GOOD DEEDS
But more importantly, he’s a dad.
That’s why the monthly show he’s presenting at Cedar Hills United Church of
Christ, where he works as music director,
is on Saturday afternoons at 3 p.m. “Just
after nap time,” he notes, “I wanted to take
my boys out to hear music and not have
them just camped out in front of the TV all
weekend.”
Weiss’ perspective as a parent, his experience as an educator and his work with
Northwest Children’s Theater also got
him thinking about ways to create a more
welcoming environment for families with
special needs children. The Saturday
afternoon concerts feature a “sensoryfriendly” format, designed to make the
experience more comfortable for those
with autism-spectrum disorders or other
sensitivities and also likely to help with
the garden-variety restlessness familiar
to any family.
“For a little kid [the theater’s] probably
the largest room they’ve ever been in, with
more people than they’ve ever been around
before,” Weiss says. “We just try to make
the transition from normal life to the stage
as easy as possible.” That means keeping
things like volume and lighting levels on
an even keel, making sure there’s plenty of
seating but also room to get up and move
around, and keeping the performance
short and sweet — about an hourlong.
The series continues on Jan.17 with singer
Julianne Johnson-Weiss (no relation to
Ezra). Though he’s deemed his own group
“too fiery” for the format, Weiss is starting
with the jazz musicians he knows, then
branching out to styles like bluegrass,
classical and world music.
“I’m looking for musicians who come
from a very heartfelt place, not so much
a cerebral approach. Not a lot of bashing,
nothing abrasive, but some nice, swingin’
music.”
Gospel-steeped singer Marilyn Keller
knows well what a balm music can be.
Her autistic nephew is now a young adult,
and Keller calls the music in his life “a
soothing factor.” She kicked off the series
in November with a sweet, simple aim: “I’d
Short
& Sweet
Ezra Weiss’ “Sensory-Friendly” Family Concert series
serves childrens’ special needs. BY MARTY HUGHLEY.
like to see kids falling asleep — that’d be a
cool thing! To see everyone getting just so
relaxed.”
Johnson-Weiss, who often has autistic
students in her choir classes at Portland
Community College, says it’s important for
performers “to breathe with the experience,” to pay close attention to the audience
and adjust accordingly, “finding out how
you can lead the conversation without
dictating where it goes.”
Not dictating also means allowing, and
that might be where sensory-friendly
shows have their greatest value.
“If you go to a symphony concert, your kid
had better be quiet,” Weiss says, pointing
out a perpetual sticking point between the
performing arts and families. Or, as a patron of Northwest Children’s Theater told
Artistic Director Sarah Jane Hardy, “When
you’re a parent of a kid with special needs,
you spend your whole life leaving.”
Weiss has written three marvelously witty,
jazzy musicals for Hardy’s company, and
it was the director who introduced him to
the idea of sensory-friendly performances.
Northwest Children’s Theater first tried the
approach in early 2014 with two speciallyadapted performances of Goodnight Moon,
and will feature one sensory-friendly
show each of its upcoming presentations
of Jungle Book (4 p.m., Feb. 8) and The
Little Mermaid (4 p.m., May 10), with free
tickets thanks Ѽ