The Miss Neo Pageant at Neo-Futurists

Chicago Tribune - Highly Recommended

"...The show's center of gravity lies with Leah Rose Urzendowski Courser, who is an expert clown - manic and eager and loud, and all the funnier for it - but she also has a beguiling physical assuredness, whether she's dancing in heels or bashing a tractor tire with a sledgehammer. Sharing the stage with her cast members, she plays each scene like a page from a deranged, sequin-encrusted diary that might as well contain a single phrase written over and over again: "My life is not a beauty pageant.""

Centerstage - Not Recommended

"...It should have taken more time getting here. It arrived as a confusing melange of heartfelt confessions, profanity, and misguided audience participation routines, strung together by a few amateurish attempts at scenery and narration. While I applaud the performers for their bravery, this in no way resembles a show that has gone through a professional artistic process."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...Feminism is in an odd place these days. And the Neo-Futurists are just the folks to explore that minefield. The new Miss Neo Pageant is an in your face (or in your lap) fast moving 85 minutes of performance art/theater/review and deconstructed pageantry complete with sparkle dresses and no intermission. There are five assorted women in this "contest/show/review" and they start off the night with bright red lipstick and sashes and sequined ballroom shoes, and they end covered in sweat and shimmering evening dress. Along the way, each personality gets a talent and a rant, though admittedly there is often little to distinguish between what is showing off skill and what is espousing a manifesto. It's so much fun you hardly care."