Pat Greene in Unity at Orlando Fringe Credit: Seth Kubersky

There are two audience-participation site-specific shows worth paying attention to at this year’s Fringe: Unity and Letters in Need.

Unity, the latest entrancing audio experiment from composer Nathan Felix, sees audience members sitting on the sidewalk outside Orlando Shakes and following time-stamped instructions to create a cacophonic symphony using squeak toys, stones and Pop Rocks. A guest artist or two (local legend Pat Greene at my performance) loosely lead the ad hoc ensemble; when Greene stopped to tune his untunable violin after an eternity of tinnitus-inducing screeching, I literally rolled on the grass with laughter. 

Letters in Need at Orlando Fringe Credit: Courtesy Photo

Phoenix Tears is responsible for the ornate old-fashioned post office boxes found in the Silver venue lobby, which serve as the setting for Letters in Need, a charming one-on-one interactive experience creator-designer Mary Hosford, where you’ll read and redirect missives from various lonely souls. United Support Processing Service postmaster Olive (Hillary Shurtleff) gently helped me restore life to these dead letters, and left me with a lovely handwritten note that I’ll cherish with this memory long after Fringe.

For both Unity and Letters in Need, my only note is “no notes,” mostly because I was too busy participating to take any notes. They may not be “the greatest show I’ve ever seen at the Fringe” (as we fib-shouted at Unity’s denouement), but for a few moments during this Festival, I wasn’t thinking about writing the review or the next show I was scheduled to see; instead, during these shows I was entirely in the moment. And if that isn’t the point of art, I don’t know what is.

Nathan Felix Orlando Productions
Site Specific: Stone Plaque on the Side of the Shakes Building
30 minutes; all ages
Tickets: $5

Phoenix Tears Productions
Site Specific: PO Boxes in Silver Lobby Inside Orlando Family Stage
20 minutes; all ages
Tickets: $12

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This article appears in Orlando Fringe 2026.