The audience responded with a resounding standing ovation when Aaron Hobson sang “Psycho Killer" at the Tomorrow Theater last month. His impeccable performance was followed by the Talking Heads concert movie, “Stop Making Sense,” in one of the first events at Portland Art Museum’s newly renovated Tomorrow Theater on Southeast Division Street in Portland. Hobson, a talented singer, has intellectual and developmental disabilities, or I/DD.
Hobson is a member of PHAME, an inclusive arts school in Northeast Portland for adults with I/DD. Participants develop their interests in visual arts, writing, drama and music by engaging in activities that build skills and showcase their talents.
Jenny Stadler, PHAME executive director with 20 years of leadership and consulting in arts and education, works with a team to provide educational opportunities for adults with I/DD.
I/DD is characterized by nontypical brain functioning and can range from mild to severe, Stadler said. Examples of I/DD include Autism, Down Syndrome and Fragile X syndrome. PHAME puts an emphasis on the participants’ personhood and not their disabilities.
“PHAME does not ask people to disclose their disabilities or diagnoses when they register for the program,” Stadler, who’s been the organization's executive director for six years, said.
Instead, participants only share what accommodations they need. These can range from giving people extra time for processing verbal instructions to providing tablets for playing music with a group. As with any school, students display a range of talents and abilities.
Classes at PHAME and beyond
“PHAME classes are only for people with disabilities, and that is because our students want it that way,” Stadler said. “It's because it's so nice to have a place to let your hair down and be with people who share your experience with disabilities. It's also great to go and take a class elsewhere, and we want that option for people.”
About 90-110 students register for classes at PHAME each term, with three terms each year. Classes fit into three sequential categories and are taught at Grace Memorial Church in Northeast Portland, at the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in Beaverton and online. Professional actors, artists and musicians teach the classes.
PHAME trains instructors in differentiated instruction for accommodating individuals with I/DD. This can involve demonstrating instructions physically when students struggle with verbal processing, limiting distractions or offering a variety of tools for students to choose from.
“We provide whatever accommodation people need but try very hard to see the whole person,” Stadler said.
Students build a foundation and try new things with exploratory classes. Students then gain expertise in technique classes. The highest level is lab classes and ensembles for advanced concepts and specific skills, which students join by invitation from instructors or audition. They require a big time commitment and can prepare participants for being on stage.
PHAME offers a number of theater and music classes, including choir, ensembles, a vocal studio class, drumming, comedy and improv.
An Oregon Ballet Theater instructor teaches ballet, and students may also learn Broadway dance, hip hop and attend a dance evolution lab.
Participants access more than performing arts at the nonprofit. They can work with a writing facilitator in a monthly Write Around Portland (WRAP) workshop for the whole school year. PHAME also offers memoir writing and poetry. Visual arts, from photography to painting, are thriving at PHAME, and student artwork is displayed on the PHAME website.
“In order for us to take the bubble wrap off our community and get more inclusion out into other arts organizations, we need to be integrated,” Stadler said.
In addition to classes on-site, PHAME helps students to integrate with outside programs like Artists Repertory Theater, Portland Center Stage, Oregon Ballet Theater, Portland Revels and Chamber Music Northwest.
Partnerships with arts organizations give adults with and without disabilities a chance to work together and learn from each other, and both give positive reviews. Partner groups appreciate the opportunities to learn about disabilities while working toward inclusion and equity. PHAME students enjoy learning from experts who share their passion for the arts.
To this end, students get involved with projects off-site. For example, Artists Repertory Theater hosts a dramaturgy/playwriting collaboration. Students recently took a field trip to Live Wire, which included not just a show but a tour and time to learn about the tech involved in radio production.
PHAME regularly engages with the Portland Art Museum, which could be a tour about a featured artist, a Zoom presentation, or a performance like the one at Tomorrow Theater. Portland Opera brings its Opera to Go performance to PHAME annually. In 2019, they completed a multi-year collaboration that culminated in a full-length rock opera, “The Poet’s Shadow.”
Through all of this, PHAME encourages excellence. This means different things for different people. For some, it could mean turning on the iPad and opening Garage Band to play the same melody as last week. For others, it could mean pulling up a song and adding other parts to it.
“People with disabilities deserve opportunities to try and fail because there’s a lot of protection and over-praising when they can do more,” Stadler said. “It limits them to grow as artists.”
Stadler talked about what she calls the “dignity of risk.” Self-determination and taking risks are vital to this program. Having auditions for higher-level classes and outside opportunities is part of that.
Several students have auditioned and been paid for their work. Six students auditioned for Portland Revels, and two earned a spot, so they took part in rehearsals and performances incorporating song, dance and storytelling. Audience members showed appreciation of PHAME students in a survey.
Artists Repertory’s Mercury Festival paid students for videos two years ago, and this year, two students were paid to workshop a play there, Stadler said. Student musicians from Phame’s rock ensemble and mixed ensemble, “Chameleonica,” perform regularly in paid gigs.
“These students have spent their whole lives being not picked, not looked in the eye,” Stadler said. “We work so hard to look at each individual student. Verbal and communication skills really grow in the first three to six months. They are being seen and heard and we push teamwork and communication as core values. Other values are self-awareness, self-advocacy and persistence. You have to practice and try. We see those things really start to flourish.”
'Stop Making Sense'
Beyond the classes and organized events, PHAME builds community through participation in performances. Guest performers without disabilities join their shows.
This August, Hobson and others sang in PHAME’s performance of “Stop Making Sense: a Multimedia Concert Tribute to Talking Heads” at Revolution Hall in Portland.
Many artists collaborated on the show. PHAME students auditioned and spent all of spring term preparing and rehearsing. Guest artists singer/songwriter Laura Gibson, indie rock band Lost Lander and performing artist Brian Koch joined them. Singers Matthew Gailey and Stephanie Strange provided more vocal talent. Jessica Dart and her husband, Jason Rouse, directed the show. PHAME student JJ Ross was the choreographer and a lead dancer.
Matthew Gailey, vocal coach and former arts and education director, has a long affiliation with PHAME.
“One of the primary goals for PHAME is community and also to empower artists with or without disabilities to work together, to get to the point where whether they have a disability becomes irrelevant in the show,” Gailey said. “Adults with disabilities are just adults.”
This show was the pinnacle of what PHAME can do with community and project-based learning, Gailey said. The directors took creative input from PHAME members, allowing them to sharpen their skills and show their talents how they want to.
Lea Mulligan has been a student and singer with PHAME for 16 years. She teaches a mindfulness and meditation class and works as a campus coordinator. In addition to choir, she and others sang with Pink Martini a few times, and she has performed in online cabarets.
Mulligan and Hobson brought the audience to tears with their duet of “Heaven” in the “Stop Making Sense” show.
“It was amazing, and it was a smash hit,” Mulligan said. “Everyone did a great job. You learn a lot of new stuff. If you get a critique or criticism, it can be really hard, but you learn to deal with it, and you switch to what they want you to switch to. And then it goes really well. It was a big rush. The audience was excited for both shows. We did a great job on both shows.”
Keeping art alive for 40 years
PHAME is funded through foundation and government grants, individual donations and a big annual gala. Tuition adds to funding, although assistance is available to any students who need it.
In 2024, PHAME will celebrate 40 years of empowering artists to explore their creativity. It is one of the few programs in Portland for adults with I/DD.
Looking back on the “Stop Making Sense” show, Gailey remembers the connection with PHAME performers.
“It's one thing to speak about adults with disabilities with equal access, but the arts show it, which is even better,” Gailey said. “Arts innately invite collaboration naturally. Artists show themselves in a way that is unmistakable, and you see what you see. There's always another level. It never ends.”
PHAME will present the Ring-a-Ding-Ding Radio Winter Concert on Dec. 19.
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