theatrical musings in Minnesota and beyond
Friday, August 15, 2025
"Henry V" by Jackdonkey Productions at Theatre in the Round
Wednesday, August 13, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: Wrap-Up and Favorites
Monday, August 11, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Wickie"
Show: 39
Title: The Wickie
Category: Clowning / Comedy / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Storytelling / Audience participation
By: Richie Whitehead
Created by: Richie Whitehead
Location: Barker Center
Summary: A physical theater clowning solo show about a lighthouse keeper and the search for his missing shoe.
Highlights: For my final Minnesota Fringe show, I went to see a show that was not on my schedule, but which so many people recommended. That final performance was sold out (or very nearly so), and later that night the show won an Artist Pick Golden Lanyard Award. Richie Whitehead, along with collaborators and directors Marc Frost and Salomé Mooij, has created something so charming and delightful, not even the interruption by someone trying to record the show on smart glasses could disrupt it (which Richie handled gracefully and totally in character). The show is a series of vignettes in the life of the lighthouse keeper, aka Wickie. The ocean has taken his shoe, and he wants it back. He has to climb 147 stairs to get to the top of the lighthouse to perform his duties, and it's exhausting. He communicates with his friends via Morse code. He goes looking for the grave of the first Wickie. In a gray wig and beard, Richie looks right at the audience, their impish facial expressions speaking to us as much as their words, inviting us into the story. With some clever audience participation, we feel like we're all in it together and a part of the story. Really great physical comedy, great use of props (including one tall ladder and a couple of buckets), bold lighting, and a bit of fourth-wall breaking make for a really fun, sweet, funny, and entertaining show for all ages. A show that has traveled to fringes around the world, The Wickie is deserving of all of the awards it has received, including "best strip tease dance scene" and "most outrageous fake accent."
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Big Secret"
Show: 38
Title: The Big Secret
Category: Storytelling / Political content / Religious content
By: Brad Lawrence
Created by: Brad Lawrence
Location: Rarig Arena
Summary: A solo storytelling piece about a big secret that Brad Lawrence has been keeping since he was 14, and why he's now sharing it with the world.
Highlights: This is a beautiful and moving story, masterfully told by NYC-based master storyteller Brad Lawrence. He weaves a mesmerizing tale about his traumatic childhood (including both familial and religious trauma), and finding connection with an older girl named Jessica in his church youth group. One night, over frozen custard, she tells him her shameful secret, that she's never shared with anyone. She makes him promise not to tell, and he doesn't, putting it in a box in the back of his mind that he never opens, even after her tragic murder five years later. But he has recently opened that box and looked at the secret with adult eyes, only to find that it wasn't shameful at all. Jessica was a child, taken advantage of by an adult, undeserved shame forced upon her by her religious upbringing. I won't share the secret in case you ever get the chance to see this show, because it's expertly revealed at the right time for the maximum impact. The important thing to know is that Brad is finally sharing Jessica's story in the hopes that those who hear it can let go of some of the shame in their own lives, and/or help create a world without shame for people who did nothing wrong.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Duluth: An Improvised Midwest Murder"
Show: 37
Category: Comedy / Drama / Horror / Improv / Mystery / Audience participation
By: Duluth Improv
Created by: Avery Kiefer and Walter Mueller
Location: Rarig Xperimental
Summary: A story of murder in a Midwest town.
Highlights: Curiously, Duluth Improv is a troupe based in Chicago. And they finally brought the show home to Minnesota "where it belongs." They ask one audience member to volunteer info about their hometown; at the show I attended it was Madison Wisconsin, home of the Oscar Mayer Wiener plant (and Wienermobile). What started out as one murder in the plant, with a body shoved into the machinery, turned into a Mayer family crime drama, a workplace murder at The Archives, and a shootout in the parking lot. The cast (many of whom were subs when I saw the show so I don't have all their names) is great at improvising crazy crime scenarios and bizarre deaths, all while speaking in Midwest accents, and sometimes Russian-ish. Most of their shows were sold out or nearly sold out, because Minnesota Fringe loves Minnesota humor, improv, and murder, even when it's from Chicago.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Dice of Destiny: Neon City"
Show: 36
Title: Dice of Destiny: Neon City
Category: Comedy / Improv / Audience participation
By: The Bearded Company
Created by: The Bearded Company
Location: Theatre in the Round
Summary: The Bearded Co's trademark D&D style of improv applied to an '80s action movie.
Highlights: I saw the final show of what I believe was a continuing five-show saga. Anna Tobin and Maria Bartholdi play the main characters (even after so many Bearded shows I don't know D&D lingo), two crime fighters in the post-apocalyptic world of an '80s action movie. The rest of the cast (MJ Matheson, Tyler Mills, Joe Rapp, and Lucas Vonasek) play multiple characters, as our two heroes save the world in the weirdest way possible. As per usual, game master Allen Voigt calls the action, rolling the 20-sided die to see how strong each action will be, with Jack Barrett on keyboard and Dan Ruby on sound effects creating a soundscape. This group is a sure thing every year that they perform; they're experts at this long-form improv storytelling and always create a really funny story that also sort of makes sense. But you don't have to wait until next Fringe to see them; they are doing a couple of shows as part of Theatre in the Round's fantastic upcoming season. You can see them in November and May, the latter of which is running in rep with The Hobbit, so one can only hope these shows will be LOTR-themed (I may not be a D&D nerd, but I am a LOTR nerd).
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Boxcutter Harmonica"
Show: 35
Title: Boxcutter Harmonica
Category: Mystery / Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling
By: Paper Soul
Written by: J Merrill Motz
Location: Barker Center
Summary: A couple of historical detectives dig into mysteries surrounding artists in early 20th century New Orleans and Renaissance Italy.
Highlights: Since the Fringe is over, I'll spoil the joke that is at the crux of the show. This is not a two-hander starring #TCTheater artist J Merrill Motz and traveling fringe artist Martin Dockery. It's a solo show by Motz (rhymes with boats) in which he plays a version of himself playing a detective waiting for a version of Dockery who is supposed to play the other character in the show. But spoiler alert - he doesn't show. Motz, as Detective Black, continues on with the show, occasionally receiving texts and calls, and growing increasingly more frustrated. But the tale he's spinning, now on his own, is fascinating and more complex than I can relate here. Suffice it to say the detective tells stories about two pairs of artists, one in the shadow of the other. One part of each pair is tempted to make a deal with the devil in order to become a better and more famous artist, and their different decisions affect their lives. But by the end of the show we realize we're actually talking about three pairs of artists, as "Motz" has an existential artistic crisis of his own, and perhaps takes a third road. It's a very smartly written show, with a compelling performance by Motz and great use of props, including writing words on a large sketchpad and laying each sheet on the floor to form a literal crossroads. This show is an epic experience encompassing so many things, for which Motz received a staff pick Golden Lanyard Award for his unique use of tech and turning tropes on their head.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Death! A Musical"
Show: 34
Title: Death! A Musical
Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Original Music / Kid friendly
By: Gabriel Shen | Twin Cities Youth Theatre
Created by: Gabriel Shen
Location: Southern Theater
Summary: A musical about a 13-year old girl who dies and goes to the afterlife, written and performed by middle schoolers.
Highlights: This is the kind of show that makes adults wonder what they've been doing with their life, because soon-to-be 8th grader Gabriel Shen has written music, book, and lyrics (the latter two with Francis Shen) for a musical, which they also directed, play a role in, and operate the sound board for. Pretty impressive, and very promising for the future of #TCTheater. In the musical, Alana (an endearing Vivienne Steele) finds herself in the afterlife, and wants to return to life. She finds a clause in the fine print of the contract that says she can do just that if she completes seven random and pretty easy to accomplish tasks. So she does that, which results in the end of death. Sounds great, doesn't it? But these precocious kids remind us that what makes life so precious is that our time is limited, and "Life Without Death" is no life at all. Pretty profound stuff. All of the kids in nine-person cast are so talented and cute, and the onstage orchestra is also made up of talented young people, led by musical director and orchestrator Angela Steiner (because arranging their original score for a 10-piece orchestra is a big ask for a 7th grader, even a super talented one). It may sound trite, but children really are our future, and the future looks bright. Kudos to these young people for making adventurous art in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, for which they won the venue award (most tickets sold) thanks to their supportive families and community.
Sunday, August 10, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know?"
Show: 33
Title: An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know?
Category: Comedy / Horror / Puppetry
By: New Endeavors
Created by: Andrew Rakerd
Location: Barker Center
Summary: The show description pretty much says it all: "Church Basement Ladies meets The Exorcist."
Highlights: I recently saw the original Church Basement Ladies for the first time, and the setup here is almost identical. There's a new pastor at the Lutheran Church in small town Minnesota, and the ladies holding an Easter fundraiser to raise money for a new furnace aren't sure what to think of him (he's "different"). And there's a young woman returned from school at "the U" in "the Cities," coming home different than when she left. And here's where this show diverges from CBL - she's possessed by a demon. A demon who is disappointed to find out he's been sent to torment not a Catholic Church, where they expect and know how to handle such things, but a Lutheran Church. The ladies (Angela Fox, Cayla Marie Wolpers, and Michelle Schwantes) and one husband (Mitch Kiecker) turn to Pastor Sal (Rob Ward) to help rid poor Regan (Emma Kessler) of the demon, but he's not sure what to do. One of the ladies has seen The Exorcist, and offers suggestions. But in the end, Minnesota Nice is the only thing that works to rid these Lutherans of the demon. Because it's not the Minnesota Fringe Festival without some Fargo accents and lutefisk jokes, and this show fills the bill nicely. The cast is great, particularly Emma with a blood curdling scream, her words echoed by Mike Dee as the demon, dressed all in black and shadowing her moves, creating a spooky otherworldly effect. This show is really fun and ridiculously funny, as I would expect from the team that brought us one of the most brilliantly stupid Fringe shows in my memory - 2017's The Buttslasher, and the 2019 sequel The Buttslasher: And Then There Were Buns. I'm still waiting for part 3, but in the meantime, you can catch the final performance of An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know? today (Sunday) at 1pm for some Minnesota humor mixed with a touch of horror.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Cabin Fever"
Show: 32
Title: Cabin Fever
Category: Comedy / Improv / Audience participation / LGBTQIA+ Content
By: Small Waves
Created by: Mikela Anderson, Naomi Brecht, and Katie & Della Christ
Location: Barker Center
Summary: The finale of a lesbian dating reality set in a cabin in the woods.
Highlights: I've never watched a reality dating show (except for the most recent locally filmed season of Love is Blind which I'm only halfway through), but it's a great premise for an improv show. Hosted by the drag queen Buttercream, the show is structured as a recap of the season, one-on-one dates with the bachelorette Ashleighy (Haley Methner) based on audience suggestions (skydiving, an improv show, being in a donkey costume, and jazzercize), the final "s'more" ceremony (instead of "rose," although there sadly were no actual s'mores), and of course the reality show confessionals. Within this structure, the cast (also including Mikela Anderson, Abigail Aune, Madison Lang, Misha Suarez, and Madison Wagner) improvises scenes and storylines, as ridiculous as "real" reality shows can be. On a set that's fairly elaborate by Fringe standards (designed by Della Christ), scenes take place in the living room setup on the right, with dates on the left, and a big sign surrounded by pine trees in the center. They've got one more show at 4pm today (Sunday).
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Gentlemen’s Pratfall Club"
Show: 31
Category: Clowning / Comedy / Physical Theater / Kid friendly
By: Comedy Suitcase
Created by: Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen
Location: Theatre in the Round
Summary: An actor tries to learn how to fall down for his audition to be TV's new Captain Clumsy.
Highlights: There's really nothing funnier than watching the Comedy Suitcase guys throw their bodies around the theater (and audience) in the service of comedy. At least not in this Fringe Festival; this is the hardest I've laughed in these ten days. Why is it that people falling down is always so funny?! Somehow even more so when it's on purpose. The plot of the show is that Walter (Levi) is a struggling actor going on one last audition for a show he's not even really that into, he just thinks it'll be a good way into TV. The problem is, he doesn't know how to fall down (and Levi's slow hesitating descent to the ground is hilarious). At the audition he means an excellent faller, a Frenchman named Guy, whom he also encounters when his agent sends him to the Gentleman's Pratfall Club to learn the necessary skills. Joshua plays Guy, and Walter's friend, and an old man who is a king of the pratfall, with the chronic pain to prove it. No speeches of self-discovery allowed in this comedy, but maybe Walter is trying to find the joy and purpose in life again. But mostly, this show is a ton of physical comedy that induces tears of laughter, particularly with Joshua throwing himself down the stairs, rolling over the short wall into the audience, and budging past several rows of audience members. Although Levi pretending to fall but not quite fall down the stairs and around the stage is almost funnier. And then there are the (real) slaps, the trips, the getting tangled up in chairs. It's just good old-fashioned physical comedy that's funny in any era, for all ages.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Breakneck Twelfth Night"
Show: 30
Title: Breakneck Twelfth Night
Category: Drama / Musical Theater / Original Music / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Shakespearian elements
By: Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre
Created by: Timothy Mooney
Location: Barker Center
Summary: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, performed in one hour by one actor.
Highlights: Timothy Mooney is such a pro at this, and always impressive. The show truly is this familiar comedic play about a brother and sister separated by a shipwreck and mistaken for each other when the sister disguises herself as a man and woos the lady Olivia on behalf of the Duke, but at breakneck pace. And I don't think he really cuts out any plotlines, he just condenses everything. He walks us though the play scene by scene, summarizing some of the lines as exposition, but also speaking many of the lines as all of the different characters. He also provides some commentary, like the fact that Shakespeare always included male actors in drag, in particular this play with its double-drag, because women weren't allowed on the stage. And he fully performs each character, all distinct with different mannerisms and body carriage and style of speech, even singing the songs written into the script (this is the play that gave us the famous line, "if music be the food of love, play on"). He presents these 400+ year old classics so convincingly, so engagingly, so entertainingly, in this short time, that one wonders why Shakespeare ever needs to be more than an hour.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Against My Will"
Show: 29
Title: Against My Will
Category: Comedy / Drama / Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling / Historical content / Political content / Shakespearian elements
By: Michael Quadrozzi
Created by: Michael Quadrozzi
Location: Rarig Xperimental
Summary: A solo storytelling show about overcoming childhood trauma.
Highlights: #TCTheater artists Michael Quadrozzi knocks it out of the park with his first solo storytelling show. It's so vulnerable, so beautiful, so moving. When he walks on stage and declares he has baggage to unpack, he's not talking about the backpack, duffel bag, and large roller suitcase he's lugging. Although he does literally unpack those bags, revealing family photos, childhood mementos, and other visual aids to his storytelling. But the real unpacking is of his childhood growing up on the East Coast with a narcissistic mother (and possibly other undiagnosed mental illnesses), a divorced dad he only saw on the weekends and who died suddenly when he was in college, and various stepparents and step/half siblings. With the help of words and drawings he writes on a large sketchpad, peeling of the pages one by one and laying them on the floor, he tells his well-written story in a way that's polished yet casual, as if he's sharing his deepest secrets with us, his new friends. And while the specifics of his story are unique to him, the themes of challenging families, grief, anxiety, and finding one's own way in the world, are universal. The best part of Fringe is when artists take their pain and turn it into art for all of us to cathartically share in, and this is a beautiful example of that.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Clown Funeral"
Show: 28
Title: Clown Funeral
Category: Clowning / Comedy / Improv / Original Music / Physical Theater / Audience participation
By: Octoberdandy Productions
Created by: Jen Scott, Levi Weinhagen, Chris Rodriguez, Mark Benzel
Location: Theatre in the Round
Summary: Like the title says, it's a funeral for a clown.
Highlights: You've never attended a funeral this fun. These four clowns - Jen Scott as pastor clown Mads, Levi Weinhagen as lawyer clown Affa David, Chris Rodriguez as silent clown Pablo, and Mark Benzel as sweet clown Mo - lead us through the funeral for their friend Bongo J. Sprinkles, and it's a delight. We're given a program, with parts to sing, and the structure includes the usual funereal things like reading of the will, sharing of memories, songs, and readings. There's even a coffin (built before our eyes) and a body. But it's all super silly, very playful, and somewhat improvised. The cast is very playful with each other and with the audience (in a non-threatening way), with lots of (old) pop culture references and double entendres. And if you need your Reverend Matt fix at this year's Fringe, this is the place to get it, as the good Reverend (aka Matthew Kessen) makes a brief appearance in a banana costume to talk about the funeral practices of ancient civilizations. After a lot of goofing around, when sweet sensitive Mo finally gets to pay tribute to his friend with a lovely little song, it's surprisingly poignant. This is a very funny show about a very serious thing - death - that somehow makes it less scary.
Saturday, August 9, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "What We Wore"
Show: 27
Title: What We Wore
Category: Comedy / Drama / Solo Show / Storytelling / Historical content
By: Ethan Nienaber/ GJ Media
Created by: Gabi Jones
Location: Open Eye Theatre
Summary: A solo storytelling piece from a vintage clothing social media star that's about so much more than clothes.
Highlights: I went to this show for the vintage clothing, but I came away moved, inspired, and with tears in my eyes from Gabi Jones' epic storytelling that weaves together so many relevant topics. A Minnesota native with a theater degree from a California university now based in Illinois, she begins by distinguishing between her online persona @gabis_vintage, who's always perfect and polished, and herself, Gabi, who is a real human with issues and flaws just like the rest of us. This solo show is very well constructed (with direction by Ethan Nienaber) in a mix of "live videos" about a vintage piece (from her Grandma's extensive collection), like she posts on social media, combined with personal stories, photos and videos displayed on the back wall of the theater, quotes, and statistics. Behind every piece of clothing (hung on a rack and donned throughout the show) is a story, a history, and that's where the juicy stuff is. Gabi uses clothing to connect to her female ancestors, because as we know history mostly only talks about the men. She tells us stories of some of these women, and some from her own life (including an alcoholic mother and an abusive boyfriend), and talks about how as a theater student, and as a woman in this world, we're taught to look at ourselves through others' (men's) eyes instead of our own. She connects everything together with statistics (a girl after my own heart) and quotes from feminist books like The Feminine Mystique and The Second Sex (joking, after so much time online, do you all know how amazing books are?!). Sometimes when someone tries to cover so many topics (addiction, domestic abuse, the dangers of social media, the male gaze, sexual harassment, feminism) in a one-hour show, it can feel shallow or like things are getting short shrift. But that's not the case here; this show feels full and complete and satisfying. What We Wore is one of my surprise favorite shows of the festival. Her final show is today (Saturday) at 7 and it's very much worth the quick drive to Open Eye.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "This"
Show: 26
Title: This
Category: Comedy / Solo Show / Storytelling
By: Tim Uren
Created by: Tim Uren
Location: Theatre in the Round
Summary: A solo storytelling show about life in the theater and comedy world.
Highlights: I found this show to be surprisingly lovely. It's fun to get insight into the world of an artist (it's not as glamorous as it appears), but even if you're not an artist, the show is full of relevant material about life: anxiety, addiction, relationships, careers, memories vs. experiences, existential dread. Tim has constructed the show as a series of chapters, walking us more or less chronologically through his life, in a very personable and engaging way. From his hit comedy show Look Ma No Pants in the shadow of the Scrimshaw brothers, to being fired from his dream job at Brave New Workshop, to designing board games (which, honestly, I didn't really get, not being a game person of the video or board variety). It's really about his love of theater, and our love of theater, and being present together in the same room in the very special way that theater requires. The title comes from the first word Tim spoke as a child, when he didn't know what he wanted, just "this" or "this" or "this." But he comes around to discovering that this, here, now, is the only thing we have. Tim's final show is this Sunday, and you can also see him with his theater company Ghoulish Delights or as a part of The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society which performs regularly at Crooners, information about both can be found here.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "A Sad Carousel 2: The Timely Death of Herschel Douscheburg"
Show: 25
Category: Comedy / Drama / Physical Theater
By: LandmanLand
Written by: Sam L. Landman
Location: Rarig Thrust
Summary: An insult comic wakes up after 15 years in a coma and finds that everything has changed.
Highlights: I did not see Sam Landman's 2010 Fringe show A Sad Carousel (my first year at Fringe was 2011), but that did not affect my enjoyment of this sequel at all. The premise of the story is very clear, and the 15-year time lapse sets up lots of jokes of things that are no longer (Joann Fabrics, HUGE Theater, The Iveys). To begin the show, Herschel Douscheburg (played by Sam) wakes up in the Tyler Michaels King Memorial Hospital, the first in a string of TMK jokes. In fact the self-referential #TCTheater jokes abound (including about theater bloggers!), with many pokes at Fringe itself (and even a recorded appearance by Fringe artist and employee Amber Bjork). Because Herschel decides to use Fringe as his comeback, with the help of his longtime agent (Peter Ooley) and despite the protest of the Gen Z "comedy kids" troupe (Mae Ryan, Riley Eckman, and Elle Hinds) that practices gentle and bland comedy. Eric Webster and Jane Froiland play many characters, the former in a bored lackadaisical manner and the latter in over-the-top old-timey voices, often referred to by Sam as Webster and Jane (she's equity!). There are tons of clever and funny props, some of which are only on stage for a minute (how do I get a subscription to Fringe Hunks Monthly?). Directed by Shanan Custer, the show is ridiculous and ridiculously funny, with a playful tone that allows for ad libbing, fourth-wall breaking, and playing with the audience. It's just a whole lot of fringey fun, that also reminds us of the importance of comedy in society, because people who can't laugh at themselves cannot be trusted.
Final show today (Saturday) at 1!
Friday, August 8, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Fangs and Bangs (and Sangs)"
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Show: 24
Title: Fangs and Bangs (and Sangs)
Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Storytelling / LGBTQIA+ Content
By: Special When Lit
Written by: Nissa Nordland
Location: Southern Theater
Summary: #TCTheater fave Nissa Nordland enlists some of her talented friends (different every night) to read some of the "sexy vampire tales" that she wrote as a teenager.
Highlights: Nissa has written a lot of shows for Fringe and the TC Horror Festival, and this is like her origin story. Turns out she has always been interested in writing sexy, scary stories, and she has her journals and a floppy disc full of stories to prove it! She's an endearing host as she explains the concept of the show and then gets vulnerable, reading her journal entries full of her innermost teenage thoughts. A slide show of yearbook photos, journal entries, and sketches support her storytelling. She sings a couple of late '90s / early aughts songs accompanied by musicians (Nicholas Nelson and Keith Hovis at the show I attended), but the highlight really is the reading of a vampire story about a redheaded teenaged vampire named Lennox and her romance with a vampire hunter named Noah. The story is continuous throughout the five shows, so you'll need to go back if you want to find out how things turn out. Reading the story on the night I attended were Amber Bjork, Derek Lee Miller, Brettina Davis, and Duck Washington, who came prepared for the steamy scenes. And the section of the story that I saw got pretty steamy! It's very funny watching these actors read Nissa's teenage dreams, but it's even more fun to watch her react with a combination of sheer delight and utter horror.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Kendra Plant Variety Hour: Good Things Edition! -with special guests-"
Show: 23
Category: Comedy / Dance / Original Music / Storytelling
By: Kendra Plant
Created by: the artists
Location: Mixed Blood Theatre
Summary: A variety show including storytelling, Japanese lion dance, singer/songwriter performance, and burlesque ballet.
Highlights: If the Minnesota Fringe Festival is a sampler platter of different kinds of performance, this show is a microcosm of that concept. Kendra Plant (who, full disclosure, is a friend and fellow member of The Twin Cities Theater Bloggers at her blog Artfully Engaging) has constructed a show around the idea of the artistic process itself. A longtime supporter of the arts, Kendra is trying something new as a first-time Fringe producer, stepping on stage for the first time in decades. She's a charming and disarming host as she walks us through her process of creating a show. The three guest artists (the same at every performance) include a little bit of everything, including some art you won't see anywhere else at the Fringe. TAM Edo Bayashi Ensemble performs a lion dance accompanied by drum and flute, really making the lion come to life in a way that may remind you of your favorite pet. Singer/songwriter Emily Boyajian (whose gorgeous and inspiring original opera Transition was a hit at last year's Fringe) sings two beautiful and poignant original songs about transition and being yourself. Last but not least, Jolie Meshbesher performs two dances, the first a more traditional ballet with aerial elements as she hangs off of a free-standing ballet bar, the second more modern and edgy as it turns into a burlesque ballet. If you're looking for a variety of art you won't see anywhere else at the Fringe, this is a great one to see. And it may just inspire you to try something new, get out of your comfort zone, learn a new skill, or collaborate with others to make some good things. We certainly need more of them in this world!
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Grief, It's What's For Dinner"
Show: 22
Category: Comedy / Drama / Puppetry
By: Aethem Theatre
Written by: Kayla Hambek
Location: Open Eye Theatre
Summary: A funny and moving play about caregiving, loss, and finding your way through the difficulties of life with the help of friends.
Highlights: It's not the Minnesota Fringe Festival if I don't cry a few tears, so thanks to Kayla Hambek for letting me cross off that bingo square. She's written a really beautiful autobiographical show (she steps out of character at the end to tell us the real details) that's so relatable to anyone who's experienced loss or caring for an aging parent. She plays a character named Kate who (along with her dad) is caring for her mother who has early onset Alzheimer's, while also dealing with a neurodivergent sister. Her mother is still with them, but the daughters are mourning the mom they knew. She has a therapist and support group to help her through, and maybe even meets a boy. The small ensemble (Danielle Krivinchuk, Emma Paquette, Sher U-F, and Courtney Vonvett) plays everyone in Kate's life, most of them playing multiple very different roles. The use of hand puppets (to represent her inner self as a rainbow puppet, some of the support group members, and silly little musical numbers) adds a whimsy and charm to the story. Like the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine (a story about grief) go down. Grief is a sweet, funny, relatable, and moving show.
Thursday, August 7, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Our Zombie Town"
Show: 21
Title: Our Zombie Town
Category: Comedy / Horror / Literary adaptation / Political content / Shakespearian elements
By: Pat O'Brien
Created by: Richard Chin, Pat O'Brien, Larry Ripp and cast
Location: Mixed Blood Theatre
Summary: One of the most classic works of the American stage, Thornton Wilder's Our Town, but with zombies (also an American classic).
Highlights: The show is very cleverly written (by Richard Chin) in the familiar conversational fourth-wall breaking style of Our Town, with Kurt Schulz as our narrator in a Fringe artist lanyard. The story begins with the surviving citizens of Grover's Corners (including the Webb and Gibbs families) living in an abandoned Walmart, fending off zombies (a familiar situation to fans of The Walking Dead). The daily sweet mundane daily life continues, including the Emily/George romance, as more and more people become (still semi conscious) zombies (an unfamiliar situation to TWD fans). When a cure becomes available, Emily has to make a decision to go back to the old busy life where everyone is preoccupied on their phones, or spend one last day with her love in a world that's all about eating brains together. Our Zombie Town is a mashup of a theater classic and a horror B-movie, complete with some fun cheesy effects and an impressive wood chipper, a clever idea well-executed by the team.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "That Which Is Green"
Show: 20
Title: That Which Is Green
Category: Comedy / Drama / LGBTQIA+ Content / Political content / Religious content
By: Michael Rogers
Created by: Michael Rogers
Location: Southern Theater
Summary: Two friends named Kevin walk into the woods to visit their favorite tree, only to find it has changed, or maybe it wasn't so great to begin with.
Highlights: This is a show about a tree that isn't really about a tree at all. Kevin (Michael Rogers) has a love/hate relationship with this "tree," but just can't quit it. Kevin (Alex Van Loh) supports his friend but is tired of the push and pull. The tree is dying, and Kevin #1 is devastated, but also wants to burn it down. They decide to spend the night by the tree to see if it's better in the morning, and we flash back to a couple of scenes from each of the Kevins' early experience with the "tree" accompanied by a parent, and meeting each other while singing a hymn in the "tree" service. They've been friends through everything, and though the "tree" is no longer serving them, it's hard to let go of the past and the traditions you were raised in. The show makes good use of the gorgeous Southern, as the Kevins walk up and down the aisles, the hymn harmonies ringing out beautiful and clear in the space, the stage empty except for the trunk of a tree with a neon green light in the center of it. This is a sweet and lovely little show about friendship, and faith, and questioning, and finding your way in the world.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Breach"
Show: 19
Title: Breach
Category: Comedy / Drama / Original Music / Physical Theater / Puppetry
By: Third Space Theater
Written by: Mariabella Sorini and Alex Church
Location: Theatre in the Round
Summary: On board a fishing vessel searching for crabs in the Bering Sea, a storm, family drama, and possibly mutiny wreak havoc.
Highlights: This is a thoroughly gripping story told in an hour that flies by and also somehow feels like an epic journey. It's well written with natural sounding dialogue, creating interesting and complex characters and setting up mysteries that pay off later in the show. Siblings Lennox (Stephanie Kahle) and Monroe (Em Adam Rosenberg) inherited the ship from their father, the former named Captain even though the latter is better at it. They and the rest of the crew (Isabel Estelle, Hannah Leatherbarrow, Mary Lofreddo, and Mariabella Sorini, great performances by all) perform the functions of their job (including gutting fish represented by water bottles), talk and joke, and have a wild night of drinking during a lightning storm. But things keep going wrong, and the tension builds in a wonderfully suspenseful way. Director Alex Church makes great use of the in-the-round space, with the cast climbing up and down the stairs, using various parts of the space as different parts of the ship. The lighting is spectacular, from bring lightning flashes to total darkness lit by flashlights. It's an immersive, visceral experience that makes you feel like you're on this doomed ship, and that's not a comfortable feeling. Simple but effective props and costumes, the occasional singing of sea shanties, beautiful movement to represent the waves and water, and one amazing crab puppet complete the experience.
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
"Singin' in the Rain" at Artistry
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "All Your Shimmering Gold"
Show: 18
Title: All Your Shimmering Gold
Category: Comedy / Drama / Horror / Musical Theater / Opera / Physical Theater / Literary adaptation / Political content
By: SUPERMOON
Created by: Michael Torsch
Location: Rarig Thrust
Summary: The defense contractor Northrop Grumman accidentally ends up in the middle of the Minnesota Fringe Festival with their presentation about their massive nuclear defense plans, so they perform Wagner's Das Rheingold to make it more theatrical for this audience.
Highlights: Friends, this one is weird, in the best and fringiest sense of the word. Michael Torsch makes the most unique entrance to a fringe show you will see this year, and then speaks to the audience as an executive from Northrup Grumman. He explains to us what our tax dollars are buying, a huge and extensive and terrifying plan for nuclear defense, describing what happens when one of these nuclear missiles go off, aided by a video playing on small screens above an arch. But since he knows we're a theater audience, he and his fellow employees put on a performance of Das Rheingold, about a greedy man who steals gold from the Rhine River, guarded by some river nymphs, and makes a ring to gain all of the power. Which leaves us to draw the parallels for ourselves. Michael and the cast (Mads Granlund, Caleb Byers, Simone Bernadette, and Genevieve Waterbury, one of whom actually sings) lip synch to the recorded opera, dressed in beautiful costumes, while the video of the opera plays on the screens. It's all just so bizarre and fascinating and not a little disturbing, and I'll be thinking about it for a while.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "In The Garden Of American Heroes"
Show: 17
Category:
By: Wheeler in the Sky
Created by: Andrew Erskine Wheeler
Location: Southern Theater
Summary: General Custer is stuck in purgatory and lamenting not being included in the "Garden of American Heroes" being built for America's 250th birthday next year (that's a real thing).
Highlights: This is the third of Andrew's original solo historical pieces that I've seen, and like 2019 Booth's Ghost and 2022's WHOOSH! (a revised version of which is part of History Theatre's upcoming season) it's thoroughly researched, thoughtfully constructed, incredibly relevant to our current times, and performed with 100% commitment. All of these works examine controversial figures from America's history, and don't ask us to sympathize with them, but maybe perhaps understand how they came to be and how that's paralleled in things we're seeing happening today. We have to understand our history in order to not repeat it, and that's what this show does for Custer. To try to describe this show would not do it justice, it feels like a fever dream through this particular segment of American History. As Custer, Andrew speaks directly the audience, running through the aisles, disappointed in his exclusion from the Garden ("how bad do you have to be to be rejected by this administration?!"). He comes out dressed in Custer's full regalia, gradually shedding layers and arranging them on the floor, like the remnants of a life. This Custer does not apologize or ask for our forgiveness; he admits that he was motivated not by any sense of duty to his country, but by the love of killing. It's harsh and brutal, and endlessly captivating. As usual Andrew's prop work is detailed and thoughtful, with a saber, a spear, a wig head that holds those flowing blond locks. The lighting is almost like a character in and of itself, sometimes garishly bright, sometimes flashing, sometimes soft, Custer reacting to each change. The story starts and ends with his death in battle, and leaves us disturbed and questioning just what is an American Hero?
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Hamluke"
Show: 16
Title: Hamluke
Category: Comedy / Drama / Puppetry / Kid friendly / Literary adaptation / Shakespearian elements
By: Nightfall Productions
Written by: Brad Erickson
Location: Rarig Thrust
Summary: The story of Shakespeare's Hamlet as told with the characters from Star Wars.
Highlights: Like The Book of Morder, this is a mashup that really makes sense and is cleverly done (written and directed by Brad Erickson, who also plays a few minor roles). But unlike The Book of Mordor, I'm really only familiar with half of this mashup. I've definitely seen Hamlet on stage more often than I've seen Star Wars movies or shows. I may have missed some of the references (there were several times when everyone laughed and I didn't know why), but I still enjoyed it and could appreciate the thoughtfulness that went into the character pairings (Darthius = Darth Vader + Claudius, Opheleia = Ophelia + Leia, Landocrantz = Lando + Rosencrantz, etc.) and coalescing of plot points. The lines feel like Shakespeare, including all the Hamlet greatest hits, but with Star Wars words and references thrown in. The cast is fantastic, with lots of familiar faces including but not limited to: Dylan Rugh, so beautifully earnest as Hamluke that I'd love to see him play Hamlet, except I'm afraid some of the Star Wars words would slip in, so similar, yet different, are the lines; Duck Washington as Darthius with the iconic breathing; Jay Melchior as the cocky Laersolo (casting Han Solo as Leia's brother making the flirting a bit weird); and Clarence Wethern as multiple characters include Polyodius with the cutest Yoda puppet in an Elizabethan costume. A soundscape of live music played by two musicians on various stringed and other instruments really adds to the storytelling and make it feel more special. The whole thing is so thoughtfully and cleverly created, including props and set pieces, much of which I probably didn't even catch. But even if you're not a Star Wars (or Shakespeare) person, it's a really fun and well done show.
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Shrieking Harpies Presents: Period Piece"
Show: 15
Category: Comedy / Improv / Musical Theater / Original Music / Audience participation / LGBTQIA+ Content
By: The Shrieking Harpies
Created by: Lizzie Gardner, Taj Ruler, Hannah Wydeven, and Justin Nellis on the Keys
Location: Barker Center
Summary: An improved musical, set in a period chosen by votes on The Shrieking Harpies' Instagram.
Highlights: Improvisers/singers/performers Lizzie, Taj, and Hannah are such pros at this (accompanied by Justin on keys) that this year they gave themselves a new challenge - a period piece! At the show I attended (the one and only 10pm show for this morning person, that's how much I love them) the period was the 1990s, which for someone who was a fully grown adult in the '90s doesn't feel like a period piece, it feels like a few years ago. So unfortunately I didn't really get the period piece feel from this show that I wanted; it was really just like any other Shrieking Harpies show. Which is to say - beautifully performed, ridiculously funny, with characters and storylines that come to a satisfying conclusion. Go see one of their final two shows, and be sure to vote on what period you'd like to see, hopefully one that's longer than 30 years ago.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Book of Mordor"
Show: 14
Title: The Book of Mordor
Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Literary adaptation
By: Haute Dish Productions
Created by: Haute Dish Productions,
Location: Rarig Thrust
Summary: The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy told through the music of The Book of Mormon.
Highlights: This was perhaps the most anticipated show of this year's Fringe for me, and it did not disappoint! The Book of Mormon is one of my favorite musicals ("if theater is my religion, The Book of Mormon is my most sacred text"), and I've loved the world of Middle Earth since I was 12, having read the books dozens of times and seen the movies almost as many (I've even been to New Zealand twice and visited several filming locations). I was actually a little worried that my expectations were too high and the show would fall short of them, but I'm happy to report that it did not. If you're not familiar with The Book of Mormon or LOTR, well, you can probably stop reading this and go enjoy whatever subpar entertainment you like. But for the rest of us, this show is a thrill. In fact the two stories mash up so well (starting with the title) that I'm surprised no one has done it yet. The entire three-book 12-hour movie story is condensed into about an hour, of course skipping lots of character and events, but hitting all the high points we would expect. The score includes pretty much every song from The Book of Mormon, with very clever new lyrics written to fit the LOTR story. "Two by Two" becomes "Nine by Nine," "You and Me (but mostly me)" perfectly describes the roles of Frodo and the Fellowship, Merry and Pippin are "Messing Things Up Again," and in perhaps my favorite song adaptation, Eowyn and the hobbits "Man Up" (a clever play on Eowyn's famous line "I am no man"). Mankato-based writer/directors Kendra Braunger and Carissa Christenson (who play Pippin and Merry, respectively) have done a wonderful job with a brilliant concept, and the cast gamely throws themselves into what is an epic and impressive feat. I won't even dock them for singing to a recorded track rather than having a live band, because there's just so much going on (including really fun DIY costumes). The Book of Mordor is my favoritest mash-up in the entire history of Fringe mash-ups! Shows like this are one of the reasons fringe festivals exist, and thanks to Haute Dish for giving me the mash-up I didn't know I needed but seems so obvious now!
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Final Dress"
Show: 13
Title: Final Dress
Category: Comedy / Improv
By: MDV Productions
Created by: Michael DallaValle & Sean Dillon
Location: Open Eye Theatre
Summary: An improvised final dress rehearsal, featuring a different "director" at every performance.
Highlights: The conceit of the show is that Michael and Sean are actors preparing to open a show, if they can find another venue after learning that the Theatre Garage is closed (RIP). In this fictional set up, Sean wrote the play, but the director, played at this performance by playwright/director John Heimbuch of Walking Shadow Theatre Company, is putting his own spin on it, in a late Sam Shepard / early David Mamet kind of way. What unfolded was a story of brotherhood with murder, adultery, and cannibalism, so that tracks. This is perhaps the most layered improv show I've ever seen, with Sean and Michael improvising lines and situations both as the actors and as the characters in this play (called The Chopping Block) that they're making up as they go. Every now and then John, the stereotypical director in a scarf and dark classes carrying a binder and making notes, would interject and ask them to do the scene again, or make suggestions on tone or line readings or positions, even calling out light cues on occasion. It's a very intricate operation, pulled off smoothly, hilariously, and sometimes cringingly. Guest directors for the final shows are Mike Fotis and Duck Washington, which should be very different shows.
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "DOLLY WHO?'S HOLIDAY HORROR SHOW"
Show: 12
Category: Comedy / Dance / Horror / Improv / Original Music / Puppetry / Sci-fi / Solo Show / Storytelling / Audience participation / Kid friendly / LGBTQIA+ Content
By: Destiny Davison
Created by: Dolly Who? Productions
Location: Open Eye Theatre
Summary: A solo show combining comedy, improv, and illustration to celebrate a holiday.
Highlights: I've seen Destiny Davison in several improv shows, but never as her "Dolly Who?" persona. And she's a delight. Sweet and silly, with a unique use of her illustrations, both in the form of cute little stick puppets and illustrations that she does live. The theme of this show is "holiday horror," and she shares her love of horror movies and holidays of all kinds! The show is participatory in a non-threatening way, and she asks for our help in designing a new holiday (at the show I attended - the very appropriate "Moderately Clean Air Day"). We even help her decorate and design a new mascot, and one (un)lucky audience member gets to enjoy some holiday candy. Destiny/Dolly is really great at interacting with and reacting to the audience. In the horror portion of the show, she talks about the real-life things that are way scarier than any horror movie, which I guess is what attracts people to them. But this show is not scary; it feels comforting and familiar and communal.
Monday, August 4, 2025
Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Temporary Tattoo Trio"
Show: 11
Title: The Temporary Tattoo Trio
Category: Comedy / Drama / Audience participation
By: an alleged Theatre Company
Written by: Jake Mierva & Danylo Loutchko
Location: Rarig Arena
Summary: Three best friends named Tyler have a temporary tattoo business, and things start to go awry when secrets are revealed.
Highlights: This is a simple premise that is brilliantly executed. We're just watching three friends put temporary tattoos on people for an hour while they talk about their friendship. If this sounds boring, it's not, it's very funny and engaging. The three Tylers (Danylo Loutchko, Jake Mierva, and J. McIntyre Godwin) are so committed to the bit that it feels like we're eavesdropping on one long conversation between actual friends. And all the while, they are actually applying temporary tattoos to audience members' arms, while continuing their conversation. Or even better, we sit in awkward silence while they fume and apply tattoos. And the Rarig Arena is the perfect (perhaps only) venue for this; the performance space becomes the entire theater into the rows of audience on either side of the stage, the Tylers sometimes taking a seat while they hold a wet washcloth on someone's arm for several minutes. Things get even more complicated with the arrival of the Tylers' friend Taylor (Sarah Halverson), their favorite lifeguard from their favorite place on earth - Wisconsin Dells. Will these secrets break up this bromance trio? We never really find out, but maybe friendships have to grow and evolve as we age, maybe we can't be applying temporary tattoos and going to Wisconsin Dells together forever. But it sure was fun while it lasted.
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