Working with autistic child provides 'Perfect' inspiration for playwright

There are many ways to start a play. Tennessee Williams' brilliant "A Glass Menagerie" began as a much-revised short story before making the crossing from page to stage. And some argue Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" was sparked by Beckett's memories of working for the French Resistance in World War II, waiting for hours in isolated places for secret messages delivered by couriers who, like Godot, may or may not ever arrive.

For Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins, the initial kernel for his newest play, "Perfect," opening in previews tonight at the Side Project Theatre, may have been a summer job he had in high school when we was a "one-to-one helper" for a student with autism.

"He was blind and dealing with a lot," Dawkins said. "I spent a lot of time with him in the classroom so he would not be set back a grade."

Or he might have been inspired by his current rent-paying job at Chicago Dramatists, teaching theater to students with autism.

"I have been helping them create plays and then perform them," Dawkins said. "A lot of them are talented."

He does believe the first stirrings of the play came one day in class when Dawkins started wondering about what the future held for his students.

"I was thinking about one student," Dawkins said. "Thinking, he's a good guy; he's a good person. Then I started wondering what does he want out of life? And what will he get? Will he get to do all these things that all the other teenagers do?

"Then I started to feeling sorry for him," Dawkins said. "Then I got (angry) at myself for feeling sorry for him. I started thinking, what does this person think about other people? What are his thoughts about other teenagers?"

Soon after this, Dawkins began working on a dark comedy about a high school senior who takes a job taking care of a 37-year old man who may or may not suffer from a kind of high-functioning autism called Asperger's syndrome.

"What I set up in 'Perfect' is a situation where you have an adult who has the understanding of an average teenager," Dawkins said, "and a teenager who has above-average intelligence. Then I have them make a number of very bad choices. That is where the drama comes in."

As soon as Dawkins started writing, the play poured out of him.

"The play has taken about a year and half, from the time I started it to now," Dawkins said. "This has been the quickest turn-around I have ever seen. Usually I let the idea marinate a long time, or do a lot research."

This time, apparently, Dawkins didn't need to marinate or do research.

Or maybe he had been doing that all along, as he gained experience working with autistic people.

"I admit I am fascinated by all the different ways that autism rears its head," Dawkins said. "Its different every time, in every autistic person."

It also helped that Dawkins has strong opinions about previous attempts to write about autism.

"It bothered me that when it's dramatized, it becomes 'Rain Man,' where some amazing stubborn person helps the autistic person experience some great breakthrough. My experience is that no one makes a great breakthrough."

"Perfect" opens in previews Feb. 1 and runs through March 2 at the Side Project. 1439 W. Jarvis Ave., Chicago. For Tickets and information call (773) 973-2150 or visit www.thesideproject.net