Blind Dates: Vivian Chong

Award winning author, triathlete, dancer, and Dora Award nominated performer. Vivian Chong shares her world of dating, delving into romances, crushes, rejections, and self growth, as she touches hearts with her tender words. Vivian‘s engaging storytelling is interwoven with her original compositions for a frank, funny and at times unbelievable performance.

BIO:

Vivian Chong is a theatre creator, playwright, painter, author, comicbook artist, singer songwriter, dancer, potter and athlete. Her graphic novel DANCING AFTER TEN was the winner of the US Library Journal Award and was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award in 2020.  Vivian was a pioneer of making accessible graphic novel, she transformed Dancing After Ten from a graphic memoir into an audio play for people with print disability. The accessible version is available at The Centre For Equitable Library. Her one woman show The Sunglasses Monologue was on tour from Toronto to Kenmore. The Sunglasses Monologue was part of the Next Stage Festival in 2022.

Her performance in Dancing with the Universe was nominated for the Dora Theatre Award for best performer of the year in 2022. In addition in 2021 Vivian was recognized  by Achilles Canada as the most inspirational female athlete and was also the recipient of the Ontario Volunteer Service of the Year Award.  Participants with vision loss all across Canada have been benefiting from Vivian’s weekly accessible yoga classes on the digital platform. She is a leader of inclusion and wellness in the community.

For the past 5 years Vivian has been passionate about working as an audio description consultant for theatre, graphic novels and children picture books. Vivian is inspired by everything in her life. In 2019 her ceramic life size seeing eye dog, Catcher sculpture was showcased at The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto. In 2022 Vivian was featured in CoMotion Disability Art Festival at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. In 2023 she was a keynote speaker representing Canada at Otros Territorios, Encuentro De Artes Festival in Monterrey, Mexico. Her first commissioned film project Strong Woman is featured on Common Boots Theatre’s digital platform in 2024.

Accessibility:

Blind Dates will be a Relaxed Performance

During a Relaxed Environment performance, an audience member can:

• enter and exit the theatre,
• move around throughout the theatre,
• can make noise or sounds,
• those who need to keep their phone on will be able to do so, on silent or on vibrate,
• throughout the show, there will be some light over the audience
• The sound will not go above approximately 85 Db for extended periods of time.

There are no changes to the show

Blind Dates will be Blind Friendly

Blind Friendly Performances includes everything for a Relaxed Environment PLUS elements of the show have been created or adapted to better include Blind audience members.

All performances will be created with Low Vision and Blind audiences in mind and with the aid of a Consultant

Elements that might be created or adapted to better include Blind & Low Vision audience members:

• directional sound,
• embedded non-traditional description,
• an audio-based performance introduction,
• audio-based staging.

Blind Dates will be a Captioned Performance

Captioned Performances are where spoken dialogue and all elements of sound are projected onto a screen to enable access for audiences who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing or anyone who needs additional visual or text based reinforcement of the play. Created with both practicality and artistry in mind, and is visible to the entire audience.