Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Rec League"

Day: 2

Show: 7

Title: Rec League

Category: Comedy / Improv

By: Mike Fotis Productions

Created by: Mike Fotis and cast

Location: Strike Theater (a quick and easy 10-minute drive from Cedar-Riverside)

Summary: An improvised softball game between friends.

Highlights: I love baseball, but the only time I've ever played the game was a couple seasons in a co-ed softball league with coworkers some 20 years ago. The position I played was scorekeeper, and we weren't good (especially when the required number of women didn't show up and I had to take the field). In Rec League, I felt like I was back on that neighborhood softball field. Except with a lot more drama and humor. This troupe of eight improvisors (Allison Vincent, Anna Fotis, Bobby Gardner, Jim Robinson, Mike Fotis, Nels Lennes, Rita Boersma, and Tim Hellendrung) create a believable group of friends, and one enemy - Gary. This sets up some of the drama, as we learn why everyone hates Gary. We also have secret crushes, troubles at work, and new careers to discuss. All of this happens while the game is going on. We see players mostly in the first base dugout, heading off stage when it's their turn to bat. We hear the crack of the bat (and other sound effects the cast reacts to), see foul balls roll by, or watch the player sprint to first or walk sadly back to the dugout after a disappointing strikeout. Despite the fact that eight people are not actually enough for a softball team, especially when two people stay on the bench when the team takes the field, the baseball of it actually kind of makes sense. We get a few fun and intimate one-on-one scenes with the people on the bench, or in the outfield (when they actually make plays!). It's really quite impressive that they are able to juggle both the intricate storylines within the group and the plays of the game. But don't worry, you don't have to know baseball or softball to enjoy Rec League (although there are some fun Easter eggs if you do). It's about the joy of watching these talented improvisors create characters and relationships right in front of you, that feel genuine and authentic. Will the Wolves finally win a game? They've got three more games this season, if you go and cheer them on they just might.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "The Camp Out"

Day: 3/9

Show: 9/27

Title: The Camp Out

Category: Comedy / Drama / Improv / Physical Theater

By: Mike Fotis Productions

Created by: Mike Fotis, Rita Boersma, Tim Hellendrung, Nels Lennes, Heather Meyer, Danna Sheridan

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: An improvised story of six friends who go on a campout to remember a deceased friend.

Highlights: Long-form is my favorite kind of improv, and this show is an example of why. Over the course of about an hour we watch these relationships develop in front of our eyes (although I'm not sure if characters and plots points are improvised and different every time, or just the conversation around them). And these six improvisors (Mike Fotis, Rita Boersma, Tim Hellendrung, Nels Lennes, Heather Meyer, and Danna Sheridan) are some of the best. The show starts with a couple actually setting up a tent on stage, which is a drama in and of itself! Friends start arriving, and we start to gather what everyone's relationships are. In the show I saw, the friends are there to honor their friend who died a year or so ago, and secrets (relationships, pregnancies) are revealed. It's so much fun to watch this group just be these people, talking and joking and snacking. It feels so real, like eavesdropping. When real life thunder was heard from outside the theater, they incorporated it into the show, starting to prepare for the rain. It's a well-done, smooth, and very funny improvised dramedy.

Update: I had an open slot in my schedule so I saw this one again, and it was completely different! Same performers, same concept of saying goodbye to a deceased friend (reading a letter from a family member and spreading their ashes in the park), but the characters and relationships were completely different. No surprise revelations, just being together and grieving. I cried from laughter, and a little bit at the real emotions.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Holiday Office Party" at Strike Theater

There's a new long-form holiday* improv show in town, and much like Family Dinner (playing at HUGE Theater in Uptown through December 30), Holiday Office Party at Strike Theater in Northeast Minneapolis spoofs a familiar event in many people's lives - the office party. That semi-mandatory party with people who are sort of your friends but not really. I'm going into the office this week (for the first time in six months) to experience the real thing (planned funtivities: trivia and a cookie exchange), but I'm certain that it won't be nearly as fun as the Strike Office Party. A large cast pulled from a troupe of talented improvisers makes awkward small talk, drinks too much, and sings inappropriate karaoke. What's not to love?! There are three more shows this weekend, for the very reasonable price of $12, so check out the fun at your Northeast home for sketch comedy, improv, and storytelling.

"Sunshine" by Dark & Stormy Productions at Grain Belt Warehouse

After a string of 11 holiday shows, it was time for a palate cleanser. Dark and Stormy Productions once again fulfills that space with their "anti-holiday programming," this year with the dark comedy Sunshine by William Mastrosimone (whose much darker and much less comedic Extremities they tackled this summer). But at its heart this really is a sweet story about two (or three) people who are looking for love in all the wrong places (to quote a great old country song). Presented in an intimate and appropriate non-theater space, with a terrific three-person cast, this is another strong showing from Dark and Stormy that serves as a nice cap to their third season.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Backlash"

Day: 3

Show: 12 

Title: Backlash

Category: Comedy

By: Mainly Me Productions

Written by: Josh Carson

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A high school drama teacher by day and comedian by night becomes jealous when a student gets famous from a YouTube video of and gets an audition for SNL.

Highlights: Josh Carson wrote, directs, and stars in this story of a frustrated comedian named Bill who partners with a student and sometimes neglects his wife Allie (Sara Marsh) in the pursuit of comedy. When young Blair (Tucker Garborg) lands on The Today Show thanks to his video of Law and Order with farts, the three embark on a road trip to NYC to audition for Saturday Night Live. Along the way they meet a quirky young writer (Sulia Altenberg) and SNL's newest star who wants off the show (Andy Kraft). Rounding out the cast is Nels Lennes as the narrator and others, and they all work and play together well. Backlash is funny, a little bit ridiculous (they break into the set of SNL), topical, very fringey, and also has some real moments in the relationship of the couple. The road trip story is kind of silly, but it allows for some funny and real moments, and the closer "Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight" with a guest star from the audience is a winner.