Athens State University alumnus Darren J. Butler will have come full circle when his musical “Runaway Home” is performed at ASU next weekend.

Once a student in Dr. Al Elmore’s playwright class, now Butler will work side-by-side with Elmore in the ASU production of “Runaway Home.”

The musical is a “gritty story of homeless youth on the lower East Side of New York at the same time the Twin Towers were destroyed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.”

“I wanted to do something new and completely original,” Butler said.

The production has been in the works for years. Butler worked with Elmore to perform 25 workshops to tweak the play.

Butler wrote the musical with Judy Rodman and Will Fincher. The basic plot deals with the fate of homeless teens who come together to work in a soup kitchen and live at a Catholic church. Their only connection to each other is the preacher who brings them together. There are several elements in the play inspired by Butler’s and Rodman’s spirituality.

“[Runaway Home] is about taking care of one another and friendship. Home is not a building it’s a state of being,” Butler said.

The original music for the production was composed by Rodman, a country star who has written and recorded ten Top 40 hits, including the No. 1 “She Thinks She’ll Marry.” The Academy of Country Music voted Rodman Top New Female Vocalist in 1985. Since then, she has continued to write hits for herself and for Randy Travis, the Judds, and a No. 1 song for Leann Rimes.

Athens State’s production is directed by Butler, assisted by Elmore. Technical director is Tom McDougle, also a member of the department.

The cast features Judith Roberts, Daniel Martin, Kathleen O’ Hara, Trevor McEuen, Bridges Lappert, Quinci Watts, Macy Ladner, Cindy Walton, Jessica Lee, Tim Nix, Tyler Gibson, Dan Lappert, Hattie O’Hara, Cassidy Haney, Savannah Wheat, and from Athens, Logan Moore, Colin Whitworth, and Madeline Burkhardt.

Bulter, 40, grew up in Decatur. He has been writing, directing and producing for the last 17 years. His professional children’s theatre company, the Backstage Theatre Touring Company, performs at more than 100 schools in the South each year.

Butler is the author of the children’s book series “Abbie, Girl Spy.”

Recently, he has finished two new novels, “Merlin’s Curse,” a fantasy novel for middle grade readers, and “A Whistle in the Night,” a novel set in rural 1950s Alabama. He is also putting the finishing touches on a biography of Helen Keller for the Alabama Roots Series published by Seacoast Publishing.

Butler serves as the artistic and managing director for the Backstage Theatre Company and OnStage Entertainment. He is the resident director for “The Miracle Worker” at the Helen Keller Birthplace. He is also the writing specialist for Eva School, West Morgan Elementary, Julian Harris Elementary, Union Hill School, Falkville Elementary and Chestnut Grove Elementary.

The first performance, sponsored by Student Services, will be a dinner theater from 6:30 until 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3 in the Ballroom of the Sandridge Student Center at Athens State. Rodman will perform a concert of her hit songs during the dinner and “Runaway Home” will follow.

Three stage performances of “Runaway Home,” sponsored by Athens State Drama and the Concert-Lecture Series, will follow at 7:30 p.m. April 4 and 5, and at 2 p.m. April 6 in McCandless Hall

Tickets for the dinner theater show on April 3 are $25, and tickets for the April 4 though 6 stage productions are $10 for adults and $7 for students or children, with lower group rates available. Tickets may be reserved by calling Student Services at (256) 216-3319.