Jul 28, 2026 · 40 min · 12 segments
As part of the 2026 Developmental Disabilities Conference, Corinne Melon, Managing Director, Phamaly Theatre Company, talks about accessible theater for people with disabilities. Series…
Corinne MillenGuestSeanHostDenver, to meet with the family theater, a professional theater company whose mission is to be a creative home for theater artists with disabilities, to model a theatrical process for people with disabilities, and to upend conventional narratives by transforming individuals, audiences, and the world.
You are some of the founding members of FAMILY.
Can you tell me how FAMILY started? We
all went to a special ed school and experienced theater there.
After school, nobody would hire us.
We decided let's start our own theater company.
It's amazing what this company has accomplished over the years and the number of people that have been a part of it.
We wanted to do Chorus Line, but
Well, we're going to be doing Chorus Line this year.
It's amazing.
It took us 35 years.
There you go.
But
every time we'd bring it up, they'd say, you don't have the talent.
You don't have the support behind you.
Chorus
Line is a show about inclusivity and getting to know somebody.
But in order to be in Chorus Line, you had to be stick thin.
You had to be able-bodied.
Ladies up
to here.
You're going to see 30 people who are all doing the choreography in their way and the way their body is.
Isn't that actually more of the message of the show than if it wasn't that?
In preparation of their production of A Chorus Line, family invited me to help out with their rehearsals, specifically for the grand finale choreographed by our friend Jerry of Feel the Beat.
Five, six, seven, eight.
Denver, to meet with the family theater, a professional theater company whose mission is to be a creative home for theater artists with disabilities, to model a theatrical process for people with disabilities, and to upend conventional narratives by transforming individuals, audiences, and the world.
You are some of the founding members of FAMILY.
Can you tell me how FAMILY started? We
all went to a special ed school and experienced theater there.
After school, nobody would hire us.
We decided let's start our own theater company.
It's amazing what this company has accomplished over the years and the number of people that have been a part of it.
We wanted to do Chorus Line, but
Well, we're going to be doing Chorus Line this year.
It's amazing.
It took us 35 years.
There you go.
But
every time we'd bring it up, they'd say, you don't have the talent.
You don't have the support behind you.
Chorus
Line is a show about inclusivity and getting to know somebody.
But in order to be in Chorus Line, you had to be stick thin.
You had to be able-bodied.
Ladies up
to here.
You're going to see 30 people who are all doing the choreography in their way and the way their body is.
Isn't that actually more of the message of the show than if it wasn't that?
In preparation of their production of A Chorus Line, family invited me to help out with their rehearsals, specifically for the grand finale choreographed by our friend Jerry of Feel the Beat.
Five, six, seven, eight.
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