theatrical musings in Minnesota and beyond
Day: 9 Show: 33 Title: The Importance of Being Eternal Category: Comedy / Literary adaptation By: Little Apple Theatre Company Directed by: Paul Willis Jr. Location: Open Eye Theatre Summary: Oscar Wilde's most well-known play The Importance of Being Earnest , reimagined in the vampire world. Highlights: Just a few weeks ago, I saw the debut of new #TCTheater company Little Apple Theatre with a…
Day: 9 Show: 32 Title: Who We Are: Stories from the Surge Category: Storytelling / Historical content / Political content By: Three Second Memory Created by: Bruce D. Manning Location: Open Eye Theatre Summary: Stories from Operation Metro Surge, based on interviews and testimony from people who lived it. Highlights: There are (unsurprisingly) several shows in this year's Minnesota Fringe that are…
Day: 9 Show: 31 Title: Too Fat To Run Category: Comedy / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Storytelling By: Fat Theatre Project Created by: Eileen Tull Location: Open Eye Theatre Summary: A solo storytelling show by Chicago-based artist Eileen Tull about running a marathon, despite the world telling her she's too fat to run. Highlights: While I don't identify as fat, I definitely identify as a runner…
Day: 9 Show: 30 Title: Too Much of a Good Thing Category: Comedy / Drama / Musical Theater / Solo Show By: RAR Entertainment Created by: Rachel Redleaf Location: Open Eye Theatre Summary: A solo storytelling show by TV and film actor Rachel Redleaf about her relationship with her large breasts and decision to have reduction surgery. Highlights: Rachel is very funny and honest in this very personal…
Day: 9 Show: 29 Title: Is That Why? Category: Comedy / Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling By: Ari Hoptman Created by: Ari Hoptman Location: American School of Storytelling Summary: A solo show about the origins of words, from your favorite professor Ari Hoptman. Highlights: If you love words and languages, you'll love this show (and you can still see it today at 1!). Based on a series of large…
Day: 8 Show: 28 Title: 1 Hour Left to Live: A One Puppet Show by That Felt Good Category: Comedy / Improv / Musical Theater / Original Music / Puppetry / Storytelling / Audience participation / LGBTQIA+ Content / Religious content By: Sockpop Directed by: Phoebe Bottoms and Matt Olson Location: Southern Theater Summary: A puppet named Pal has one hour left to live tells his life story to a priest…
Day: 8 Show: 27 Title: I Will Become The Silver Surfer. I Will Protect You. Category: Comedy / Solo Show / Audience participation By: Jake Mierva Written by: Jake Mierva Location: Rarig Stoll Thrust Summary: A solo show about a man who thinks he's been chosen to save the world from Galactus, in the absence of the Fantastic Four. Highlights: I don't read comic books or watch comic book movies, so I…
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…
Day: 7 Show: 25 Title: The Importance of Living Category: Comedy / Drama / Horror By: Mermaid Productions Written by: Tim Uren Location: Open Eye Theatre Summary: Two happy murderers meet on death row, or maybe the afterlife, and share stories of their crimes. Highlights: This sounds like a dark premise for a play, and it is, but it's also delightfully fun. We meet one of the murderers (Ariel…
Day: 7 Show: 24 Title: Watership Down Category: Drama / Musical Theater / Original Music / Physical Theater / Puppetry / Storytelling / Kid friendly / Literary adaptation By: Melancholics Anonymous Written by: Richard Adams, adapted for the stage by Melancholics Anonymous Location: Rarig Stoll Thrust Summary: An original folk musical adaptation of the 1972 adventure novel Watership Down about a…
Day: 7 Show: 23 Title: After the End Category: Comedy / Drama / Musical Theater / Solo Show By: One T Productions Written by: Scot Froelich Location: Mixed Blood Theatre Summary: After the entire population of the planet was wiped out in a deadly pandemic, Jeff finds himself the last man on earth, and holds a concert for an imaginary audience. Highlights: Fringe vet Scot Froelich has written a…
Day: 6 Show: 22 Title: A Woman's Place is in the House Category: Comedy / Spoken Word / Storytelling / Audience participation / Historical content / Political content By: David Alan Berger Written by: David Alan Berger Location: Rarig Kilburn Arena Summary: The first four women elected to Minnesota's House of Representatives time travel to the present to give us hope in these uncertain times.…
Day: 6 Show: 21 Title: Sisters on Stage: An elder millennial’s exploration of Shakespeare’s sisters Category: Comedy / Drama / Solo Show / Shakespearian elements By: Deanne McDonald / The Traveling Players Created by: Deanne McDonald Location: Mixed Blood Theatre Summary: A solo show exploring the sibling relationships in Shakespeare's plays. Highlights: Deanne McDonald was inspired to create this…
Day: 6 Show: 20 Title: Tapeze - a la seconde Category: Dance / Physical / Theater / Kid friendly / Non-verbal By: Twin Cities Trapeze Created by: Katie Kimball and Cathy Wind Location: Southern Theater Summary: A combination of tap dance (as well as some ballet and contemporary dance) and trapeze. Highlights: I heard about Tapeze at last year's festival but wasn't able to see it, so I'm glad…
Day: 6 Show: 19 Title: BE NOT AFRAID Category: Comedy / Drama / Horror / Mystery / Original Music / Physical Theater / Storytelling By: Third Space Theater Created by: Mariabella Sorini & Alex Church Location: Southern Theatre Summary: A struggling North Dakota farm family is threatened by the construction of nearby oil rigs, as they're visited by angels and devils. Highlights: This is the only…
Day: 5 Show: 18 Title: Small Minded Category: Clowning / Comedy / Magic / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Storytelling / Audience participation / Shakespearian elements By: Tyler West Created by: Tyler West and Cleo DeOrio Location: Southern Theater Summary: A solo storytelling show by an actor with dwarfism, about his career, the roles he's forced to play, and how it intersects with disability.…
Day: 5 Show: 17 Title: Bury The Leads Category: Comedy / Drama / Improv / Audience participation By: Special When Lit Created by: Sam Landman & Nissa Nordland Location: Mixed Blood Theatre Summary: An improvised show about two character actors Faye and Clyde as they go through their life of auditions and rehearsals and other theatery things. Highlights: Fringe vets Nissa and Sam have been…
Day: 5 Show: 16 Title: the statue of liberty is nora in a doll's house by henrik ibsen Category: Comedy / Drama / Musical Theater / Physical Theater By: Supermoon Created by: Supermoon Location: Rarig Stoll Thrust Summary: Henrik Ibsen's ground-breaking 1879 play A Doll's House , in which a housewife leaves her family to find herself, with Nora played by the Statue of Liberty. Highlights: On one…
Day: 4 Show: 15 Title: Casa Bde-Maka-Ska Category: Comedy By: Snikt! Bamf! Thwip! Written by: Duck Washington & Tim Wick Location: Theatre in the Round Summary: A parody of the 1942 film Casablanca , set in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge. Highlights: I've never seen the movie, but it's so pervasive in our culture I have a vague idea of the story. There's a guy named Rick who owns a club, a…
Day: 4 Show: 14 Title: A Confluence of Magical Arseholes Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Original Music / Historical content By: The Winding Sheet Outfit Created by: The Winding Sheet Outfit Location: Rarig Stoll Thrust Summary: The bizarre true story of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , whose most famous member was the Irish poet William Butler Yeats . Highlights: Leave it to Winding…
Day: 4 Show: 13 Title: Minnesota is the Shire, or Fair & Back Again Category: Solo Show / Storytelling / Historical content By: Seán McArdle / Hero Props Created by: Seán McArdle Location: Barker Center Summary: A solo storytelling show about how Minnesota is like Tolkien's Shire (Hobbit country), specifically in the scouring. Highlights: OK, I went to this show because I've loved The Hobbit and…
Day: 4 Show: 12 Title: Vintage Tunes, Modern Gal Category: Comedy / Original Music / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Audience participation By: Plucky Rosenthal Created by: Plucky Rosenthal Location: Rarig Kilburn Arena Summary: A solo "musical comedy variety act" about a plucky ukulele player looking for a band. Highlights: Chicago-based touring artist Plucky Rosenthal (a last-minute add to the…
Day: 4 Show: 11 Title: Castrati: A Tale of Two Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Original Music / Puppetry / Historical content / Shakespearian elements By: True Men Productions Created by: Cali Garzon, Julia Maskin & Eli Maskin Location: Barker Center Summary: A musical set in 1400s Rome, about a castrated boy who is rejected by his family and finds identity and confidence in singing.…
Day: 4 Show: 10 Title: Bay Creek Category: Horror / Solo Show / Storytelling By: The Miller Conspiracy Written by: Derek Lee Miller Location: Barker Center Summary: A solo show about four generations of men smuggling contraband across state lines and rivers, with the help of a demon. Highlights: I saw this show at the 2025 Twin Cities Horror Festival , and it was so good I was happy to see it on…
Day: 3 Show: 9 Title: The Quiet Piggy Category: Clowning / Comedy / Drama / Improv / Physical Theater / Puppetry / Solo Show / Storytelling / Audience participation / Political content By: Dawn Bentley Written by: Dawn Bentley Location: Strike Theater Summary: A solo show from Minnesota Fringe's Executive Director, about art and politics and righteous anger. Highlights: Self-proclaimed "not a…
Day: 3 Show: 8 Title: 1985: Relative Chaos! Category: Comedy / Storytelling By: Jason Schommer Created by: Jason Schommer with JC Lippold Location: Strike Theater Summary: A solo storytelling comedy show about growing up in the '80s, dysfunctional families, love and loss. Highlights: This was my first time seeing one of Jason Schommer's shows, after enjoying his hosting of the Fringe's annual…
Day: 3 Show: 7 Title: A Revolution Highly Favorable Category: Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling / Historical content / Political content By: Maximum Verbosity Created by: phillip andrew bennett low Location: Strike Theater Summary: The story of the American Revolution, with readings from contemporaneous sources, told continuously over the five performances. Highlights: If you love history,…
Day: 3 Show: 6 Title: Tech Category: Comedy / Improv By: Mike Fotis Productions Created by: Mike Fotis and Cast Location: Strike Theater Summary: An improvised tech rehearsal for a Fringe show - different every performance! Highlights: This is an anthology series I hope never ends. This team brought us Camp Out in 2024, about a group of friends going camping (I saw it twice), Rec League in 2025,…
Day: 2 Show: 5 Title: Witness Loudly Category: Drama / Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling / Historical content / Political content By: Kind Fool Theater Created by: Kyle B. Dekker Location: Strike Theater Summary: A solo show about one person's experience as a neighborhood witness during Operation Metro Surge. Highlights: Kyle Dekker is a "goddamn American hero." Not because he served in the…
Day: 2 Show: 4 Title: Improvised Love Is Blind--Minnesota Fringe Edition Category: Comedy / Improv / Audience participation By: DallaDanna Productions Directed by: Michael DallaValle & Danna Sheridan Location: Strike Theater Summary: The title says it all - an improvised spoof of the Netflix dating show Love is Blind . Highlights: This show is a regular at Strike, and I saw it two years ago , but…