PHAMALY: Overcoming Physical Challenges through Live Theater
By Rose Fredrick

Administrative Director for the Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League, Regan Linton has a very personal commitment to the organization. “After I sustained a spinal cord injury in 2002,” she recalled, “I started to retreat into a bit of a shell. I doubted that I would ever be the same person again, or be able to do the activities I had always loved, including acting and singing.”

Though outgoing and confident prior to her accident, Linton recalls, “Going to the first PHAMALY audition was the scariest thing in my life, as was getting up on stage for the first time in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  I was nervous that I would look silly, singing and dancing in a wheelchair, but the only thing I ended up feeling when I was onstage was joy,” she said. 

Since 1989, PHAMALY has been giving actors like Linton with physical challenges the opportunity to perform professionally and find their own sense of joy. What started as a small group of students frustrated with the lack of theatrical opportunities for people with disabilities has become a major force in theatre with 32 performances of two major productions and a touring show each year, PHAMALY has given more than 75 actors a stage upon which to shine.

PHAMALY offers three primary programs: an annual summer musical theatre production and a winter play performed by actors with disabilities, as well as an outreach touring show that brings performers with disabilities to businesses, senior centers, community arts festivals, colleges and schools. They collaborate with a variety of local arts and disability organizations, most notably the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which hosts the performers’ summer productions, provides meeting, rehearsal and performance space, ticketing services and other support.

The 2008 Grants to Artists and Organizations through the Colorado Council on the Arts (CCA) will support their efforts of “Reaching Out for Diversity” with programs such as Voices of PHAMALY, the newest traveling production designed to entertain and educate at corporate meetings, diversity trainings, schools, parties, churches and more.

But making theatre accessible to people with disabilities is only one part of the equation. Breaking down barriers and erasing the physical handicaps – if only for a few hours – so that the audience only sees fine theatrical productions: that is a great achievement. It is an achievement made up of many personal successes. Linton said, “PHAMALY helped me to realize that I was different now as a person with a disability, but that my disability didn’t mean that I was any less of a person, or any less capable as a performer.  I’ve become more confident and active in all aspects of life through my involvement with PHAMALY and its other performers, who light up my life every day!”