Tell It Like It Is

When Phamaly, Denver’s theater company for actors with disabilities, puts on a formal production, it’s all business from start to finish, usually to rave reviews. But once a year, Phamaly stalwarts get to cut loose a little while performing material they’ve written and developed themselves for the comedy-sketch show Vox...

By Susan Froyd

October 31, 2013

Audio By Carbonatix

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Billboard - Slot Inline - Content - Labeled - No Desktop",
            "component": "23668565",
            "insertPoint": "2",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
          },{
            "name": "STN Player - Float - Mobile Only ",
            "component": "23853568",
            "insertPoint": "2",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
          },{
            "name": "Editor Picks",
            "component": "17242653",
            "insertPoint": "4",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
          },{
            "name": "Inline Links",
            "component": "18838239",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 8,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          },{
            "name": "GPT - 2x Rectangles Desktop, Tower on Mobile - Labeled",
            "component": "24956856",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 8,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
            "maxInsertions": 25 
          
          },{
            "name": "Inline Links",
            "component": "18838239",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 12,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          },{
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard to Tower - Slot Auto-select - Labeled",
            "component": "17676724",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 12,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          }
        ]

When Phamaly, Denver’s theater company for actors with disabilities, puts on a formal production, it’s all business from start to finish, usually to rave reviews. But once a year, Phamaly stalwarts get to cut loose a little while performing material they’ve written and developed themselves for the comedy-sketch show Vox Phamalia, much of it with a bite that openly makes light of their disabilities and the public’s reactions to them.

This season’s Vox, titled G.I.M.P. Nation, will continue to lay all the embarrassing stuff on the line with a wink and a laugh, but as perennial Vox director Edith Weiss notes, it will do so with an infusion of new voices.

“This year, we have a lot of young people who’ve never worked with Phamaly before, and that has inspired different kinds of pieces — like a takeoff on Sex and the City called Sex and the Pity, where four young, pretty girls with disabilities talk honestly but humorously about a new kind of dating hell,” she explains. Other topics? Weiss says that no subject is off-limits for this group, and they cover it all, from suicide to an “in-depth conversation about dwarf tossing.”

See G.I.M.P. Nation at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through November 3 at work | space, 2701 Lawrence Street; the October 27 performance will be audio-described for blind patrons. Tickets are $20 to $24; go to phamaly.org or call 303-575-0005 for reservations and information.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.; Mon., Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m. Starts: Oct. 24. Continues through Nov. 3, 2013

Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

A message from Culture Editor Kristen Fiore: If you value independent journalism, please consider making a contribution to support our continued coverage of Denver’s vibrant culture and arts scenes.

Support Today