2025 Audience Reviews

Company: Kendra Plant
Show: The Kendra Plant Variety Hour: Good Things Edition! -with special guests-
Venue: Mixed Blood

Inspiring Humans

While this is personally not a stand out experience for me, I am glad I went. This is what Fringe is all about. Trying things! Producing for the first time! Being Unperfect! Supporting artists in every stage of their careers! There were definitely transition/staging/lighting issues, and the act lineup felt a bit random. That being said, despite only giving this 2 kitties, I do recommend this show if you're curious about entering the Fringe lottery yourself -- because producing a show is much harder than you think & Kendra pulls back the curtain on what it's really like to take the stage for the first time.

Company: The Bearded Company
Show: Dice of Destiny: Neon City
Venue: Theatre in the Round

Fun, Silly, and Few Good Laughs

A casual, fun time for 80's lovers or Role-Playing Gamers! The structure and pacing was great and the actors had a strong sense about when to jump in and embody a character -- and when to move on to the next scene. Vibrant main-character development and costuming. The keyboardist was great - they helped set each scene excellently. The Story Master did not appear to actually roll the dice, though, which I thought, was kind of the point of this. And there were seemingly pre-written elements (action sequences). At times, the improvisers talked over each other rather than listening and building something together. It also would be great to have more inputs from the audience, such as coming up with a cheesy 80's movie catchphrase at the climax of a scene, or help the fill in the background of the character their core fear or important prop. Or even a timer goes off every 10 minutes and the Story Master pauses and asks the audience something (who is in the alley, what is in the bag, what song is playing). A few suggestions to make it come alive for the audience. Overall a fun and light-hearted show, you really can't go wrong here! From what I understand the story will be different each time too so that's cool.

Company: Deconstructing Directing
Show: Director's Cut: Where Play Becomes Magic
Venue: Rarig Kilburn Theatre

Interesting for Curious Non Theater-Makers

If you're not a theater-maker, and are curious about how theater rehearsals may go, definitely check it out! I think that this it is very worthwhile from that perspective. If you've been in a rehearsal room before -- as an actor, stage manager, director, designer, this might not be for you, since you experience this every day. I will say that I appreciated the opportunity to see another director's process and the work they are doing to build up free and shared resources for directors. That being said, the presentation itself was too unstructured for me personally -- for example, it would be nice to have shorter scripts for more run-throughs, an actual table for the table read (so the actors are anchored and the audience experiences closer to what it's like), and to share the goals of a director for each kind of rehearsal ahead of doing the work. I also struggled to not "jump in" with my thoughts and questions for the actors -- so if you're used to actively participating in rehearsals, it's hard to hold back your own artistic thoughts in this setting.

Company: SUPERMOON
Show: All Your Shimmering Gold
Venue: Rarig Stoll Thrust Theatre

Just WOW go experience it!

I'm not sure how to describe this incredibly unique and powerful experience... a global product launch, Dr. Strangelove, and the Ride of the Valkyries? The play/presentation is meta, funny, dramatic, classical, shocking... with outstanding acting, staging, lighting, projections, and costumes. If you're looking for a polished performance this is it. Terrifying and beautiful and hilarious all at the same time. This is what modern theater should be doing! MORE PLEASE 🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱