Sub-Total
2025 Audience Reviews
Member Reviews
The following reviews were submitted by Fringe Member: Lee Samelson
Company: Marie Cooney Stories
Show: Journey to Joy, Again
Venue: Rarig Nolte Xperimental Theatre
Living out a happy ending to her own story
This was really great to see, can't go wrong with personal stories. I can relate as I have done a show touching upon the intersectionality of being on the LGBTQ+ spectrum and having a disability that might not be so apparent at first glace. I also have to honor Marie for saying what needed to be said about the federal regime and the impacts of their impositions on the real lives of people. Hearing about Tucker and the little boy was touching.
Company: J&L Productions
Show: Make America Gray Again!
Venue: Phoenix Theater
Something I followed along with well
There were enough clever work hooks to keep this one engaging. The satirical roasting of the Heritage Foundation is pure gold! Great cast and crew with enough deeper meaning to go on.
-2025-06-16-12-40-14.png?Action=thumbnail&Width=600&Height=400&algorithm=fill)
Company: Peake Productions
Show: What I Should Have Said
Venue: Phoenix Theater
A Poignant Highlight of the 2025 Fringe
It really built up toward a culmination that really hit the emotional nail on the head.
Company: Jason Schommer
Show: 50: A Totally Rad Comedy About the Gnarly Reckoning of a Gen Xer!
Venue: Strike Theater
Hoping for a real life happy ending
I have been on the same exact stage before, echoing some of the same theme of unrequited love, longing for real connection as a gay man and feeling invisible in the romantic world. Jason was refreshingly direct and vulnerable, not dressing that existential bedrock core up in heavy metaphor. I really feel for him and I understand a Fringe performance to be a way of expressing one's real talented value to the world as a reaction to feeling unfairly overlooked or glossed over. The artist expresses himself well with a degree of energy and knows how to work a crowd and embody hilariousness. It felt like a collection of short stories where some scenes I followed along with better than others and impacting me in a deep place.
Company: Tree.Lock//Productions
Show: The Professionals: A Broadcast
Venue: The Southern Theatre
Futuristic Theme and Unique
This was a good one for atmospherics- bringing futuristic themes with the haunting classic backdrop of Southern theater. It bounced around between energetic dancing and meditative reflection. Some portions of it had so such an abundance of interesting wordplay gems in such a short time. It made me a bit excited for AI in a way so I could know what a certain ancestor looked like at a certain time while knowing that it too is a system that could fail and leave us stranded if we become too dependent on it. A lot of time must have gone into choosing and sequencing the music.
Company: Griffy LaPlante
Show: Salt
Venue: Barbara Barker Center for Dance
Really Highlights the Activists’ Dilemma
This dilemma often follow when an organized group attempts the conventional methods of trying to sway key decision makers only to get ignored. Then there comes a point when activists go into escalation tactics which the outsider or normie types who haven't set foot in movement space critique as “that is not the proper way to make change/ you are only hurting your cause”. But if only the proper way had actually worked! And the show gave a realistic depiction about how the activists dilemma could divide the movement itself in cases where the stakes are so high. I personally knew at least 7 people in the audience which assured me I was in the right place. There were some really fantastic moments and then there were a few times when I lost track of the plot that was going on.
Company: Vaky Vaky
Show: A Song in the Dark
Venue: Barbara Barker Center for Dance
Emotional Medicine for our times
If there is one thing Fringe 2025 really merits, it is a “Rage Against the Regime” type of show. It was just what my emotions needed that particular day when I saw it. Injustice (or the cumulative effect of one whack-a-mole injustice after another) was enraging me but I knew I couldn’t let it destroy me. I too have been in the same shoes as the cast here- having done multiple Fringe shows before and then feeling like it didn’t really change anything. That included just last year where the final sentence on my printed shows cards was “Let’s stop Project 2025”) The show began with a realistically self-reflective mode of feeling like one has screamed into the darkness only for the calvary not to show up. And then, there were quite a few solid gold segments of very timely satire, irony and sarcastic ridicule against the purveyors of persistent darkness. Examples include what we saw in the previews about the Department of Fringe Efficiency (DOFE) being used by the anti-woke police to redact parts of the script - depicting going authoritarian over such petty things. If you have one quick pitch on any cause for social betterment, you might get a chance to pitch it to the attendees, which is a nice thing to offer.