Satire takes the stage with PHAMALY

Edith Weiss, the director of The Physically Handicapped Musical Theatre Artists League’s (PHAMALY’s) upcoming play, Vox Phamalia: Quadrapalooza took time out of her busy rehearsal schedule to chat with Out Front Colorado over latte’s. The wild and wacky Weiss was as full of snap, crackle and pop as Weiss Kwispies.

Animated and upbeat, Weiss indicated that this fourth entry in the Vox Phamalia series is funnier and more outrageous than ever. Each year Weiss heads up a writing workshop in which the performers come up with ideas and then write the sketches.

Included in the titles for this year’s show are send-ups of cinematic classics such as: Footless, The King’s F***king Speech and 10,987 Hours.

This year a character by the name of Dr. Twanna is featured explaining how to answer queries such as: “Were you born that way?” and “How do you have sex if you’re paralyzed?” Mother Goose even gets into the act coming to terms with a group of excessively politically correct pre-schoolers.

Cast member Lucy Roucis, who appeared in the recent film, Sex and Other Drugs, gets to play Mother Goose in the scene with the youngsters. When she attempts to tell them the story of Snow White, hackles rise because of an imagined political incorrectness.

A student with a brain injury is offended when Dopey gets mentioned.

Happy gets a bad rap because someone gets offended identifying the word with her being over medicated.

And Snow White herself even gets “dissed” for racial profiling.

Weiss pointed out that when you push it to the extreme point it makes you realize how silly this all is. When you can’t feel free to say Snow White and must use the words “snow flesh-hued” it stops communication and shuts it down. Weiss believes that politically correct lingo started in an effort to be sensitive and has ended up shutting people off and isolating them.

In the sketch entitled The King’s F**cking Speech the writer took out the stutter and replaced it with Tourettes Syndrome. Company member Mark Dissette plays the king.
Weiss says that she loves working with this company even more than doing her overseas shows, which, with the downturn in the economy makes one wonder about the price of Weiss in China. (Sorry). These people don’t have time for little self-pity parties. Stomach aches and headaches are small potatoes. They have overcome lots bigger challenges.
Weiss said, “If you can laugh at yourself you’re a victor. Otherwise you’re just another victim.” The director made it evident that lots of the stories informing these sketches actually come out of true-life experiences. These people write from what they know.

One example of this is the story of a young wheelchair bound woman named Nicki Lepetit Runge who is also hearing-impaired. She is going to this big meeting with a CEO on the top floor of a skyscraper. One by one the other people in the elevator get off and she arrives at the 13th floor. When she does the elevator door she faces won’t open. So she begins hammering on the door. Finally she becomes aware of the fact that on the top floor the elevator door opens on the opposite side of the elevator. It’s a very exclusive floor with a need for high-level security. People were probably yelling for her to turn around but she wasn’t aware since she couldn’t hear.

Runge is a brilliant actor who is starting a new company called the Rocky Mountain Deaf Theatre.

Weiss described the show as “irreverent, funny and profoundly moving. We go for funny and ‘moving’ just comes along for the ride,” she said.

‘Vox Phamalia: Quadrapalooza’ plays through Nov. 6 at the Avenue Theatre, 417 E. 17th Ave. On the Web at http://phamaly.org.

Did you know?

The Physically Handicapped Musical Artists League was formed in 1989 when a group of students at the Boettcher School in Denver became frustrated by the lack of opportunities for people living with disabilities to work in the theatre? Company members are physically or cognitively challenged. Their disabilities range from being blind or hearing-impaired to those who are ambulatory challenged and require a wheel chair.