Category: 2026
Melissa Delizia on Sara Malinowski
Sara, I feel so lucky to have seen Girlfriends. It’s a show that is full of heart, humor, and (mostly) honesty. Sitting in the audience, I felt like I was at a sleepover listening to my best friend tell me a story. Your performance was so captivating that I left overflowing with emotions and nostalgia for a time in my own life where I was still discovering who I…
Savannah Reich on Rose Luardo
Oh, Rose: I was excited when I got an email from one of our cohort artists saying that they had gotten sick and were unable to make it to your show. I had just seen it the night before, and I immediately texted my co-editor Jack asking if they thought it was okay if I wrote the postcard instead. We don’t want to set a precedent, but in this…
David Robson on Jennifer Blaine
Dear Jennifer, I came to Mister John’s Music expecting a feminist comedy show, but nothing prepared this cis normie for the brash, silly, in-your-face hilarity of Raw Deal. Despite your 30 years of liberation-inspired merrymaking and vulgarity that make you a Philly Fringe legend, I was a Blaine virgin. Shame on me. But better late than never! The disco ball and mustard-colored curtains set the perfect tone, and when…
Kym Priess on Jim Julien
Dear Jim, First off, I love a pre-show sitch—no attachment to a grand reveal. I personally get obsessed with that in my own work, but you were already out there IN IT when I walked in a few minutes early! There onstage was an older gentleman in a long white lab coat, bald head, cool dual-colored mullet, and black-rimmed glasses. I thought I was late, but NO—you were simply…
Irene Foley-Chort on Jessica Farber
Dear Jessica, I found your show to be a charming, imaginative, and wonderfully quirky take on what we might imagine goes on inside the womb as a person is developing. I especially loved the metaphor of the “baggage”—all those generational experiences, memories, emotions, and pieces of family history that somehow filter through and become part of the child yet to be born. It made me think about how much…
Soleil Kohl on Katarina Kojic
Dear Katarina (and the whole PhotoProv cast), What a delight to see one of my first performing loves, improv, in a brand new light. Entering the space, I always get excited when the preshow (which usually has audiences chatting, fumbling through bags, using the bathroom, etc) makes a wonderfully magical promise, and gives us something to look forward to. I loved getting to sit with everyone while they slowly…
Valentina Miller on Tima Ozen
Dear Tima, This September I had the pleasure of attending your FringeArts event “Sky Song, a Solo Woodwind Performance by Andrew Urbina,” which was part of the Elements series curated by Zoe McCarthy at AUTOMAT Gallery. By virtue of our neighboring studios this summer, I came into the event with some preconceptions: on any given day I might find tufts of cotton clouds suspended from the ceiling, an abstract…
Morgan FitzPatrick Andrews on Kym Priess
Dear Kym, In 1939, Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion was the only character to get two theme songs in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. Somewhere between “If I Only Had The Nerve” and “Were I King of the Forest,” Lahr’s sad sack would-be-king cat ad-libbed his lines, sent castmates into fits of laughter, and drove the production totally off the rails. How can a lion—any lion—top that act? Well, let’s…
Kaedon Knight on Asha Bagal Kelly
Dear Asha, It has been only a few months since I found myself at the staged reading of My Carmilla, and my experience there made me so incredibly excited to catch the fully staged production. I had limited knowledge of Le Fanu’s classic novella, but understood its historical impact on the genre; and as a horror lover and queer individual, I was thrilled that the lesbian vampire horror romance…
Thomas Choinacky on Soleil Kohl
Dear Soleil- As I walked into the theater you were deep in a dysfunctional dance that flipped through a mix of physically exhausting pedestrian gestures. I quickly caught on to this as the “hold” or “waiting” button similar to a video game start screen. As you riled around I became concerned about your knees, so many collapses to the floor! I was relieved to see your kneepads later. I…
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