Actor, Director, Writer, Advocate, former Artistic Director of Phamaly Theatre Company

Alexandria, VA

Regan Linton is an actor, director, writer, and theater artist originally from Denver, Colorado. She is the former artistic director of Phamaly Theatre Company, a preeminent disability-affirmative nonprofit theater in Denver. She is co-director of the award-winning documentary imperfect (2021), which follows actors with disabilities from Phamaly through their production of the musical Chicago. Linton uses a manual wheelchair due to a car accident in college, and she has become a prominent voice for inclusion in the national theater community.

“After my spinal cord injury, I had a lot of apprehension about continuing [in theater],” she said. “But I worked up the gumption to go to an audition and just kept doing it. I did volunteer shows, took classes, anything to get experience and feedback.”

Linton received her master's degree in social work at the University of Denver, and her master of fine arts degree in acting from the University of California San Diego as the first wheelchair user ever to attend the prestigious program. She has performed with Arena Stage (DC), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club, Pasadena Playhouse, Big-I (Osaka, Japan), Mixed Blood (Minnesota), the Apothetae (New York), and Phamaly, among others. Her writing has been featured in New Mobility Magazine, Theatre Forum, national TCG Diversity Salons, the Hollywood Fringe Festival, and Chalk Repertory Theater (Los Angeles).

Among Linton’s most gratifying accomplishments are being cast in roles that aren’t disability-specific and illustrating that disability is just one facet of a person’s identity. “I've worked extremely hard to build a comprehensive awareness of how my disability functions in my overall artist identity,” she said. “Every time I can use art to help people transform their perspective—whether it's acting in a role, directing a piece, writing a different narrative, being an artistic consultant, or setting a unique vision as an artistic director—it's incredibly meaningful.” 

Linton said her disability has made her a more empathetic, interesting human. “It's given me the greatest skills of all—adaptation, flexibility, creativity—which I employ regularly in my work. The accommodations vary according to the project—sometimes it's housing, sometimes it's extra time on breaks for the bathroom, and sometimes it's nothing. Mostly, I've learned to communicate to people what will support me to be successful. And I've learned to talk to people like they are people, without artifice.”