SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Denver is home to one of just a few U.S. stage companies whose priority is to make theater more accessible for actors and audiences with disabilities. Now it faces a potential 10% hit to its budget due to new federal funding priorities. Colorado Public Radio Stephanie Wolf has this story on Phamaly Theatre Company.
STEPHANIE WOLF, BYLINE: Phamaly's recent production of "Pericles" was at a theater-in-the-round. That's not unusual for Shakespearean work but this "Pericles" is a different experience.
(SOUNDBITE OF AUDIENCE SINGING)
WOLF: The audience is on stage with the actors, sitting in a large circle under warm theater lights. They help tell the story using a theatrical technique designed for people with cognitive disabilities, like autism. Scenes are distilled down into playful games, and participants step into the center of the circle with an actor to perform their interpretation of the game.
(SOUNDBITE OF STAGE PLAY, "PERICLES")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: Pericles.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: Pericles.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: When we say, Pericles, you say, oh, my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh, my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: Oh, my head.
WOLF: It gives people a chance to express themselves in a way that feels right to them, rather than how society expects them to act. Actor Vin Ernst thinks the method pairs well with "Pericles," a play about a prince who cycles through love and loss many times.
VIN ERNST: To be able to bring people who may have never found a community that they really 100% belong in into that storytelling process of kind of being found after being lost from the ones that you love and the people around you, I think that's very powerful in a lot of ways.
WOLF: This is a new style of theater for Phamaly, and it's allowed the company to reach a population in the disability community they hadn't been able to prior. But hours before dress rehearsal, Phamaly learned that the National Endowment for the Arts was terminating the grant program funding this very work.
CORINNE MELON: It was really just a punch to the gut.
WOLF: Corinne Melon is Phamaly's managing director. Melon expects to lose a second federal grant, which would leave a more than $90,000 hole in the company's finances.
MELON: Usually, federal funding is the most secure grant funding that you can get and the most reliable.
WOLF: For years, the NEA has offered grants to fund art in underserved communities, but the agency has recently shifted its funding priorities in line with President Trump's executive orders, targeting diversity, equity and inclusion. The NEA did not respond to an interview request.
MELON: I know some arts organizations and some nonprofits are taking their DEI statements off their websites because they're afraid. And if we do, then it's our entire mission.
WOLF: And that's been the mission since 1989, when Kathleen Traylor and four other actors who use wheelchairs decided to start their own company. They were frustrated about their experiences at other theaters.
KATHLEEN TRAYLOR: They could figure out how to get full-size elephants onto a stage, but to get a wheelchair onto a stage was baffling to them. And I think that it was just scary.
WOLF: They focused on musicals like "Guys and Dolls" and "Oklahoma! "
TRAYLOR: We didn't want to write original shows that were about disability initially. We wanted to do plays about real people who just so happen to have disabilities because that's what life is.
WOLF: Today, Phamaly has made its mark on American theater and does more productions that put disability center stage. They've also worked to make sure the audience experiences are also accessible, adding sensory-friendly performances and adaptive shows. Co-founder Teri Westerman Wagner says it hasn't been easy.
TERI WESTERMAN WAGNER: We should not have succeeded, but I think it was by sheer determination of all of us that we just weren't going to let it fail.
WOLF: That resonates with Phamaly's Corinne Melon as she thinks about what's next. She's been applying for grants like a, quote, "madwoman" and says there could be cuts to programming next year if she can't backfill the lost funds. Even so, Phamaly intends to lean into accessibility and inclusivity even harder, something she says will be reflected in the new season.
MELON: We are going to keep doing what we are doing and keep doing it at the highest level that we possibly can because it is so important that those voices are not silenced.
WOLF: Here's actor Vin Ernst.
ERNST: The biggest thing that Phamaly has given me is just a deeper knowledge of myself and also given me that kind of strength to not be afraid of that when it comes to my disabilities, and to go into other spaces that may not be made for me in that same way and not be afraid to advocate for myself.
WOLF: Ernst says that goes for the theater and beyond the stage.
For NPR News, I'm Stephanie Wolf in Denver.
(SOUNDBITE OF GEORGE BENSON'S "SIX TO FOUR") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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