Skip to content

Expanding Theatre Off Stage and Online with Accessible Sound

by Jennifer Vosters

A second grade classroom with around two dozen young students and an adult teacher, sitting on the carpet and facing a projection screen featuring the sign language performer from "The Art of Accessible Sound."
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arizona Theatre Matters
Along with providing programming for their local schools and community, Arizona Theatre Matters has attracted more than 120,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel—an unheard-of number for theaters operating under a traditional in-person model, says Simpson. Their videos are captioned in more than 300 languages and available in 194 countries.

With a new audio apprenticeship and a kid-friendly intro to inclusive theatre-making, Arizona Theatre Matters is putting accessible sound center stage.

Does theatre require a stage? Does it need lights, props, actors in real time, or audiences in their seats? Come to think of it, what is theatre? 

Arizona Theatre Matters (ATM) poses these questions to audiences all over the world. 

“We strive to be universally accessible,” says Artistic Director Jeanmarie Simpson. “We exist within what I call the power of limitations, and so we work within the arena of an artist’s talent and skill and ability, whatever that is.” 

Every ATM show is fully captioned, digital, and free of charge. Featuring voice acting in English and Spanish, sign language performances by Deaf actors, original sound design, and stunning visuals, ATM employs a multitalented team of artists to bring new plays, classics, and adaptations to life.

Their 2026 season featured a game-changing new member: Sydney Wolfe, audio apprentice. 

Supported by the new apprenticeships grant from Shakespeare in American Communities, the position was a natural fit for ATM’s mission. But Wolfe’s contributions surpassed all expectations, Simpson says, “infusing our work with new perspective, new curiosity and wonder.” 

A person with light skin tone and long brown hair sitting in an audio studio with headphones on, editing sound files at a computer desk.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arizona Theatre Matters
Audio apprentice Sydney Wolfe’s work has opened up new possibilities for Arizona Theatre Matters. Artistic Director Jeanmarie Simpson hopes to continue welcoming new audio apprentices to follow in Wolfe’s footsteps. “This program is phenomenal,” she says. “It’s been mind-blowing to hear [from other grantee companies] about all the incredible work that these apprentices are doing.”

The Art of Accessible Sound

In an interview about her work, Wolfe said she was drawn to the apprenticeship to build on her strong music background by sharpening her technical and logistical skills. She helped with voice acting recording sessions, edited raw audio for quality control, and crafted original soundscapes for several ATM productions, including Lear (a solo adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy). 

“First she created this incredible score, then she created all these sound effects,” says Simpson, noting how Wolfe built a compelling design by recording sounds from Lear’s only prop: a cloak. “That would just never occur to me.” 

“This apprenticeship really allowed me to add more tools to the toolbelt and to also trust my own creative intuition when it comes to creating Foley textures [real-world sound effects] and musical arrangements,” Wolfe said in the interview. 

Wolfe also served as sound designer for one of ATM’s newest productions, The Art of Accessible Sound, which has racked up 230,000 views in just five months. 

A woven basked filled with household objects including aluminum foil, a screwdriver, a washcloth, a hairbrush, a wooden spoon, string, and a key, all used to create practical sound effects.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arizona Theatre Matters
ATM’s inaugural audio apprentice, Sydney Wolfe, used ordinary objects like cloth, foil, spoons, brushes, and keys to create sound effects for virtual theatre productions. The apprenticeship allowed Wolfe to “to learn the ins and outs of audio production when it comes to not just the creative side, but the technical and logistical side of timelines, ensuring standards, quality control, and of course creating a soundscape that aligns with the piece and what the director is looking for.”
A person with dark skin tone, short black hair, and a short beard performing artistic sign language against an abstract painted backdrop of colorful desert flowers.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arizona Theatre Matters
The Art of Accessible Sound features the artistic sign language performance of Ololade Adekanmi and English narration by Ray Williams. It was written by Leila Navarro and Jeanmarie Simpson, directed by Simpson, and funded by the Salt River Project (SRP).
Three adults sitting in an audio studio with microphones, speakers, and soundboards.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arizona Theatre Matters
“When the pandemic hit, we suddenly realized that we could get closer to realizing our mission by being online,” says Artistic Director Jeanmarie Simpson. “We could reach many, many more patrons who aren’t able to get to a live theatre, patrons who aren’t able to travel at all from home, patrons who are Deaf, who are blind, who have all manner of disabilities.”

Designed for school-aged kids in Pinal County, Arizona (and available for everyone on their YouTube channel), The Art of Accessible Sound guides young audiences of all abilities to co-create a story of their own community using their imaginations. Through characters like a cactus wren, a tortoise, and a coyote, audiences envision themselves at landmarks like the Gila River and Teapot Mountain, solving problems together with everyone’s unique talents and traditions.  

Wolfe’s sound design included original music and a blend of existing recordings, special effects, and Foley . . . including crunching a potato chip to mimic a tortoise’s footfalls. 

With universal accessibility at the heart of its script, sounds, and visuals, The Art of Accessible Sound gently challenges preconceptions about theatre itself: what it is, and how it can truly be made for everyone.  

It makes the case “that theatre is storytelling, and it can be told in myriad ways,” says Simpson. From apprentice to audience, everyone has a part to play.