,The Homefront
​Music and lyrics by Sam Salmond
Book by Jenny Stafford

The Homefront is a rock musical about female factory workers at the end of World War II. As soon as the war was won, the women were fired in order to make room for the men returning home. This is the story of one woman’s journey at the earliest stages of a feminist revolution in the American workforce, as she fights to get the women hired back at the factory – while balancing her relationship with her husband, a returning war veteran. What happens when our progressive ideals meet reality? What are we willing to give up—and who are we willing to overlook—in order to get what we want?

Demos featuring: Molly Hager, Theo Stockman, Hana Slevin, Tam Young, Amanda Savan, Christiana Cole, Natalie Walker, Alexandria J Henderson, and Shoba Narayan

With Alex Sage Oyen on guitar

 This is the opening number. White women and black women work together on the factory line, building planes and revealing in the noise.

It’s 1945 and the war is officially over. Almost instantaneously, RUTH and the other women at the factory are fired, in order to make room for the returning men. RUTH spent the last few years building planes, finding fulfillment in her work. For the first, time she felt she had purpose. Defeated, she heads home and awaits the return of her husband, JAMES. They’ve always been a mutually supportive, progressive couple. Before the war, they planned to have a child, but now RUTH isn’t sure that’s what she wants. As she prepares the home for his return, she’s torn between the promise she made her husband and the freedom she found in the factory.

Back home from the war, JAMES returns to his job on the factory line, but the roar of the machines triggers memories of the battlefield.

RUTH and JAMES' relationship has hit an impasse. While still deeply in love with each other, they realize the war has changed them both in ways that may be impossible to reconcile. JAMES, who was always a supportive, progressive husband, was responsible for shutting down the women’s protest of the factory (of which he is now the manager). JAMES, feels RUTH has broken her promise to start a family and that she’s now putting her own desires above the safety and security of their relationship.  They are no longer the young people who fell in love before the war. Both RUTH and JAMES feel they have the solution to save their relationship, but can’t understand why the other won’t give up their demands and follow. They realize their marriage is coming to an end.

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Betrayed by her best friend, and abandoned by the white women, LESLIE and the other black women start their own resistance movement. They plan to lead a sit-in at the factory. They’ll chain themselves to the machines and refuse to leave until they are given the jobs and the respect they deserve. They know, that as black women in America, putting their bodies on the line means there is a very real chance they’ll be killed.
LESLIE’s husband served in the war, and like many other black soldiers, he was sent into the most dangerous zones first, to be used as a human shield before the white soldiers arrived. He was killed in combat, leaving behind a baby boy, CHARLIE.
LESLIE, who has always tried to have hope for the future, has seen her hope  repeatedly crushed. The night before the sit-in, she puts her baby to bed. She tucks him in and tries to say goodnight, unsure whether she’ll ever see her child again… She wonders if she’s making the right decision…

After coming back together and fighting tirelessly, the women take on the factory.  Eventually management agrees to give in to the women’s demands, but only if it applies solely to the white women. Yet again, the white women betray the black women and they agree to take back their jobs. This time, however, RUTH refuses to join. As the white women celebrate and the black women head home defeated, LESLIE and RUTH stand together, heartbroken. They fought with everything they had and it still wasn’t enough. It will never be enough…

The Finale. After their loss, RUTH tries to comfort her 13 year old niece.