"The best way to describe the story is it's kind of like a Jane Austin novel -- we've sometimes called it a 'Regency England' soap opera," Mills said.
Mills said the story has five young people who have grown up together. There are two pairs of brothers, one wealthy and one lower class, and the fifth character is a woman.
"It jumps between two time periods; you see them as children all around the age of 12 and then you see them as young adults in their early 20s."
Mills said The Alchemists has already been shown Off-Off Broadway with his small theatre company, Prospect Theater Company, based in New York City. There, he has access to professional actors and small theatre space.
"It's a really hard show, I have to say," Mills said, explaining that the show is performed in a 19th-century British dialect. "I've been very impressed this week with how well the students have been able to grapple."
Overall, Mills said his experience with the Penn State New Musical Theatre Festival has been a positive one.
"I think that [the festival] is enormously valuable, certainly for me, and also for the students," he said. "To have the experience of working on a new thing like this I think would be of value for them."
Raymond Sage, professor of voice for musical theatre and artistic director of Penn State New Musical Theatre Festival, said they had works submitted from all over the country, but The Alchemists was one of two that were selected by a committee. It gave these composers and lyricists exposure and a chance to see how the public perceives their work.
Justin Fyala (senior-music education) is playing the character of Albert Loomis, the children's schoolteacher who is privy to giving great lectures.
"Some of the morals I teach them kind of filter into the story," he said. "I think it's a very enjoyable story, although it's not always happy, it's a story that everybody can relate to and everybody can kind of find a character that they can be like 'Oh yeah, I've gone through that before.' "
