Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Silent Movie!"

Day: 8

Show: 26

Title: Silent Movie!

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Drama / Improv / Original Music / Physical Theater / Non-verbal

By: The Improv Movement Project

Directed by: Sean Dillon and Mark Benzel

Location: Barker Center

Summary: An entirely improvised silent movie, created by the troupe based on the result of three spinning wheels.

Highlights: This show is a delight, and kind of miraculous how this troupe of silent physical theater improvisors (Sean Dillon, Mark Benzel, Elizabeth Dunn, Erin Sheppard, Evie Digirolamo, Gregory Parks, Luke Fanning, Mandi Bedbury, Rachel Buhman, and Victoria Pyan) are able to create a complete and cohesive story without speaking. At the start of the show, co-director Sean Dillon spins three wheels to determine the genre (bump in the night at the show I attended), plot (long-lost treasure), and star (Elizabeth). Once they have done one of these items, they cross it off so that each of the five shows is a totally different combinations. While I didn't always complete understand what was happening, it was always entertaining, and I got the general gist of the story which was some sort of evil growing plant, a little like The Last of Us, or "don't feed the plant" (or in this case don't eat the plant. The performers would clap and use a hand signal to call for different types of scenes - slow motion, close up, wide shot (with one performer's fingers walking across the others shoulders and outstretched arms), or thoughts. And occasionally they'd make a motion to bring the lights down, and start a new scene. It's really clever storytelling, with the performers communicating in some silent language (or telepathy) what's coming next in the story. They're all talented improvisors and physical theater actors, with apparently no sense of personal space because they literally climb all over each other, like they're one body telling the story. Final show Sunday at 7!

 

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

"Ada Lovelace: Bride of Science" by nimbus theatre at the Crane Theater

In February of 2020, just before the world turned upside down, Daleko Arts produced the regional premiere (and to date only production) of Lauren Gunderson's play Ada and the Engine about Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer. Now nimbus theatre (a company that almost exclusively does original work) is bringing us a new original play about Ada written by #TCTheater's own Nissa Nordland, because we can never have too many plays about historical women of science. Especially Ada, a particular favorite of mine as a woman with a BA in math, an MS in statistics, and a day job as a statistical programmer. Ada lived a short but full life with many accomplishments that weren't always recognized in her lifetime, but provided the foundation for our world today. Nissa has written a lovely, funny, moving, inspiring play that gives us a full picture of Ada and her world, beautifully brought to life by a talented five-person cast and clever design. Only four more performances remain at the Crane Theater in Northeast Minneapolis.

"Silent Sky" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Bell Museum

'Tis the season for Lauren Gunderson's smart, funny, modern, and inspiring plays about female scientists in history, and I am here for it (keep 'em coming, #TCTheater). A week after seeing DalekoArts' lovely production of Ada and the Engine (about mathematician and computer programmer Ada Lovelace), I saw Theatre Pro Rata's production of Silent Sky (about astronomer Henrietta Leavitt, which I had seen at Lyric Arts a few years ago). It's a great play, but what makes this production truly special is that it is staged in the planetarium at the Bell Museum on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. Despite the fact that I got my graduate degree (in statistics, you can see why I'm so drawn to women in science plays) at the U of M, I didn't even know this museum existed (in my defense, the gorgeous new building just opened a year and a half ago). I hope to return to tour the museum sometime, but my first experience to it (through theater, natch) was a wonderful one. Being able to look up at the stars as Henrietta talked about them made the story feel so real. A truly inspired pairing of play and location by Theatre Pro Rata.

A Reading of "Eat, Slay, Leave" by the Playwright Cabal at the Phoenix Theatre

The Playwright Cabal is "an ambitious group of female-identified professional playwrights who promote the development of new scripted plays in the Twin Cities and one another’s success." This fall, they're presenting a series of readings of new works by each the five members (Katherine Glover, Gemma Irish, Alayna Jacqueline, Heather Meyer, and Rachel Teagle). This program, entitled New Leaf, is free to attend, and includes pre- and post-show happy hour as well as a post-show discussion of the work presented. All readings are at the Phoenix Theatre in Uptown, and it's a really great way to see what our local female playwrights are up to.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Visitation"

Day: 3

Show: 9

Title: Visitation

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / SPOKEN WORD

By: DangerVision Productions

Directed by: Amber Danger Johnson

Location: Crane Theater

Summary: A series of short plays about grief, framed by a visitation in a funeral home

Highlights: The play opens at a visitation (or wake), the most awkward of reception lines. As the widow steels herself to be able to speak, a funeral director (played by Clarence Wethern) talks about grief, what it is and what it isn't. What follows are five short plays (all accompanied by projected imagery) that range from funny to mystical to sad, brought to life by the ensemble (Ben Tallen, Charles Numrich, Karen Bair, Sophie Javna, and Victoria Pyan). Laura Buchholz's exploration of people's fascination with the details of death, Gemma Irish's profound treatise on the meaning of life itself, Rachel Teagle's story of a complicated mother/daughter relationship, Sam Landman's moving tribute to his best friend, and Tyler Mills' poetic journey through grief are tied together by Heather Meyer's funny/sad "interludes" delivered by the funeral director. I came prepared to cry, but laughed more than I expected, while still being moved by the varied expressions of the experience of grief, an inescapable part of being human.

"The price of love is loss, but still we pay, we love anyway."
- Next to Normal

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Preferred by Discreet Women Everywhere" by Freshwater Theatre at the Crane Theater

This fall, Freshwater Theatre is featuring new work by women artists, and they couldn't have picked a better time. In rep with a short play festival called "The Feminine Surcharge," they're presenting a collection of three short plays set in a women's bathroom. A place where many of us spend a considerable amount of time. While my visits to the restroom are usually less dramatic than these, it certainly is a place for drama, for strangers coming together, for friends having intimate conversations, for women hiding from undesirable people or events outside the bathroom door (true confession: I've been known to spend a longer time than necessary in the bathroom when events are awkward or boring or uncomfortable). Ruth Virkus' three plays under the title Preferred by Discreet Women Everywhere explore these ideas. The result is funny and real and poignant, and feminist. An all-female cast and creative team shouldn't be as rare and novel as it is, but you can witness it now through October 28 at the Crane Theater in Northeast Minneapolis.

"My Barking Dog" by Market Garden Theatre at the Crane Theater Studio

Eric Coble's play The Velocity of Autumn ran for just a month on Broadway four years ago, and I was lucky enough to see it. I really don't understand why it was such a short run, except that maybe the intimate family story plays better on smaller stages. Seeing it again at Old Log a few years ago  confirmed my opinion that it's a beautifully written play, smart and funny and poignant and relatable. I have now seen my second Eric Coble play, thanks to the small theater company Market Garden Theatre producing My Barking Dog in the Crane's intimate (and not yet completed) studio space. This play is also beautifully written, although much different than The Velocity of Autumn. My Barking Dog starts off as a real and relatable story of two individuals, and then veers off into the fantastical, but it's a journey I was happy to take because of the beautiful, odd, surprising script and the strong performances by the two-person cast.

"Henry V" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Crane Theater

I recently wrote, "I should just give up seeing anyone else do Shakespeare, because no one does it like Ten Thousand Things." Of course that's not very realistic for a theater blogger; Shakespeare is still one of our most produced playwrights. But lucky for me, Theatre Pro Rata's new production of Henry V borrows a few things from TTT, namely a small cast, an edited story, and a playful spirit. They use just five actors to play the two dozen or more roles, and what's even more interesting - each actor takes a turn playing the title role. It's all done in a meta theater style in which five actors attempt to tell this epic story and realize just what they're up against, congratulating each other at the end when they accomplish the task. And accomplish it they do, in what is a new and inventive take on a very old play.