"Home," the musical that began during a drive from New Jersey to Bowdoin almost three years ago, finally comes to Pickard Theater March 2 to 4 at 8 p.m. Davin Michaels '06, Michael LoBiondo '06, and James Nylund '06 spent a major part of their time at Bowdoin producing this musical about four friends struggling with the challenges that come with graduating. It also focuses on a couple who has to make a choice about where home is after graduation; one lives in New York and the other in New Jersey.
"We wrote it before graduation because it's not supposed to be post-graduates reflecting on life after college, but it's what we imagine it will be," Michaels said.
"It's not intended to be realistic, but we were thinking about stereotypes and dramatizing to the extreme." Michaels, who wrote the 80-page book that "Home" is based on, also added that the post-college life in the musical has become more applicable now that the three are seniors.
That immediacy, however, does not mean that they pretend to know what they are talking about.
"We haven't been in these shoes and we're not trying to teach anything," Nylund said, "It's just our jokes and guesses."
The three seniors do find familiarity in the settings of the musical: New York and New Jersey. LoBiondo and Nylund are both from New Jersey, and Michaels is from New York.
"New Jersey is an absurd place to live," LoBiondo said, "and a lot of it is being able to poke fun at yourself on stage."
The absurdity that LoBiondo attaches to New Jersey and the stereotypes also add to the major satirical element of the musical, which pits the typical New Jersey Italians against New York's Upper East Siders.
"It's a satire on making the differences between New York and New Jersey seem like night and day, and it also makes fun of musicals and other theater conventions," Michaels said.
While Michaels wrote the book, LoBiondo and Nylund spent the last three semesters taking composition classes and doing independent studies in order to compose the music and write the lyrics for "Home." Though the two have very different composing styles, Nylund said that he and LoBiondo "took themes from each other to make it mesh better."
"The hardest part was learning how to write music and having to actually write it at the same time," LoBiondo said.
Thanks to help from Assistant Professor of Music Vineet Shende, who both LoBiondo and Nylund said was "crucial" in creating the musical, the seniors were able to develop their musical styles and composing skill. They even orchestrate a 10-person pit over Winter Break.
In addition to Shende, the creators of "Home" also said that bringing the musical to the stage would not have been possible without Associate Professor of Theater Davis Robinson or the cast. Some of the cast members have been in the minds of the creators since they first thought of the idea freshman year, when they were inspired to write a musical after seeing "Into the Woods."
Michaels cited all the hard work that the cast put into the project.
"Everyone's just dropped what they're doing for the last month to work on it," he said.
Even if it isn't a realistic view of what life will be like after graduation, "Home" gives an avenue to laugh at what's to come.
"It is the first time in life finding a new home, and you can choose anywhere on the map," Nylund said.
It is especially easy to laugh in the crazy worlds of New York and New Jersey. Since the three still call these areas home, it's appropriate that Michaels said, "We write about what we know."
LoBiondo added, "Just home."