SHOWCASING TALENT AMONG DISABLED

The setting in the Anaheim Convention Center lobby was makeshift and audience members drifted in from meetings and exhibitions, but the performers easily took command of the situation.

From theatrical fables to renditions of Broadway show tunes, the acts--the Williams School Puppeteers, Carl Harvey Singing Choir and Hope Music Makers--delighted the noon-hour crowd with their unmistakable artistic prowess.

The achievement was no small feat, since the members of these student ensembles from Orange and Los Angeles counties are all severely disabled.

The program at the convention center Wednesday opened A Very Special Arts Festival, which is out to demonstrate that people who are physically and mentally handicapped can also possess significant--even exceptional--creative talents.

More than 500 disabled persons have been performing this week at the convention center in conjunction with the 63rd annual convention of the Council for Exceptional Children.

(The council is a national organization that deals with educational issues pertaining to both the disabled and the mentally gifted. The convention has been attended by nearly 8,000 teachers, psychologists, other professionals and parent advocates.)

“We’ve made great strides in the past several years. People are increasingly accepting the concept that the disabled should be--and can be successfully--integrated into the mainstream school and job programs,” said Phyllis Berenbeim, the Orange County Education Department official coordinating this week’s festival.

The programs this week make up the second statewide festival, and Berenbeim noted, “When it comes to numbers (of arts festivals for the disabled), California is one of the most active in the nation.”

(Berenbeim also coordinates the annual Orange County version of the festivals. The next one, to feature 300 performers, is set for May 18 at Brea Mall. Other programs, especially art exhibits, have taken place at the Orange County Hall of Administration, and in connection with the Orange County Fair.)

“The growing recognition of these (arts) festivals is a greatly encouraging sign to us. The arts are being seen as an absolutely essential tool for reaching the fullest potential of these (disabled) people,” Berenbeim added.

Tonight, beginning at 7:30, is “Festival Gala Evening” at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel (admission is free), with guest stars such as actor William Allen Young and singer Bob Schneider. The closing program will start at 10 a.m. Saturday at Disneyland. Several ensembles of disabled performers--including the Hi Hopes, singers and musicians from Anaheim, and Frances Blend School ballet troupe, from Los Angeles--will perform at both programs.

The festivals first took hold in the mid-1970s, when large-scale versions were staged at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The movement is spearheaded by a Kennedy Center affiliate, the National Committee, Arts for the Handicapped, chaired by Jean Kennedy Smith.

Nationally, the Very Special Arts Festivals organized on a statewide level now number more than 450. The first in California took place in the fall of 1981. It was organized by Orange County-based groups and staged at the Sheraton-Anaheim Hotel, Anaheim Plaza and Disneyland. This week’s festival is again sponsored by Orange County groups, the state Department of Education and the Kennedy Center committee.

Although the 1985 festival did not have nearly as many discussion-demonstration sessions as the one in 1981, a few sessions this week dealt with the teaching of arts to the disabled. These workshops, part of the Council for Exceptional Children convention, included demonstrations by the Saticoy Ballet Company of North Hollywood and the Singing Hands troupe of Santa Ana.

Disabled participants also came from Bellflower, Ontario, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Visalia and Watsonville. Some of the drawings, paintings and paper sculptures exhibited were done by disabled artists from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Wyoming.

The mood of the opening program Wednesday was a typical overflowing of enthusiasm, from both performers and audience.

On the bill that day:

- A demonstration by four students from the Huntington Beach Union High School District of the use of computers in art, such as in landscapes and depictions of sea life. They are the students of Robert Garcia, of the school district’s Guidance Center for the developmentally disabled.

- Songs by the Hope Music Makers, from Anaheim Union High School District’s Hope Special Education Center. The group of 20 developmentally disabled singers is directed by Karen Provensen.

- The Carl Harvey Singing Choir, a 45-member group from the Santa Ana Unified School District’s center for the physically handicapped conducted by Marge Osborn. (The choir has been invited to perform in New York at the International Symposium of Music Education for the Handicapped in August, and the group needs to raise $30,000 to pay for the trip.)

- The Williams School Puppeteers, a troupe of physically handicapped players from Downey led by Peggy Hooberman-Lenz. They performed “The Three Little Hawaiian Pigs and the Magic Shark.”

The Williams School children’s reactions to the presentations seemed to speak for all the ensembles:

When their show was over, the 10 puppeteers were wheeled out from behind the curtains to acknowledge the applause. Some of the students were grinning; others looked a bit shy.

“This is always a big moment for them, to be recognized in such a warm way for their abilities,” said Hooberman-Lenz. “It never fails to be something special for them--for all of us.”