From camp kid to cast member

The whole time Mr. Milner wrote, reorganized, and planned his musical's final debut, he carried on providing school residencies and drama camp opportunities to students across the southern region. At every drama camp, Mr. Milner would choose a few students who worked hard and invite them to audition to perform in HomeSquad. I worked through camp after camp but the invitation wasn't sent my way- until it was! You can check out the moment below. It was AMAZING! 

Auditioning meant joining a group of 300 kids from across the southeast trying to earn one of 30 roles. I had to choose an audition song, learn how to slate my name, submit my best effort online, and wait. So, that's exactly what I did. At first I wanted to sing "Hakuna Matata" from Lion King, but my vocal coach suggested a song called "What If" from The Addams Family Musical. Something about the character singing having his tongue nailed to the floor made me feel like the song wasn't a good fit. Finally, we settled on "When I get my Name in Lights" from The Boy from Oz. As the deadline crept closer, I worked hard to learn the lyrics and submit my audition. It's posted below if you want to check it out. 

Guess what happened next. I WAS CHOSEN! 

In June of 2025, my family and I traveled to Inman, South Carolina to watch the Inman Children's Theatre cast perform Homesquad: The Musical, meet the rest of the Baillie Players cast, and perform Homesquad for the first time myself! 

The program for the show explained more of the history behind the production.  Here's what it says: 

"The history behind Home Squad: The Musical
This musical started out as a simple, fun project for Mr. Milner while he was in college at North Greenville University back in 2019... The original draft was performed at NGU and The Inman Theatre on January 17th and 18th of 2020 and consisted of a hand-selected cast of Inman Children's Theatre students. Milner, unsatisfied with the original draft and wanting to revive the concept of the show, decided to start working on it agin in 2023. The show matured into a second draft with a new ITC cast (also hand-selected), and premiered in January of 2024. Mr. Milner was unsatisfied with this draft. The second draft was a cluster of too many personal life struggles happening at once, which created a bit of a dark, depressing undertone, taking the fun out of the production.  Determined to finally ger it right, he decied to make a third draft... using the same ITC cast, and also inviting students from all over the southeast on The Baillie Players drama residency tour... Milner believes he finally has a wonderful musical that is able to balance out the corny jokes with important messages about family, relationships, and societal pressures on kids."