In alphabetical order, here are my favorite shows of the 2026 Minnesota Fringe Festival. Click on the show title to read the full review, and read all 39 reviews here.
- Bay Creek by Derek Lee Miller - a show I loved so much I saw it a second time (the first time was at TCHF last year), a tightly written and perfectly executed solo ghost story.
- Be Not Afraid by Third Space Theater - a polished and professional original play about a North Dakota farm family in the age of fracking, with stunning visual effects and movement, and fantastical elements mixed with grounded reality.
- Bury the Leads by Nissa Nordland and Sam Landman - a very funny improv show by two expert improvisors playing local character actors doing all the actory things, including Fringe!
- A Confluence of Magical Arseholes by the Winding Sheet Outfit - a much sillier offering from TWSO, but just as thoughtfully and innovatively constructed, about another odd story from history.
- Empty Nest by Laura Zabel and Levi Weinhagen - a very funny and personal comedy show about getting older and sending your child off into the world.
- Minnesota is the Shire, or Fair & Back Again by Seán McArdle - out of the many shows that were directly about or in some way referenced Operation Metro Surge (because it was a pivotal event in our community that changed us, and what artists do best is react to and process what's going on in the world), this one was my favorite because I found the comparisons to Lord of the Rings very poignant and apt (see also Witness Loudly, Who We Are, and Casa Bde-Maka-Ska).
- Silent Movie! - a delightful fully improvised silent movement-based "movie" by a group of physical performers who work together like a unit to tell the story.
- Small Minded by Tyler West - a solo show by an actor with dwarfism (currently starring in the national tour of Water for Elephants) that is both an expert clowning show and a poignant story of being a person and a performer with a disability.
- Sound and Noise and Bodies by Jen Scott - a lovely, silly, poignant, endearing solo show about life, loss, and ukuleles.
- the statue of liberty is nora in a doll's house by henrik ibsen by Supermoon - on one level a clever and very fringey version of a classic play, on another level a sobering commentary on the state of our country.
- Tech by Mike Fotis and friends - my favorite Fringe improv show three years running, this time a meta story about a group of friends at a tech rehearsal for a Fringe show.
- Too Fat to Run by Eileen Tull - a moving solo storytelling show by a Chicago-based artist who trained for and ran a marathon, despite the world telling her she couldn't, or shouldn't (honorable mention for Rachel Redleaf's Too Much of a Good Thing, another solo show about a woman learning to love her body).
- Vintage Tunes, Modern Gal by Plucky Rosenthal - a charming solo show by touring artist Plucky, just a ukulele player looking for bandmates, which she finds in us! (And my one button purchase: "I don't know what I'm doing.")
- Watership Down by Melancholics Anonymous - the last show alphabetically but my #1 favorite of the fest, a beautiful original folk musical adaptation of the beloved (and kind of odd) novel about a group of rabbits going on an adventure (and the show I most hope to see again in an expanded form!).
And here are the 9 theater T-shirts that I wore to Fringe this year:
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| 2020 Minnesota Fringe, Suffs, Strike Theater 2026 Minnesota Fringe, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Guthrie Theater's History Plays American Players Theatre, TigerLion Arts' Nature, Edinburgh Festival Fringe |
