A husband-wife duo premiered an original musical in the Little Theater during November.

“The Camper,” which ran from Nov. 10 to 18, was written by playwright Mark Burns and directed by his wife, Linda Burns, a history teacher at Oak River Forest High School.

Mark Burns first wrote a version of the play and used it as his application for New York University, where he got his master’s degree in writing for musical theater, according to his wife.

Burns put the project aside until the pandemic, when he began working on it again. “He was always interested in the way that ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ talks about high school life in a heightened way, where it sort of takes these high school experiences and makes them otherworldly,” Linda Burns said. “And so he asked himself how he could do that in a different way.”

Also inspired by the pandemic, Mark Burns incorporated ideas about the experience of global trauma represented in the play by an alien invasion. He was interested in the idea that our society is becoming more fractured and polarized, and he wanted to explore this idea through the show by making the aliens the cause of societal fractures, Linda Burns said.

The play takes place in 1990, with most characters represented as stereotypical 90s high school students. Each character has their own personal challenges trying to navigate their social life in contrast to others and their differences. On homecoming night, an alien invasion takes place, making otherwise normal people into “lunatics.”

For five weeks every day the actors, musical composer, dance teacher and director worked to perfect details in the show. Actors rehearsed from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. during tech (a week before the show, when production goes over lights, staging and ensuring the play is final).

While the performance had its comedic moments, the overall message dealt with more serious themes of sticking together through tough times in relationships. A nearly full Little Theater audience watched appreciatively, staying engaged throughout the show. “Some of the characters are really really interesting,” said sophomore Aoife Mahic during intermission. “All the actors are doing a great job.”