Terri Madden compares the experience of writing a play and then turning the script over to others as akin to raising a child and then allowing it to leave the nest: difficult to do, but an essential part of the process.

“;You have to let it go and let the director do his job, and let the actors to their job, and embrace the work that you probably have your own insecurities about—and that's been hard for me,”; Madden said last Friday during a quick late-morning phone call.

She added that, hard though it is, she has faith in director Brett Botbyl and his cast.

“;I have not been going to too many of the rehearsals, especially lately, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with it.”;

Madden was speaking of her newest play, “;Appalachia Hawai'i,”; which opens Wednesday at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Earle Ernst Lab Theatre. The story is “;loosely based”; on the life and times of the one-time “;Army brat”; who had no real roots anywhere when she came to Hawaii in her teens.

Looking back, Madden said she wasn't ready for college after graduating from high school, but at the age of 50 she felt she was ready to go back—and so she got a degree in political science. With that mission accomplished, she decided to learn more about theater. The play is her thesis project for a Masters of Fine Arts in play writing.

Madden's MFA will compliment the practical experience she's acquired over the years doing improvisational comedy and conventional acting, directing and in costume design. More recently she contributed to last summer's “;Black Box Black Blocks Festival”; as a writer, actor and director.

“;Appalachia Hawai'i”; grew out of her experiences taking Hawaiian-studies classes.

“;Of course they talked about Hawaiian culture, and I started making comparisons between the Hawaiian culture and my family's culture of Appalachia. I realized that there was a lot in common, and so I thought it might be interesting to juxtapose them.”;

Madden imagined a military family with Appalachian roots crossing paths with the de Souzas of Pearl City, a “;local”; family with whom they appear to have nothing in common. At least not until Kawika De Souza and Grace Stanley inform their parents that she's pregnant, he's the father and they are going to be grandparents.

“;Play writing comes from experiences,”; she said, “;either your own experience, or someone else's experiences. ... Part of it was my own (experience) trying to figure out how do I fit in as a citizen of Hawaii, not being local (born), being an outsider.

“;I think that's a question that a lot of us who are not from here ask ourselves, (and) the play is my way of expressing that struggle. How do I find 'home' when I never had it?”;