Love Stories in Autistic License
I really think of this piece as a love story between a husband and wife, between a mother and a son and between a father and a son.”
Says playwright Stacey Dinner-Levin of her play, Autistic License, which will be performed April 25 and 26 at the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis. More from Dinner-Levin (who has an autistic child) about her inspiration for writing Autistic License:
“This play is based upon our experience of raising a child with autism - the things that happened in our family that were tragic, surreal and funny. This is the kind of stuff you can’t make up! Nobody sees what goes on in families with a child living with a disability. To me theater was the perfect vehicle to tell this story and to give voice to all families living with disability. I really wanted to open the doors, take down the walls of our house and say, ‘Come in, take a good look, and see this for what it is: the struggle of my life, along with the beauty and the joy.’”
The play offers a glimpse of what it is like to raise a child “in a world that has far too many opinions on what is ‘normal.’” Michael Paul Levin, the playwright’s husband, plays the role of the autistic son.
Dinner-Levin’s comment about the play as about a couple of “love stories”—between father and son, mother and son, and between husband and wife: This rings home most of all with me. Even on the toughest, darkest gray days it’s love and sticking together that sustain.
Tags: asd, asperger, autism, Drama, Family, father, love, minneapolis, mother, pdd-nos, play, Romance, twin cities
5 opinions for Love Stories in Autistic License
Chris Gennaula
Apr 14, 2008 at 8:15 pm
We live in Minneapolis and had a chance to see this play last year. It got a definite thumbs up from us. We sat next to another couple that we didn’t know and found that both couples where laughing at the same thing (sometimes when not everyone else was). Sure , enough, like us, they had children on the spectrum.
Anyone who lives in the Twin Cities area I would strongly suggest that they go see this play.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Apr 14, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Thank you—-I would love to see it; we used to live in St. Paul and I’m visualizing Hennepin Avenue.
Marla
Apr 15, 2008 at 10:27 am
Yes, love does keep us all going.
stacey
Apr 16, 2008 at 9:33 am
Just a correction, the name of the play is “Autistic License”. Thanks for the plug!
Stacey
Kristina Chew, PhD
Apr 16, 2008 at 10:50 am
A most Freudian slip! Very best—
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