Joy In My Ears

(2026)

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Common Boots Theatre presents

Joy in my ears

A FREE NEW AUDIO-LED THEATRE FESTIVAL

Joy in My Ears is a FREE audio-led mini-festival to be held March 21-22, 2026 at Small World Centre (180, Shaw St, Toronto, ON M6G 2W5) and online, over Zoom. This is the culmination of audio-led work we engaged in the last number of years and brings together ongoing collaborators with new partnerships. Presented in Cooperation with BALANCE for Blind Adults.

Read more about the exciting line up below or click here to register!

Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, and Ontario Arts council for supporting Common Boots Theatre. This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.

Saturday March 21st

Two Birds One Stone
2pm

When Palestinian theatre maker Rimah Jabr moved to Toronto she became friends with Natasha Greenblatt, a Jewish Canadian playwright. They decided to make a play together… and it’s mostly true. Two Birds One Stone asks complicated questions about identity, privilege, and the search for home.

First created in 2016, Natasha and Rimah are now returning to their autofictional play with the support of director, Guillermo Verdecchia, and Common Boots Theatre. What does it mean to tell these stories, together, in the face of genocide?

For this festival, this reading has received additional Access Dramaturgy support from Alex Bulmer in order to be more accessible to Blind Audiences. It also features the beautiful sounds of the Oud, played live by Mariam Shakaa.

Two Birds One Stone
A Two Birds Theatre Creation, Presented by Common Boots Theatre
Created and Performed by Natasha Greenblatt and Rimah Jabr
Directed and Dramaturged by Guillermo Verdecchia
Access Dramaturgy by Alex Bulmer
Oud Instrumentals by Mariam Shakaa

Alex Bulmer, a white woman with short dirty blond hair, wears a brown leather jacket and a black v neck top. They hold black over-ear headphones with both hands, and press them lightly against their ears. Their expression is focused and attentive - they look directly at the camera. The background is a plain, light-coloured wall.

Alex Bulmer

A young white woman smiles. She wears a grey strappy top and a blue shirt. She is standing in a leafy park.

Natasha Greenblatt

Guillermo Verdecchia

A palestinian woman with black hair in a black buttoned up jacked smiles quietly into the camera. She is surrounded by autumnal trees.

Rimah Jabr

A young palestinian woman seated while holding an Oud. She is wearing a black dress and a turquoise patterned shawl. She is surrounded by several mics and a music stand. The floor is a patterned red rug.

Mariam Shakaa

Sunday March 22nd

Unsightly Creations – Works-in-Progress Sharings
2pm

Dive into the minds of three brilliant blind artists in an exclusive sharing of their newest creations. A works-in-progress sharing by iconic playwrights Rachel Ganz, Vivian Chong, and Jess Watkin. Directed by Alex Bulmer. Presented in Partnership with Unsightly Arts.

Vivian stands in soft stage lighting, looking down at the brown ukulele she holds in her hands. She has shoulder-length brown hair and wears a blue sweatshirt with white contrast stitching and a white collar. Her signature yellow oval sunglasses frame her face as she places her fingers on the strings and strums. An orange beaded necklace rests at her neck, and she is softly smiling.

Vivian Chong is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans theatre, music, visual art, film, and dance. She is a sculptor, painter, singer-songwriter, playwright, theatre creator, actor, dancer, filmmaker, comic book author and teacher. A Dora Theatre Award nominee and a Toronto Book Award finalist, Chong is a leading advocate for accessible art and theatre. She teaches accessible yoga, serves as a youth leader for the blind and partially sighted community, and works as an audio description consultant to expand access to the arts. Her acclaimed solo works include The Sunglasses Monologue, Dancing With The Universe, and Blind Dates, the latter achieving 25 sold-out performances in 2025.

Her graphic memoir Dancing After TEN was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and released in an accessible edition. Chong’s visual art has been exhibited at the Gardiner Museum and beyond, and her recent credits include a lead role at Prairie Theatre Exchange and the 2025 Louise Garfield Playwright Award from Nightwood Theatre.

Rachel faces the camera in a close-up portrait. She has dark, curly shoulder-length hair and a calm, neutral expression. She wears a yellow top with thin red stripes, photographed in soft light against a pale background.

Rachel Ganz is a multidisciplinary writer with a passion for disability advocacy and representation. Her obsessions include literary thrillers, comedy, dogs and the Toronto Raptors. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School (2016) and holds a Master of Arts in Creative Nonfiction from King’s University. Her theatre credits include The Queen’s Eulogy (Newborn Theatre, 2017), Plucked (Newborn Theatre, 2016), and Teach Me (Newborn Theatre, 2012).

Jess stands against a bright green background with both hands covering their eyes. They have long brown hair worn to one side and wear red lipstick. They are dressed in a light beige button-up shirt and wear rings on their fingers.

Dr Jess Watkin (she / they) is a Blind artist-scholar making performance and art decentring vision and using methods of softness to create spaces of multi Disability joy and access. She is a creator, dramaturg, educator, consultant, and facilitator working in Toronto. Her edited anthology Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada is the first of its kind in this country. 

Alex Bulmer, a white woman with short dirty blond hair, wears a brown leather jacket and a black v neck top. They hold black over-ear headphones with both hands, and press them lightly against their ears. Their expression is focused and attentive - they look directly at the camera. The background is a plain, light-coloured wall.

Award winning Blind artist Alex Bulmer has over 35 professional years across stage, screen, radio, and education. She is fuelled by a curiosity of the improbable, dedicated to inter-dependent practice, and deeply informed by her experience of becoming blind.

Alex is co-founder and Artistic Director of Unsightly Arts (formerly Fire and Rescue Arts), lead curator of CoMotionFestival with Harbourfront Centre, and former Artistic Director of Common Boots Theatre. As New Works and New Writing Manager with Graeae Theatre Company, she created the groundbreaking Write To Play and Play lab program, which transformed Disability-led playwriting in the UK. Alex is the award-winning writer of multiple BBC radio productions, writer of Breathe (Olympic 2012 Opening Ceremonies), writer of Dora-nominated plays SMUDGE and Perceptual Archaeology (or How to Travel Blind), and co-writer of the UK’s BAFTA-nominated television series Cast Offs. She has multiple acting credits in theatre and film, and is co-editor of Rebellious Bodies and Radical Acts: Deaf and Disabled Artists Raise the Curtain on Cripping the Stage, due for release in Canada in March 2026.

Featuring these wonderful actors!

Yousef stands smiling in a deep blue shirt against a light brown background. He has shoulder length curly hair.

Yousef Kadoura

Alexia stands smiling with her mouth closed. She has long blond hair and is wearing a black top. The background is grey.

Alexia Vassos

Sara stands smiling. She has short blonde hair and is wearing a black top. She is standing against a cream background.

Sara Porter

Under a head of sandy coloured hair which gives the illusion of “I just woke up like this” but also took far too long to perfect, is a scruffy face, hopefully not quite showing my age. My face has a not so subtle mix of freckles and dots and hosts a sly grin that implies I know more about what’s going on than I probably do. This sly grin is second to my most defining characteristic. My left eye a deep ocean blue and my right a jet-black fading into midnight. I am wearing a thin, green sweater with minor and very fashionable rips that, yes, I did myself, under a black leather jacket.

Nate Bitton

Community Dinner 4pm – 5pm

Join us for a free community dinner in between our two shows. Share bread, soak in the laughter of community, and spend time with Common Boots Theatre, Unsightly Arts, and the artists from Joy in My Ears! This event is exclusively for in-person attendees of our festival. Catering by the one and only Tita Flips! Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for making this happen!

 

Apocalypse Play, or Bundle of Joy – Integrated Audio Described Screening
5:30PM

Bask in the delightful recording of our 2022 production of Apocalypse Play, with Integrated Audio Descriptions produced with dramaturgical support from Alex Bulmer.

Real-life mother/daughter feminist theatre makers Kate Lushington and Natasha Greenblatt return to beautiful Hillcrest Park to present their seriously funny, searingly personal tale about motherhood, legacy and the future… with a twist. Last year Natasha was grappling with whether or not to have a child in the face of climate change and pandemic instability… this year she’s seven and half months pregnant and the world has only gotten more terrifying!

How do we hold onto hope for our collective future when apocalyptic fears loom within our bodies? Apocalypse Play, or Bundle of Joy is a “funny, thoughtful, painful and engrossing” show about what we inherit and what we pass on, as the clock ticks towards climate catastrophe. Who will take care of the future? And will there be dancing?

Starring Kate Lushington and Natasha Greenblatt. Directed by ahdri zhina mandiela

There will be a 20 minute talkback after this screening on the subject of Integrated Audio Descriptions.

A young white woman smiles. She wears a grey strappy top and a blue shirt. She is standing in a leafy park.

Natasha Greenblatt

Kate Lushington

Alex Bulmer, a white woman with short dirty blond hair, wears a brown leather jacket and a black v neck top. They hold black over-ear headphones with both hands, and press them lightly against their ears. Their expression is focused and attentive - they look directly at the camera. The background is a plain, light-coloured wall.

Alex Bulmer

ahdri zhina mandiela

TO REGISTER, CLICK HERE 

Accessibility

Youngplace is fully accessible by Ontario standards, with a wheelchair ramp at the 180 Shaw Street doors, an elevator servicing every floor and a fully accessible washroom on every level. The nearby 63 Ossington bus on the TTC is wheelchair accessible.

Small World Centre has step free access and will have spaces for both wheelchairs and service dogs for all of our shows/events.

To view our Venue Guide as a .pdf, click here! To download it as a word .docx file, click here.

March 21-22, 2026

Small World Centre
180 Shaw St, Toronto, ON
M6J 2W5