Writers@Work: How a Novel Inspired a Musical

An Interview with Jane Kelley

by Rochelle Melander

Tell us about your new book, Grace and the Butterfly Effect.

I wrote the novel because I needed a dose of hope. We’re in an environmental crisis. I wanted to do more than recycle, but I had no idea what. If I felt overwhelmed, I knew kids would too. I centered my story on a struggling kid who finds her purpose by looking after three monarch caterpillars. Thinking about them inspires her to take more action to protect the world they’ll live in. She finds a way to speak for the monarchs. She builds a community. She persuades her dad to replace his poisoned yard with a pollinator garden. Butterflies fly. And we learn that people really can change – just like the monarchs do.

Can you talk about how it’s tied to Grace and the Butterfly Effect: The Muscial?

My background is in theater. I still inhabit the characters I create in the same way an actor inhabits a role. But it had been decades since I was directly involved with a show. I missed the energy and I missed collaborating. As I searched for a boost, I thought about turning my novel into a family musical. I knew the novel had theatrical elements. There’s slapstick. The hero is always falling down. The pinnacle moment is at her dance recital. I reached out to my actor friend Greg Alexander who runs the educational department at a theater and my husband Clifford Lee Johnson III who has shepherded many musicals to production. Greg and Lee were enthusiastic about the project.

What was the process of creating the musical like? And, of course, what came first: the book or the script?

We used my novel as the outline for our musical. Many things remained the same, for instance the climax was still the dance recital where our hero finds her own voice as she speaks for the butterflies. But there were challenges. The first thing we did was cut most of my characters. The economics of producing a show means a cast of 4 or 5. We ended up with 7. Musicals usually start with a big splashy scene. They also have an intermission. We needed to end Act I with a cliff hanger so people would want to come back for Act II. Scenes are similar to chapters; they each have actions. But in a musical, you have to find moments where a character literally will sing.

Another difference between my novel and our musical was adding a narrator. The novel is first person. Grace tells her own story. In the musical, we created a character named Bug. He explains things to the audience, smooths the transitions between scenes, and sings and plays the guitar.

What has the process of writing in another medium taught you about writing for children?

Drama is all about conflict. One of the easiest ways to heighten tension is to bring characters closer together. Or, in my story, two different kinds of yards—a wildflower garden and a poisoned lawn. On stage, the two backyards are right next door. This isn’t true in the novel (although I wish I had thought of that when I was writing it).

In musicals, characters’ actions are clearer. There is often an actual “I want” song. Knowing what that is can help define a character—even if they don’t actually get to sing.

Listening to the dialogue made me better at writing jokes. Working with my collaborators encouraged me to be more outrageous. Family shows have a strict time limit (got to bus those kids back to class) so I had to write more economically.

Maybe the biggest lesson is to be prepared for the live audience. Kids will not sit still if they aren’t engaged. If they are, as happened at our recent staged reading, they will lean into the show. When that happens, theater is magic.

What are one or two books you recommend people read?

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate. I read it many years ago, but its themes of communication and nature have stayed with me. Of course I love something with beautiful language, and unusual narrators—most memorably the oak tree named Red who gets saved in the end!

I also recommend YOUR book. Mightier Than the Sword: Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries Who Changed the World Through Writing. In these difficult times, it’s both comforting and inspiring to read about other people who used their words to teach and as a call to action.