"Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting" will experience its world premiere at the Contemporary American Theater Festival this July. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — This July, the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) will feature the world premiere of one new play,” Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting,” which was written by Harmon dot aut.

According to aut, this play being one of only four selected for the upcoming festival in July is particularly exciting, especially since its subject matter will be new to many members of CATF’s audience.

“It’s a play that features an autistic, nonbinary character,” aut said. “It’s all about trying to give people an inside understanding of an autistic’s processing.”

aut was perhaps the only playwright who could have done this play justice, having personal experience as a native of Kansas who is nonbinary and dealing with autism and synesthesia, just like the play’s main character. That deep understanding of the inner workings of a person growing up with these challenges spoke deeply to CATF Artistic Director Peggy McKowen, according to aut.

“She actually told me, when she read the play, that it was the first time she thought she got a bit of understanding for what it was like for people on the spectrum from the inside,” aut said. “This is an hour-and-a-half play. It’s a way of inviting people in — we’re not going to learn everything — but this is what we have to do to engage each other and start to accept each other.

aut

“Mostly, I wrote it for us, for neurodivergent people, to be seen and feel like they’re seeing themselves,” aut said. “What I hope is, even younger folks who are on the autism spectrum or neurodivergent or nonbinary will see themselves and feel less alone. Being able to see a positive representation of yourself — not just somebody who is sad all of the time, but somebody who is joyful and celebratory and creative — that means a lot.”

One of the challenges of trying to help audience members understand the mind of the play’s main character, has been how to recreate synesthesia — when a person experiences one of the senses through another — on the stage.

“With the director Oliver Butler and with Peggy and with the designers, we have been trying to create a design that gives people at least a taste of synesthesia. It’s built into the language of the play, but it’s built into the design, as well. So, hopefully we’ll be able to give the audience some kind of experience of synesthesia,” aut said. “It is challenging!”

Through careful writing, directing and set design, aut hopes the members of society who are often overlooked will be a little more understood. And, aut hopes more families with children growing up with some of the challenges aut personally experienced, will feel a little less alone.

“Part of the story is about lack of access,” aut said. “What do you do, when you are a loving family and you are trying to do your best for your kids and, you know, you don’t have the money or access you need?”

According to aut, about 85 percent of adults on the autism spectrum are unemployed, leaving the families who struggled to provide them with sufficient care growing up, with a continued financial burden. A burden that, if more people would just try to understand their differences and work with them, would not need to exist.

“Society’s attitude, particularly when I was younger, created barriers,” aut said. “I think that what it actually ends up doing, though, is that a lot of neurodivergent folks become innovators, because we have to come up with ways to navigate our environments. Not many of these barriers have been removed since my childhood. Just because people know the word ‘neurodivergent’ now, doesn’t mean that a lot has changed — it just means people know the word. It takes society a long time to change and to understand.”

Learn more about the play at https://catf.org/.