PHAMALY

PHAMALY News:

• Press: Phamaly Theatre Company receives National Endowment for the Arts grant to support this July’s production of Fiddler on the Roof.

  April 23, 2013

  (Aurora, Co) - National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that ...

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• Review: With "The Foreigner," Phamaly goes fishing for laughs, catches plenty Read more: Theater review: With "The Foreigner," Phamaly goes fishing for laughs, catches plenty

  January 25, 2013

  by Lisa Kennedy

  In 2012, the Physically Handicapped Actors & Musical Artists League changed its name from the slightly unwieldy but sweet acronym PHAMALy to the Phamaly Theatre Company.

  The theater troupe remains true to its mission, and dubbing itself a “company” hasn’t changed its egalitarian “everyone auditions every time” approach to each production. Yet, make no mistake, this is a company that continues to grow artistically around some standout performers.

  Take Jeremy Palmer, lead in “The Foreigner” currently at the Aurora Fox Arts Center. The slim, wan actor, who played the cad in summer’s “Little Shop of Horrors” has continued to perfect his timing. And timing is of the essence in this farce about xenophobia and other bigotries set in the Georgia pines.

  Written by Larry Shue and directed by Edith Weiss, “The Foreigner” finds British friends Sgt. Froggy LaSueur (Michael Leopard) and Charlie Baker (Palmer) arriving at Betty Meek’s fishing resort.

  Charlie is beyond shy. He’s tilting toward despondent. His wife is in the hospital, and he has an ailing sense that she finds him terrifically dull.

  Froggy concocts a ruse to keep his friend from having to make small talk. Or any talk. Charlie, he explains, is a foreigner with no grasp of English. As Froggy, Leopard’s all girth and mirth. He makes a home of the stage the moment he marches onto it.

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• Review: PHAMALY's The Foreigner

  January 25, 2013

  by Lisa Bornstein

  When you have a theater company with a theme, plays are almost inevitably going to be viewed through the lens of that theme. It has certainly been the case for PHAMALy, a theater company with its mission to provide opportunities for performers with disabilities. When you hear the song “The Impossible Dream,” new notes emerge. The view of life in “Our Town” takes on new joys and poignancy.

  In the company’s latest production, Larry Shue’s “The Foreigner,” comedy gets a sharper edge as the depiction of menacing white supremacists is warped through the audience’s knowledge that these actors are disabled.

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• Review: English as a Silly Language: ‘Foreigner’ excels at common concept thanks to expert troupe

  January 25, 2013

  by Adam Goldstein

  There’s a moment in the Phamaly Theatre Company’s production of Larry Shue’s comedy “The Foreigner” where gesture completely replaces spoken communication.

  Charlie Baker, an anxious Englishman with a deep-seated fear of social interaction, has convinced the residents and employees of a rural Georgia fishing lodge that he can’t speak a word of English. He’s seated at the breakfast table with Ellard Simms, a kindly but backward youth who works at the lodge, and the pair break into inspired pantomime. They wave their arms, they play with the napkins tied to their necks, they place plastic cups on their heads and revel in exaggerated facial expressions. For more than five minutes, Jeremy Palmer and Daniel Traylor (who play Charlie and Ellard respectively) draw laughs without a single word.

  It’s an inspired, moving and funny moment in the show, a routine straight out of a Buster Keaton film that gets to the very heart of Shue’s comedy. Language can be tricky. Words can define someone’s personality, they can regulate how someone’s perceived by others and they can play a crucial role in one’s happiness and overall well-being.

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• Press: Announcing the 2013 Season - PHAMALY is now Phamaly Theatre Company

  October 24, 2012

  DENVER—Phamaly reveals a robust 2013 theatre season, setting a new standard for the company ...

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• News: Finding Phamaly

  October 3, 2012

  by John Sefel

  At a Colorado production of The Elephant Man staged earlier this year, Edward Blackshere stood on stage, looked out over the audience and, with a hitch in his voice, said, “I ask you, please, not to despise or condemn this man on account of his unusual appearance. Remember, we do not make ourselves.” Blackshere was not only framing the plight of the play’s title character, but ensuring his audience couldn’t ignore what made this particular cast unique….

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• Press: PHAMALY presents its 2012 Fall Studio Series Vox PHAMALIA: Cinco de VOX

  September 27, 2012

  Cinco de Vox: How the 17% roll!

  (Denver CO) – PHAMALY celebrates the 5th year of ...

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• Review: Feed Me, Seymour! PHAMALY’s Little Shop of Horrors Takes the Stage

  July 23, 2012

  by Avery Johnson

  PHAMALY’s production of Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Steven Wilson, is unlike any other. Filled with excitement, laughter, and a twinge of darkness, Little Shop brought the audience to the middle of skid row for a wild ride with a very peculiar plant, with a twist. PHAMALY is an award-winning Colorado based theatre company composed entirely of performers with a wide variety of disabilities. Each actor has either a physical, emotional, or cognitive handicap, infusing the show with a much deeper sense of meaning.

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• Review: Beauty & Horror Downtown at PHAMALY’s ‘Little Shop’

  July 22, 2012

  by He Said/She Said Critiques

  While I’ve never seen an actor nail the comedy built into Mushnik the way Mark Dissette did, this show focuses on Seymour and Audrey. Daniel Traylor takes Seymour beyond a silly character role and brings a whole spectrum of personality to him. As he sang about his unclear path forward in the second act, his voice was full of genuine emotion. I just wish the staging for the round stage let him be a bit more stationary to harness the power of his feelings. And then there’s Audrey. Kathi Wood achieved the near impossible during her performance of “Somewhere That’s Green”. She turned off the part of my brain that is analyzing a show and whisked me away into her fantasy life. Throughout the show, her character was so multi-dimensional and so…human…all the time. It was simply stunning

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• Review: PHAMALY mixes gore, pathos and nuance in ‘Little Shop’

  July 19, 2012

  by Adam Goldstein

  Derelicts whiz by in wheelchairs, hoboes stumble along on crutches and a nine-member gang of female street toughs boldly sing about the pressure of life in the ghetto.

  The Skid Row neighborhood envisioned in the PHAMALY Theatre Company’s current production of “Little Shop of Horrors” is dark, bustling and heartbreaking. It’s a lush tableau sketched out at the beginning of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s classic musical – the audience meets the denizens of Skid Row in the first two tunes, before the musical’s signature man-eating plant makes its first appearance and before the audience meets protagonists Seymour and Audrey.

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• Review: PHAMALy's "Little Shop of Horrors" review: A blend of morbidity and humanity

  July 19, 2012

  by Liza Williams

  The biggest laughs of the evening came when the script was modified just a bit to reference some disability issue or another. For example, when Orin Scrivello, D.D.S., is pleading with Seymour to turn off the laughing gas before it kills him, he asks, “Are you deaf?” and Daniel Traylor, who plays Seymour, and who lists hearing loss as a disability in the program responds “Well…” And the audience roars. The ability to easily move in and out of material that acknowledges and represents the company’s experiences, without allowing the production to get distracted or weighed down by them is one of the great strengths of PHAMALy. The dark humor that is inherent in the script blends beautifully with some of the dark humor brought to the piece through inclusionary references to colostomy bags, handicapped parking and the like.

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• Review: PHAMALY’s Little Shop of Horrors Great Fun Entertainment

  July 18, 2012

  by Craig Williamson

  In past years, the Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League (PHAMALY) has amped up the depth and meaning of musicals with their unique style and abilities. This year, however, they focus on the lighter side, presenting the campy Little Shop of Horrors, aiming simply at fun, and hitting a bull’s-eye. This is a clever production of an entertaining show, appropriately gritty at times but with some nice softer edges, and definitely well worth seeing.

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• Review: Review: PHAMALy takes us to Skid Row

  July 17, 2012

  by Deb Flomberg

  There are few musicals that I can see over and over again and always enjoy myself. “Little Shop of Horrors” is one of those musicals. Though written more than 30 years ago, it never feels that dated, the humor still lands, and the music (courtesy of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken) is still high-energy and completely absorbing. It’s the kind of music that you walk out humming and then find yourself still humming more than a week later. Now, the beloved musical is getting the full PHAMALy treatment and, one again, the Physically Handicapped Amateur Musical Actors League brings another fantastic evening of sheer entertainment.

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• News: Focus of attention: On-stage puppet for PHAMALy’s ‘Little Shop’ serves dual purpose for unique troupe

  June 28, 2012

  by Adam Goldstein

  Wilson and the PHAMALy troupe won’t shy away from that onstage risk for their upcoming production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” a musical that’s set to feature five puppet incarnations of a man-eating plant from outer space named Audrey II. The largest puppet of the set, all designed by Cory Gilstrap, will measure 16 feet tall and require multiple operators to control its pods, roots and massive jaws.

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• News: Phamaly and Curious Continue to Push Theatrical Boundaries

  January 27, 2012

  by Lisa Kennedy

  “PHAMALy’s doing one of the great disabled plays, and from my point of view, we’re even more responsible for the quality control, for doing everything we possibly can to make every aspect of it as good as it can be,” says Steve Wilson, the company’s artistic director and co-director of the play.

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• Review: Phamaly's The Elephant Man - Stunning Performance!

  January 23, 2012

  by Michael Mulhern

  As both an actor and the son of an epileptic mother, I appreciate the demands that these actors’ disabilities can put upon them. That is one reason I was so thoroughly impressed with their uncomplicated ease onstage. I can honestly say this performance was life changing for me, offering a broadened perspective that blasts stereotypes right out of the water. These actors not only overcome their disadvantages onstage, but claim their challenges as a celebration of individuality. Also, each actor’s disability is detailed in their playbill bios, with links to websites for more information. Considering the assumptions and stereotyped images that dominant society (i.e. able-bodied/able-minded) continues to promote within the narrow frame of what disabled people “lack” (rather than what they possess), detailing one’s disabled status publicly is a bold move – a necessary move – and another example of proud ownership of oneself. ALL of oneself.

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• Review: PHAMALy succeeds in this classic musical

  July 31, 2011

  by Deb Flomberg

  If you’ve never seen a PHAMALy show, then you are missing out. PHAMALy (Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League) is a unique theatre going experience – one that will cause you to rethink your own views on disabilities and how we, as society, view their perceived limitations. The wonderful thing about PHAMALy is that they present high-quality shows that don’t hide an actors disability, instead it simply is part of what makes up that specific character. The result of this blending of so many different disabilities is a unique and often welcome change to many of the traditional musicals that we all know and love. Their current production, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, is another production that showcases this exceptional company and their high quality entertainment.

  http://www.examiner.com/theater-in-denver/review-phamaly-succeeds-this-classic-musical-review-1

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• News: Acts and Answered: Jenna Bainbridge

  July 31, 2011

  by Deb Flomberg

  Jenna Bainbridge is a local actress who has been making a big impact on stage with PHAMALy (Physically Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League.) She was stunning as Belle in last year’s production of Beauty and the Beast, she recently competed in the Miss Colorado Pageant, and she’s currently wowing audiences with her heartwarming and lovely performance as Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

  http://www.examiner.com/theater-in-denver/acts-and-answered-jenna-bainbridge?CID=examiner_alerts_article#ixzz1TnR37it9

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• News: Diversity boosts PHAMALY's 'How to Succeed'

  July 28, 2011

  by Adam Goldstein

  Any production of “How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” runs the inherent risk of obsolescence.

  The comedy may have picked up the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1962, but much of the material shows the clear signs of its age. The workplace antics are seeped in the politics, gender roles and hang-ups of the 1960s, elements that can be tough to make relevant for modern audiences.

  But PHAMALY’s current production manages to do just that, thanks to a thoughtful imagining by director Steve Wilson and a skilled cast. The story of J. Pierrepont Finch (Jeremy Palmer) and his rapid rise to the top echelons of an average corporation sparkles with fresh insight. Palmer’s ambition doesn’t come off as overly raw and heartless, and the comedy’s lead female role doesn’t feel stuck in any clichéd gender roles.

  http://www.aurorasentinel.com/guide_entertainment/on_stage/article_ad6ff85a-b921-11e0-b00f-001cc4c002e0.html

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• News: How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - Colorado Backstage

  July 26, 2011

  by Holly Bartges

  It’s not enough to state PHAMALY’s production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying at the Space Theatre is spectacular. That’s expected from Colorado Backstage and from me. It’s a well-known fact I am a Fan of these amazing artistic people.

  http://www.coloradobackstage.com/reviews/phamaly/hts.shtml

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