HomeSquad: The Musical looks to break down stereotypes
Joshua Boulet, Features and Entertainment Editor
Artwork by Klayte Nicklaus
“There’s not so much difference in public and home-school kids. It’s more the setting that they are forced to grow in.”
Milner Martin is a senior theater student at NGU. Martin wrote and directed his new play HomeSquad: The Musical. His intention was to direct the play as his senior project, but continued work on it after changing plans. It now stands as a fundraiser for the NGU theater department. He worked with NGU alumni Evan Hamlin to compose the music.
“It’s not a show about ‘public school bad home-school good’ or vice versa. It kind of ends up being a ‘school sucks no matter where you take it’ kind of thing.” Martin said.
The musical centers around a group of public school kids and a group of home-school kids who compete in a fundraiser. Will, the main character, leads the home-school group against the public schoolers. Colin, in the public school group, is a stereotypical bully character who acts as the main antagonist.
Colin may be the worst of the public schoolers, but his girlfriend Mandy is a different story. She doesn’t dislike the home-schoolers at all regardless of Colin’s thoughts on the matter.
Which team will win the fundraiser? Will Colin finally learn his lesson? Can the students get over the stereotypes that are pushed on to both public schoolers and home-schoolers?
Martin looked to represent that home-schoolers and public schoolers are more similar than they are different.
Martin grew up between home-school and high school and became familiar with both settings. Martin wrote HomeSquad with the premise of a comedy starring an eclectic cast of school kids. In particular, he was inspired several years ago by the YouTube channel Blimey Cow which features various skits satirizing home-school stereotypes.
His vision soon shifted to a musical. Martin saw that more people show up for musicals and his does need to make money. He also realized that he would have far more fun directing a musical than a regular play.
Thus, the decision was made. Martin reached out to Evan Hamlin to compose and the rest is history.
“It’s really nice to introduce kids who didn’t even think about doing theater in the first place to do theater and it gives them this outing from the world around them.” Martin said.
The cast features 26 students between the ages of 8 and 16 along with six NGU students as the adult characters. When Martin was younger, he assisted his dad with children’s productions at schools. This led to Martin being able to confidently direct a cast full of young actors.
“It’s a lot of fun, I really like doing children’s theater. It gives me motivation to do something good for the community.” Martin said.
HomeSquad will be performed on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. in the Billingsley Theatre and on Saturday, January 18 at The Inman Theatre. The tickets are $10 and include dessert. They can be bought online here.
