Our Story
Photography by Ronny Light
“Runaway Home began in the spring of 1994. I was flying home from a trip to New York, and Aleah’s character popped into my head. By the time I landed, I had Aleah, Pyper, Father Liam, and The Preacher written out on a legal pad. Their voices were distinct. After that flight, they never stopped talking to me.”
Darren J. Butler, Playwright
The Monologues
Part of my writing process begins with finding the character’s voices and backstory. I want to know as much about them as possible. For Pyper and Aleah, I wrote a monologue for each of them. On a whim, I submitted to Gerald Ratliff’s call for submissions for a collection he was putting together. To my surprise, both monologues were selected to be included.
From the start, the monologues were popular amongst young women in competitions and scholarship auditions. I would receive constant emails from people using the monologues and telling me about what they had won and the scholarship money they had received.
Collaborating with Judy Rodman
In early 2006, I was roped into having a vocal coach come in and work with the students in my studio. It wasn’t that I didn’t want help…but we had an insane season of shows with a rigorous schedule. Eventually, I gave in and Judy Rodman did a Saturday workshop. About fifteen minutes in, I realized I had been a complete idiot for waiting so long to do this. She changed the vocal strength and sound of my students very quickly.
I had not done my homework. I didn’t know who she was except for the fact that she was a vocal coach and songwriter. I had the lyrics to “Little Girl Lost,” and I asked her if she would like to write for musical theatre. She said she would give it a try. I gave her the lyrics and off she went. A few days later, she called and said she had a tune to go with the lyrics. When she played it, the melody was almost identical to what I had been hearing in my mind all along. That was the “ah ha” moment telling me I had found my collaborator.
Workshopping…
Four workshop productions. Yes, count them - four. The first occurred in the fall of 2006 in my studio theatre in Decatur, AL. The show played on Friday and Saturday nights for eight weeks to sold out houses. At that point, the show was too long, and we knew it. When that workshop came to an end, we revised the show and remounted the following spring for a four week run. Again, we had sold out houses, and incredible feedback from the audiences.
We recorded a demo album of the show, and one of the original cast members posted it to MySpace. That’s where Mark Mazzarella comes into the picture. One night in Bristol, CT, Mark was surfing MySpace and came across our album. He fell in love with the music and reached out about licensing the show for his high school to perform. Mark was a great collaborator and created the logo we are currently using. He was the theatre teacher/director for St. Paul’s Catholic High School in Bristol, CT. I flew up for the production and was really pleased with the work they did. Again, full houses and great feedback from the audiences.
But - I knew the show wasn’t ready.
After discussing it with Mark, we decided to do a joint workshop production with part of our Alabama cast and part of his Connecticut cast. For two weeks in the summer of 2007, we revised the show by trimming it, adding new songs, and a strengthening of the overall plot.
Again, I knew it wasn’t ready.
Judy and I started writing a new show entitled, We The People. We shelved Runaway Home to let our imaginations consider the possibilities for moving forward. Runaway Home would sit on a shelf from 2009 until the winter of 2022. Follow our BLOG on this site to learn about what sparked the work to begin again and all the synchronicities that wove the tapestry of where we are today.