Phamaly Theatre Company, also known as just Phamaly, is a theater group and touring company based in Denver, Colorado, formed entirely of people with disabilities from across the spectrum. Phamaly was founded in 1989 by a group of former students of the Boettcher School, a now-closed school for the disabled. The students were frustrated with the lack of theatrical opportunities for people with disabilities and wanted to create a theatre company that provided those individuals with the opportunity to perform. Phamaly Theatre Company performs primarily at the Denver Performing Arts Complex and the Aurora Fox Theatre. The company's season also includes various touring and educational shows. Its recent seasons have seen productions tour outside the state of Colorado into neighboring Wyoming, as well as Osaka, Japan.
Recognition
Phamaly Theatre Company has gained national attention and has received numerous local awards, including the Mayor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and Theatre Company of the Year from 5280 Magazine and the Alliance for Colorado Theatre. Phamaly's 2005 production was awarded two Ovation Awards from the Denver Post, including Best Musical and Best Director, was recognized by the Rocky Mountain News as one of ten best productions of the year, and was named top overall show by the Boulder Daily Camera. At the 2008 Henry Awards, Phamaly won four awards with , for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, Outstanding Lighting Design, Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Direction of a Musical. On August 29, 2006, Phamaly was featured in a lengthy segment of The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. This marked the company's first mainstream national publicity. Previous to that, Phamaly is also the subject of a documentary short entitled We Are PHAMALY directed by Daniel Junge. Long-time company member Mark Dissette made a feature-length documentary, There's Still Hope for Dreams . Phamaly was honored to receive grants for community impact from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2013 and 2014.
Productions
Phamaly performs a musical every summer, usually in the Space Theatre at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. In January 2007, the company opened the first non-musical production in its history at the Aurora Fox Theatre on historic Colfax Avenue. The company has performed at the Aurora Fox every winter since. In 2011 it expanded to the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities as well. Since the fall of 2008, Phamaly has also produced a series of sketch comedy productions entitled Vox Phamalia. These cabaret style shows consist of original comedic, dramatic, and musical material written in a workshop over several weeks before being performed. The 2011 version – Vox Phamalia: Quadrapalooza – received numerous awards and nominations from Denver theatre critics, including one for Best Director for Edith Weiss, who originated the Vox Phamalia series. 2012 saw the start of another original comedy series titled disLabled which marked the company's debut appearance in the city ofBoulder, Colorado, and recurred for two years in 2013 and 2014. Throughout its history, Phamaly has also had a number of touring productions consisting of original and previously produced pieces. These productions have been performed at schools, corporate events, community gatherings, and resort venues. Since 2012, Phamaly has had a regular touring series of children's theatre productions that has traveled all over Colorado and Wyoming.
Phamaly success stories
Two members of Phamaly – Regan Linton and Jason Dorwart – have gone on to earn, respectively, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting and a PhD for Theatre and Drama, both through the University of California, San Diego. Linton went on to become the first wheelchair user to be cast as a company member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and currently serves as Phamaly's Artistic Director. Dorwart is now a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater at Oberlin College. In addition, Laura Alsum, one of the original Vox Phamalia actors/writers, completed the Masters program for screenwriting at UCLA where she won the Tribeca Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize for Screenwriting. Long-time Phamaly member Lucy Roucis was featured doing her stand-up comedy act about Parkinson's disease in the 2010 romantic comedy Love & Other Drugs. Long-time company member Jeremy Palmer earned his MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California and went on to win the Tribeca Sloan Student Grand Jury Prize in 2018.
