Creativity runs wild at Green Bay Fringe

If you attend this year’s Green Bay Fringe Festival, prepare yourself to see something too weird for the Weidner or a bit bonkers for Broadway.

The third annual Green Bay Fringe takes place July 16-19.

With shows including “Well-Balanced Dads,” “Sopranos Never Die,” “MOM! WTF!!” and “Who’s Afraid of the Streetcar Salesman?,” you can expect artists to perform with the same adventurous spirit as the original cast of “Saturday Night Live,” known as the ‘Not Ready for Primetime Players,’ a now-ironic name since the ensemble included Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and, later, Bill Murray.

Green Bay Fringe shows resonate with audiences in a similar way, connecting through bold, unexpected performances.

At the inaugural event in 2024, 28 unique acts were staged across seven venues. This year, the festival has expanded to more than 40 acts at 10 locations, all within the downtown Green Bay area.

Festival attendees can expect to see shows utilizing many art forms.

“We have puppets, long form improv, stand-up comedy, music, dance, magic, poetry, all these different things. You get a real smorgasbord of performers who will come to Green Bay,” said Matt Worzala, vice president of the Green Bay Fringe board. To help those attending see multiple shows, Green Bay Fringe keeps prices reasonable.

“Our tickets are only $10 per show and 80% of the ticket goes back to the artists,” Worzala said.

In its first two years, Green Bay Fringe has played host to oodles of quirky, crowd-pleasing performances. A few shows from last year really turned heads.

“There was one called ‘Bad Stories for Bad Children’ and people are still talking about one of the eyeball effects in it. It was all done with cardboard,” said Worzala.

Another 2025 highlight was ‘The Pheasant Story’ told by Marty “The Meatman” Sosnowski, a local raconteur, retired rock music photojournalist and self-proclaimed professional meat- thrower. He’s returning to Fringe this summer to present “The Truth Will Set You Free,” a powerful 30-minute documentary about how he overcame addiction and coped with the tragic loss of friends.

Sosnowski also caught some shows at Fringe last year and Angie Flanagan’s performance, “Marta and Me,” stood out to him.

“It was one of the coolest shows I’ve ever seen anybody put on. It was a storytelling kind of ballet. You can’t really explain it. You had to see it,” Sosnowski said.

New this year to the Fringe stage is Jeremy Pelegrin, a veteran actor who may be familiar to area theatergoers for his faithful portrayal of Vince Lombardi. He’ll present “My Left Arm - A Cautionary Tale.”

“It’s an autobiographical musical and it includes six songs that I’ve written over the last 30 years. Hats and wigs and some interpretive dance will be involved and I’ll play most of the music live,” Pelegrin said.

You can purchase tickets for $10 per show and find out more about Green Bay Fringe at gbfringe.com