Raising an autistic child a 'Day After Day' challenge Kayla Caffrey andMark Salerno play a wife and husband whose relationship is strained by the fact that their autistic daughter, played by Kendall Weitzen, does not speak, in the musical "Day after Day," which will be performed at the Two River Theater on April 19. RED BANK - After performances throughout New Jersey, several to sold-out houses, a rock opera about the struggles and joys, despair and hope of parenting children with autismis coming to the stage of the Two River Theater in Red Bank onApril 19. "Day after Day" by composer Steven Allen tells the story of three families whose lives intersect around one daunting challenge - breaking through the isolation of autism and reclaiming a child. "We have performed this show in seven different counties, from Ocean to Passaic. We've probably had at least 1,400 people attend so far.We sold out three shows in a row at Brick Township," said Michael Finley, a member of Hazlet-based Parents of Autistic Children (POAC), which is sponsoring the performance. AccordingtoFinley,performanceshavebeen mostly at schools. Now it's time for "Day After Day" to be performed on the legitimate stage. "Now we're going to bring the play to the Two River Theater, because the theater is beautiful and because this is the very first autismmusical.We knowthat there's a great arts community in Red Bank, so we also felt it would appeal to theatergoers," he said. Formed in 1999, Parents ofAutistic Children is a nonprofit organization that provides free autism-education training programs for parents, care providers, teachers and emergency responders. The POAC board commissioned "Day After Day" in 2004, andAllen wrote the first draft of the musical when he was 19 years old. A music teacher, Allen was not knowledgeable about autism at the time and turned to parents for insight. "He wrote the play four years ago, after spendingmany hours of counselingwith parents andmembers of our board," Finley said. "He listened to themover the phone,went out to coffee shops with them, restaurants. He listened to their real-life stories and took all this and made thismusical about three families and the daily struggles and joys of raising a child with autism." Allen, who has written two other rock operas, has remained connected to the work and continues to update it. The current version has four new musical numbers, one added just two weeks ago. "We feel that this musical puts a face on the experience of raising a childwith autism. It's helped extended families to understand what their nephews and nieces are going through. Oftentimes a grandparent reads and hears about autism, but unless they are there with the child, they really don't know what it's like every day. It gives hope to the community." Reaction, Finley said, has been positive and powerful. "[There are] lots of tears.We've had conversions," he said. "Therewasagentlemanwho refused to even say the word autism. His family was being torn apart by it.He broke down and became the most fervent advocate involved with POAC," said Finley. "He's gone out and helped raisemoney, apologized to his family." According to Finley, the 90-minute rock opera is about more than autism awareness. Its well-kept "secret" is a revelation that offers a powerful message of hope. "These are true-life stories," he said. "One of them is about a child .... who wouldn't respond with his parents. He wouldn't call his father Dad, would not respond to prompts fromhismom. Throughout the show, you see the family try to have Christmas with him: he has no reaction.You see hismomtry to get him to speak: he doesn't respond. "The hope part is that this real-life character is now 20, 21 years old.He's an actor in the play. At the end of the play, he speaks to the audience, he identifies himself as the real-life story in the play," Finley revealed. "His parents are founding members of POAC. They applied the techniques taught by POAC, and[their son]hadtremendous growth. "That's where a lot of the crying takes place. That's where the father has a big change. He realizes, 'My kid may not always be like this.'That'swhere the hope comes in." "DayAfter Day" will be performed Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the box office, 21 Bridge Ave., Red Bank, or (732) 345-1400. Proceedswill benefit POAC,which has more than 500 official members and a database of some 10,000 people. Formore information about POAC, visit www.poac.net.