Tyrone Butler’s life didn’t turn out the way he imagined, and in many ways, he’s glad.
“All my life I wanted to sing and dance,” said Butler, who founded the Augusta Mini Theatre 45 years ago in October 1975. “I thought I was going to be the second coming of James Brown.”
Growing up in Augusta, Butler didn’t have a lot of opportunities to study the arts and to hone his skills as a child and young adult. He’s spent most of his life working to provide those types of opportunities to other young people through his arts and life skills programs.
His first appearance on stage was in sixth grade or seventh grade during an assembly program, and he had the lines, “Tom Sawyer, come go with me. Let’s go fishing,” he recalled.
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At the time, he stuttered. He remembers repeating those lines. When he got on stage, he said them slowly without stuttering and never stuttered again.
Not only did he want to sing and dance, Butler had stories in him – lots of them.
As a child, Butler attended John S. Davidson in its pre-arts magnet school days. It was about a two-mile walk from his home to the school on Telfair Street. To pass the time, he’d make up stories to tell his friends.
“We laughed and had a ball,” he said.
Butler graduated from Albany State University in 1971. He took creative writing at Augusta University.
Many of the experiences Butler had in his own life are reflected in the work he does today.
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He’s written dozens of plays. His “The Johnny Williams Story” received an honorable mention at the Sandhills Writers Conference and was performed as a one-woman show by his wife, Judith Simon Butler. For 10 years, she traveled to youth detention centers to perform it. It’s about a boy who was called stupid and tries to get attention from other people by misbehaving.
“The Johnny Williams Story is my story,” he said. “I didn’t go to jail, but I almost burned the house down.”
Butler started a house fire as a child after playing with matches.
The story struck chords with a lot of the kids who saw it at the YDC.
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“One kid came up to me after a performance and asked, ‘Did you look at my file?’” he said. “He told me that was his story.”
Other plays he’s written include “Pickin,’” a play about bullying that was published by the Pioneer Drama Service in 2003. Usually on the weekend coinciding with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the Augusta Mini Theater performs one of his original plays.
Because of COVID-19, there is not a play for this year. Previous years featured plays such as “The Me I Like,” with a theme of bullying and self-esteem, “All God’s Children’s Got Guns (Truth or Myth),” focusing on gun violence, and “Sisters,” which deals with sexual assault.
His most recent play is called “Caged,” and was supposed to be performed in May 2020 as part of the 50th anniversary observance of the Augusta Riots.
Butler said the play deals with his experience growing up in a segregated Augusta. As a boy, he worked as a caddie at the Augusta Country Club, and every Saturday, as he and his friends cut through the Academy of Richmond County’s grounds, they were stopped by a police officer who questioned where they were going.
“The black community was a cage, and they kept us in the cage,” he said.
As long as they stayed within that perimeter, no questions were asked, but when they pushed those limits, problems arose.
Butler wasn’t in Augusta during the riots. He was away at college, but he knew some of the six men who were killed. He’s often wondered what might have happened had he been in town at that time.
“Caged” focuses on the reason people riot, he said.
“’Caged’ might be my last original work,” he said. “I’m tired, and I can feel it. I need to hire an executive director to take everything forward.”
When he looks back at his career with the Augusta Mini Theatre, he is glad he wasn’t the second coming of James Brown. “I love these kids. They are my life,” he said.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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