, and mess around on stage. When they’re not really called for a particular scene, they would be backstage talking and hanging out’
‘They even made a little parkour area where you would jump around in the game and pass the time. It formed a lot of real bonds and friendships,’ he continued.
For Poi, living in the Philippines meant they started rehearsals at 3 a.m. Densmore remembered how they would just whisper throughout the meetups.
‘Yeah, I was always whispering. But I actually did give my parents a proper heads up because they usually would get super mad because it is 3 a.m.,’ Poi fondly recalled.
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The live experience
The Minecraft production was shot and streamed live.
No cuts, edits, or pauses were made, and the experience was to replicate how it would be in an actual production.
The recordings were sent by the cast and mixed by Schpood’s tech team. Then, as the audio was prerecorded to avoid latency issues, the cast performed live using the prerecorded vocals.
The production was produced entirely in vanilla Minecraft, which meant that it consisted of zero mods.
Densmore, Poi, and even the fans have especially praised the lighting.
In the video itself, it can be seen how lighting was adjusted with the cast of the ensemble breaking and placing items during set changes.
In a stream and in his QandA, Schpood answered how this was done.
‘Basically it’s commands running a replace command. We have hundreds of different copies of the stages with slightly different lighting queues, command would find them, copy them and paste them into the ACTUAL stage,’ he wrote on his Discord server.
‘If you basically zoomed out over the entire map that was built, there’s just duplicates of every stage per song to accommodate for every lighting cue,’ said Poi.
‘It was supposed to be a logistical nightmare, but it became a logistical dream,’ Poi added.
Reacting to the million views
As of writing, the video has reached 1.4 million views on YouTube. To the cast, they were surprised by the overwhelming support.
‘The million views, genuinely, I still can’t process it,’ Poi said. ‘Looking at the views makes me feel like I had no part in this. I sang, that’s it. That’s genuinely still how it feels right now. But I have people in my school messaging me, like, oh my God, is this you?’
‘I’m very grateful that so many people are saying such kind words about it. It was truly a labor of love,’ Densmore added.
There is no confirmation yet for Act 2. But despite the schedules and its own challenges, Densmore and Poi are willing and ready to be Schamilton’s Alexander and Eliza once more.