MN Fringe Festival Day 11 The Finale in Which We Come to the End of the Festival Share Our Final Reviews, Give Out Some Awards, and Piglet Sees a Woozle. Bangs!, Guy For Now (Winner of The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award), Machinal, Sound and Noise and Bodies, This Body This Fruit, Just One Life. Plus the Winners of The Stages of MN Best in Fest Award and the Newly Minted Improv Best in Fest Award.

We made it!!! I’m not gonna lie, the last day was a struggle, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. All told, I saw 47 shows out of a possible 55! And there were still many I wish I could have seen. It’s that way every year. I had a great Fringe, and I hope you all did as well. And if you didn’t Fringe this year, I hope you at least enjoyed reading about the shows.

While we do have artists come from all over the world to perform at the MN Fringe Festival, the majority are local artists who are doing things all year long. Go to the Minnesota Fringe website here: https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026 and check out the cast and crew pages of your favorite shows. Follow your favorites on the socials to see when they are next appearing in something outside of Fringe. Make it a point to see at least one show a month until next year’s Fringe.

The new theater website of the Twin Cities, 79 Seconds on Stage, at https://79seconds.org/, should be of tremendous use in completing your monthly homework assignment. That site has links to all of the shows playing around the Twin Cities, as well as any reviews that might be out there for them from print and digital review sources. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should.

Artists, you have a job to do too: Be on the socials. Post about your shows! I’m always surprised at how often people are not putting their projects out there. Part of the job is promoting yourself and your work. You may hate it; I get that. I hate it too. But it’s part of my job as well. I have to do it so I get more followers, so that more people will hear about the show you are in that I reviewed. And it feels icky sometimes, like you are telling everyone how great you are and all the stuff you are doing. And yes, some people will think you are full of yourself for putting out into the world what you are doing. That is called jealousy, and you should have no time for it.

Audiences are not growing, and they aren’t getting younger. We are going to change that by engaging with younger people where they live, which is online. I get that you think only your parents and grandparents are still on Facebook, and Facebook is Evil. Well, yes, it is, so don’t read anything. Just post. And actually, there are other people on Facebook. They are your parents’ and grandparents’ friends, and they have something a lot of younger people don’t have: disposable income. They buy tickets. You want to sell tickets. Hold your breath, log on long enough to post about the show, and then get off.

OK, I’ll take my Dad hat off now before you all start asking for your allowance, and let me put my Stages of MN pants on and give out my Best in Fest Awards!

The winner of The Stages of MN Best in Fest Award is Watership Down from Melancholics Anonymous.

This company has been the darling of the Minnesota Fringe Festival since I began attending. Known for their darkly silly shows executed with the precision of a Broadway show, they are at once both the darling of the festival and the irreverent wild child. Until this year, when they did a Freaky Friday switcheroo with The Winding Sheet outfit. Exchanging their irreverence for elegance, they fashioned a straight adaptation of the classic novel by Richard Adams. There isn’t a campy bunny in sight.

Masterfully translating the story to the stage as a musical, featuring original songs by company member Bee Davis, it’s not just the best show of this year’s festival; it’s ready to expand and be mounted as a full-length production. If I ran the zoo, or better yet, the Guthrie Theatre or Theater Latté Da, I’d be talking with Davis and the playwrights Rachel Ropella and Timothy Kelly about commissioning this for a future season.

Congratulations on surprising us all by reinventing yourselves, taking a risk on not giving us what we expected, and know that it worked. No one is disappointed, and we feel foolish for mentally putting you in a box when the quality and creativity of your work always showed us you were capable of this.

Now, because someone told me that over 20% of the shows in the festival this year were improv shows, and because my own rule that The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner can’t be an improv show really is stupid, I have decided to do something about it. Originally it was a way to break a tie, which I also don’t allow, years ago. The thinking was, “because it is improv it is different every time.” But improv is such a huge part of the festival, and improv shows would certainly have taken two or three of the awards this year. So I am trying to atone for the rule, which I am not changing, I still gotta have a way to narrow down the choices some days, and I have created The Stages of MN Improv Best in Fest Award!

The first-ever The Stages of MN Improv Best in Fest Award goes to Bury the Leads, created and performed by the incomparable Sam Landman and Nissa Nordland.

Bury the Leads is what they call long-form improv, I think, though maybe this is actually extended long-form improv. Landman and Nordland play Clyde and Faye, two character actors trying to land roles and keep each other’s spirits up. True friends with an underlying current that maybe, just maybe, they could be more. The duo have been performing these characters and this concept for a year or so now, and everytime I see it, I get that “will they or won’t they?” vibe.

If I ran the Arboretum, or better yet, The Hive or Bryant Lake Bowl Theatre, I would be trying to cash in on this goldmine of an idea and book Bury the Leads with a monthly residency in which Landman and Nordland could serialize the show, building a continuing story of Clyde and Faye, with a Patreon option so you could see a recording of a performance if you had to miss one, so you could keep up with the story. If they did this, I would totally call it “my stories!”. “Oh no, I can’t tonight. I have to go to The Hive for my stories.” “No, no, I can’t make it to your wedding this weekend. I’m sorry, but my stories are on.”

Bury the Leads is consistently funny. Very funny. But what really sets it apart is that these are two of the best character actors in the Twin Cities. There are times in every performance that are not funny. They aren’t meant to be. They are moments when the characters touch on something true in their lives. Those glimpses are better than the funniest bits in the shows because you are seeing moments touched by truth and humanity.

We are not laughing; we are empathizing. And we do not care about anything else happening. We are locked into these lives on stage. You see, great acting is engrossing, whether it’s comedy or drama. Greatness holds you in its grip.

Click here to see who won the Fringe’s own awards, the Golden Lanyards: https://minnesotafringe.org/awards. You should also click here: https://thephipps.org/ to see which five shows will be part of the Fringe Encore at the Phipps, which runs from August 25 through the 29th at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, WI.

Now, my final set of reviews from The Minnesota Fringe Festival’s closing day.

Bangs! would be more aptly titled Drag!. I think it was a half-formed idea that never got a chance to solidify into something solid. I was expecting a drag show, but really, it was supposed to be a play about the performers backstage and onstage at a drag show. In truth, it was both and neither. There wasn’t enough there for a play, the big dramatic moment feels completely forced, and there are no emotional bonds built to allow it to have any real effect on the audience. The script seems to be catty drag-persona banter for 40 minutes, then have someone get shot. The end.

There is too little of the drag performances to satisfy that aspect either. There need to be things that lead up to the shooting, or the show needs to be about the aftermath of the shooting. That’s a traumatic event, and to use it without reason other than to give your play a false sense of importance is unfair to the audience and the cast. I liked the cast, and I would have enjoyed either a drag show by them, a proper play about the backstage relationships, or the aftermath of a violent act on this group of performers.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/bangs-

Guy For Now. I went into this one extremely blind. I couldn’t even remember why it was on my schedule until I saw Michael Quadrozzi come on stage. I then remembered seeing his name in the cast and putting it on my schedule for that reason. But I had no idea what it was, which I’m not sure any synopsis that would fit on the webpage would begin to explain what this show was.

I don’t know how I wasn’t hearing people talk about this show. Right before I went into this show, I bit the bullet and submitted my votes for the two audience Golden Lanyard awards. I never know when the cut off is on the final day! I wish I hadn’t. This would have gotten my vote for the Spirit of the Fringe Award. Well, it was too late for that, but I am awarding it the final The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award of the festival. It is one of the Fringiest things I’ve seen, and I absolutely loved it!

Again, I cannot fathom why I was not hearing about this show. No one mentioned it other than one person who knew it was on my schedule. When I couldn’t remember why, they did say it was good, I should stick with it, and not make a change. So glad I did!

It opens with a stage manager pointing a light at a man and stating stage directions for him to follow. He is confused. He walks on stage and into the spotlight. From there, like Alice in Wonderland, he meets person after person, each stranger than the last, always guided by the Stage Manager.

Quadrozzi shines as a Gentleman who acts as one half of a comedy team, perhaps this Wonderland’s version of Tweedledee and Tweedledum? Next, he puts on a completely different personality as Billy, whom I don’t have space to explain. All of the characters played by the entire cast are just so specific and funny. Benjamin Thacker as Guy and Tricia Buerke as the Stage Manager are also standouts.

Did I mention there’s some great dancing, some songs, some folks in Elizabethan costumes, and Guy sweeps the floor? Well, he does! I wish I could find the words to better describe this play, or that I had seen it earlier and could have championed it.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/guy-for-now

Machinal was a last-minute change, and I don’t know if it was for the better or not. The show I was supposed to see was a bake-off murder mystery when I scheduled it. By the time of the festival, it had changed to something else entirely that didn’t sound like what I was looking for. But Machinal? Well, I think I was too tired for a show like Machinal. I struggled to stay awake. What I assume I would have found captivating at the start of the festival seemed interminable on Day 11. I’m glad this is the last day of the festival, so this review will not dissuade anyone, because I’m fairly certain it’s not them, it’s me. Sometimes reality trumps artistry. It shouldn’t, but it does.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/machinal

Sound and Noise and Bodies is Jen Scott’s solo storytelling show with her original songs. I had never seen Scott perform like this; my previous experience with her was last year’s Clown Funeral. As a solo performer, Scott is a kick in the pants. She’s bubbly and full of knowing looks and quips and little bits of physicality that make the whole show buzz with an undercurrent of energy. She shares stories that, in one way or another, help to inform us of what her marriage and life are like with her husband, who is deaf. It adds up to something akin to heartbreaking, but when you hit the total button, what comes up is Scott’s smiling face, and you know there are difficult things in her life, and, she is capable of dealing with difficult things and finding the silver linings in the clouds.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/sound-and-noise-and-bodies

This Body, This Fruit is a one-woman show written and performed by Davi Gray. Gray uses her poetry to illustrate for the audience her journey through transness. It is a beautifully written piece in three acts, for which we get multiple costume changes as well. Its staging is elegantly simple. Davi, a late addition to the festival, could have been expected to read from a music stand, but she doesn’t. Every word is memorized and delivered with clarity and confidence. It’s a moving show that, again, I wish I had seen earlier and been able to encourage people to see.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/this-body-this-fruit

Finally, and thankfully, I ended my festival with a good show.

Just One Life is a musical, and a very good one, about healthcare injustice, specifically a fictional health insurance company that has just posted $6 billion worth of profits in the first quarter of the year. We have the CEO, Mr. Mitchell; his lackey, Adam; and Jake, the public relations officer. Mitchell and Adam are horrible human beings. Jake is not. He’s just caught in that trap where you are making good money in what you think is a good job, even though what you do for that job is spin lies.

One day, Jake meets Abby Lynn, an artist who is painting a mural near his work. He falls in love with her, and she with him. Until one day, she sees him on TV at a press conference defending his company’s denial of treatment for a little boy who dies of cancer. She breaks up with Jake, and he faces what he was already struggling with.

The performances were all good. There is a wild number when Philip Simondet, as Adam, strips down to a Speedo and does a striptease, illustrating the ugly underbelly of these corporate vampires. The best singer was Brooklyn Kellenberger, who plays Abby Lynn. She’s a nice match for the songs written by the show’s creator, Dave Dvorak.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/just-one-life

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MN Fringe Festival Day 10! A Real Piece of Work (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner), It’s-a-me a Musical, 1985: Relative Chaos, The Quiet Piggy, Witness Loudly, Tech, Small Minded

It is Day Ten, the penultimate day of the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and I finally made it to the Independent Producers Venue, Strike Theater, for four shows. This group of shows featured some of my regular Fringe favorites, so I felt bad leaving them until Saturday, but the ones I really wanted to see never really aligned together for me earlier in the schedule.

This was one of my best days at the Fringe Festival this year, which made it incredibly difficult to choose a winner for the Fringe of the Day Award. I narrowed it down to three choices and then tried to devise rationales for narrowing it down, which I couldn’t think of any. So then I decided to write the reviews and see if any one show gained an edge as I processed them while writing.

Go to the Minnesota Fringe website here: https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026 to get the scoop on all of this year’s shows. I’ll be posting my final set of reviews within a day or two of the Fringe closing. Since the shows are over, there isn’t a rush, but I want to give those artists the feedback, and who knows, maybe one of them will be in the Fringe Encore at the Phipps in a couple of weeks.

I will post on Facebook and Instagram tomorrow after the 8:30 show who has won the final Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award. I’ll also be posting two other award winners: The Stages of MN Best of the Fest Award and The Stages of MN Improv Best of Fest Award! Which, frankly, I’m already regretting creating because I have a four-way tie going right now, and I don’t know who I’m going to award it to.

Even though Fringe is over, you should still check out and favorite the new theater website 79 Seconds on Stage, at https://79seconds.org/. That site has links to all of the shows playing around the Twin Cities, as well as any reviews that might be out there for them from print and digital review sources. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should.

A Real Piece of Work is a little love letter to community theater specifically and theater artists in general. It’s about a community theater company that is putting on a production of Hamlet in the basement of a church in Minneapolis. It reminds me a little of Kenneth Branagh’s film A Midwinter’s Tale, one of my favorite films about the honorable profession of acting. It also reminded me a little of Waiting for Guffman, but more on that later.

It opens with Ross Flores as Gregory, rehearsing a scene in the role of Hamlet. I always say the most important thing when playing Shakespeare is making the meaning of the dialogue clear to the audience, even if they don’t know the meaning of every word. Gregory takes this to a whole new level, creating hand gestures for the literal meaning of every single word in the famous “To be or not to be” speech. He is the epitome of the diva bad actor, adding flourishes to words to make them sound elevated, throwing a fit if someone stands in a way that will block the audience’s view of him, and so on. Flores plays it all perfectly, getting big laughs with his portrayal of the AcTor.

Other actors in the company are just there to get out of the house or have fun. They have more time than talent, and the director, Murphy, seems more interested in everyone having fun than providing any actual direction or leadership. That is what is driving Matt, played by Phi Hamens Nelson, crazy. He tries everything, talking to Murphy, the other actors, and the church lady Terry, who is clearly really in charge, but gets nowhere. He isn’t trying to take over; he just genuinely wants to do good and artistic work.

The problems keep growing. His attempt to enlist the help of Gregory only results in his performance going from eleven to twelve, which is one more. As opening time gets closer and closer, it becomes less about creating a vision for their production and more about simply preventing a complete train wreck. When Matt learns that they have invited theater blogger Rob Dunkelberger to review the show for The Stages of MN on opening night, his heart sinks. The pressure of having such a prestigious writer in the audience feels like the endeavor has gone from mildly embarrassing to something there will be a permanent written record of.

Phi Hamens Nelson’s performance is spot-on, trying to diplomatically get through to everyone, trying to plant seeds for ways to improve the show. When he loses it, we get it. There is nothing more frustrating than having everyone not take something seriously that you care tremendously about. It’s a moment that could go ridiculously big, but Nelson threads the needle, balancing realistic frustration while making it big enough for comedic effect.

I really enjoyed this look inside a theater company. I love theater and actors, with all of their quirks, so you give me a show about actors trying to put on a show that pokes loving fun at the venture, and I’m all in.

Having now written all of the reviews from Day 10 and seeing the length of this one, it feels like this is the one that I had the most to say about and was excited to get my thoughts down on. And so it is The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner.

I almost eliminated it because I’m mentioned, but I had no involvement in the show and didn’t know my name would be spoken, multiple times, until it happened. What is that like, to be sitting in a theater and having the play you are watching suddenly inject you into its universe? Hysterically surreal, and a little validating. In truth, it made me laugh as hard as I have at anything else in the festival, and I’ve laughed hard at a lot of things this Fringe. I also felt honored to have been chosen to represent the Twin Cities theater bloggers in the way, I expect because my name just sound funnier than the other blogger”s names do. Do I show up to opening night? You’ll have to wait for next year’s Fringe show, Waiting for Dunkelberger, to find out.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/a-real-piece-of-work

It’s-A-Me, a Musical is just fun! I don’t really do video games, though I have played Super Mario World a little back in college. You don’t need to know the game inside and out, or, for that matter, the 1993 film on which this musical is based to enjoy it. I haven’t seen it, and that was a time in my life when I saw nearly every film released in theaters.

The show has some sweet songs sung by a cast of varying vocal talents, none of them bad. The production design is minimal, but what is there is well done and really all we need to see to set the scenes. What is really special are the costume designs by Carlee Wehrman. They capture the characters simply but also spot-on.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/it-s-a-me-a-musical

1985: Relative Chaos! is longtime Fringe performer Jason Schommer’s entry in this year’s festival. Schommer is just an artist I connect with. Maybe it’s because we are about the same age and have a lot of the same cultural references. Last year, he added JC Lippold to his shows, playing snippets of songs or TV themes, and it made my connection to the shows even stronger, as they are the soundtrack of my life as well.

I know this was his last slot of the Fringe. Again, I wish I could have made it to all of the Strike Theater shows earlier, but I got to chat with Schommer a little after the show, and he may use this material in other venues, it’s a strong set and the material is very relatable to everyone.

The show is filled with stories about his family, with an emphasis on 1985, which was a big year for his family. It was the year his parents got divorced, his grandmother died, and his mom went into rehab. Schommer is as funny as ever, and as usual, he finds moments to tug at the heartstrings just a smidge as well.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/1985-relative-chaos

The Quiet Piggy is Executive Director of the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Dawn Bentley’s first Fringe show of her own. It is mainly a political rant about the current administration, the effect its actions have had on the world, Minnesota, and the arts. Bentley is a passionate and strong writer, and her presentation is strong. She ends with a visual representation of her strength: we see her with her bodybuilding hat on, oiled up and flexing. It is a reinforcement of the strength and power in evidence in her script. There is some singing, some violin playing, a lot of swearing, and some clowning. The only part that didn’t entirely work for me was the clowning by Lucas Fanning, which just sort of fell flat for me. Though the final image of Dawn flexing her muscles with one foot on the fallen Trump clown was perfect.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/the-quiet-piggy

Witness Loudly by Kyle Dekker, is about Operation Metro Surge and the role he and many like him took up as constitutional observers, patrolling their neighborhoods to warn their neighbors and compile evidence about the reign of terror being conducted by ICE. Kyle’s show recreates actual live rapid-response calls from that time, giving the audience a very immediate and visceral sense of being in the moment.

It’s a powerful firsthand account of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to try and keep their fellow citizens safe. They are true American heroes. The show is emotionally difficult at times, but I think it needs to be. We should feel shock and anger at what is going on. Dekker does an excellent job of pulling together a complicated multimedia experience. This was part of what would have been a three-way tie, if I allowed those for today’s award.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/witness-loudly

Tech is this year’s entry from Twin Cities improv artist Mike Fotis and his band of merry makers. Fotis and his cast work in the long-form improv style, in which they choose a concept, in this case, a tech rehearsal the night before a Fringe show opens, and then they play that one scene out for the entire show. It’s improv, so it will be different every time. Fotis and his cast are among the best in the Twin Cities. It’s great! Anytime you have the chance to see an improv show in which Fotis is involved, see it.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/tech

The final show was part of that three-way tie, again, if such things were allowed. Small Minded is from traveling artist Tyler West. West tells his story as a person with dwarfism, working to become a performing artist. But he doesn’t stand up and just talk you through his life. The show is filled with everything from dramatic Shakespeare monologues, juggling, and magic to some of the best clowning I’ve ever seen. There is a segment where West dresses like a Keystone Cop that was brilliant! It was as if he was channeling the great silent film comedians, I absolutely loved that bit.

West opens up about the paradox he struggles with: the desire to be a performer, earn a living, and use his talent as a clown, while also grappling with the possibility of perpetuating harmful stereotypes of little people as performers to be laughed at.

Should we feel bad for laughing at his show, for enjoying the experience he has created? No. It isn’t about us. We do him a disservice if we say to ourselves that we shouldn’t laugh at the funny thing he just did. Because honestly, we are laughing at his performance and the creativity of his clowning, not at his size. He earned those laughs through the skills he has developed as an artist, not because of something he was born with, unless you are referring to his talent.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/small-minded

MN Fringe Festival Day 9! Stories From the Trauma Dump, The Label Maker, Too Fat to Run, Braingystics (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner)

Day Nine of the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and I made it a satellite venue day. I feel bad for the shows outside of the Cedar Riverside hub. For some reason, folks think they can’t get between the locations in the 30 minutes between shows. Believe me, you can; I’ve been doing it all week long. And Open Eye has some of the best shows. Both the ones I saw today were excellent, Too Fat to Run and The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner, Braingystics. It’s also the venue for another Fringe of the Day Award winner, The Importance of Living, so I highly encourage you to branch out a little and get out to Open Eye.

This Saturday, I’ll be spending over half my day out at another outer venue, The Strike Theatre, seeing four shows there, all of which I’m really looking forward to, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Strike ends up with an award as well.

Go to the Minnesota Fringe website here: https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026 to get the scoop on all of this year’s shows. As I do every year, I’ll be posting short reviews of every show I see as fast as I can, including my daily naming of The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner.

I can’t see everything; some things exist outside the spectrum of colors which we can see with the naked eye, after all. So I encourage you to also follow my colleagues at http://www.cherryandspoon.com/ and https://letteredintheatre.wordpress.com/. You can also access all of the shows on the fabulous new theater website of the Twin Cities, 79 Seconds on Stage, at https://79seconds.org/. That site has links to all of the Fringe shows, as well as any reviews that might be out there for them from print and digital review sources. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should.

Stories From the Trauma Dump is part of the themed collective of shows at the independent producers’ venue, the Phoenix Theater in Uptown. All of the shows appearing here are a part of the Social Butterfly Project, which promotes mental health awareness. Learn more about that project here: https://socialbutterflyproject.com/.

This is a storyteller showcase, and the performers do change from show to show, so be sure to visit the shows page at the Fringe website and look under the More Information tab to see who is performing when you plan to go.

For the show I attended, the storytellers were Shanan Custer, Mahmoud Hakima, Ariel Pinkerton, Rev. Matt Kessen, Allison Broeren, and the show is hosted by Jena Young. All were excellent. I’m always a sucker for Rev. Matt and his Monster Science. Custer is one of those people I’ve come to admire as a performer, writer, and director, and it was fascinating to get a little glimpse into her early life and her journey with anxiety.

Hakima tells a touching story about his older sister and her diagnosis. Ariel was Ariel, which should tell you that it’s going to be a no-bullshit story, and she’s not gonna suffer fools. In short, she hits the nail right on the head and sheds light on a truth that should have everyone rethinking their roles in a partnership.

Allison Broeren successfully brings humor to topics that could use a little. This was my first experience of her storytelling, and she is masterful at it.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/stories-from-the-trauma-dump

There’s a joke that goes something like, “Do you have a lot of unresolved issues and childhood trauma that you think might need to be examined to help you understand why you are where you are in life?” And the punch line is, “You should write a Fringe show!!”

It gets a chuckle, but it also makes light of some rather brave shows like these at the Phoenix Theater this Fringe Festival. These shows shine a light on mental health issues. Artists do this by sharing their personal experiences. Why? because we all process things like this better through people’s stories. They make these issues relatable rather than just facts we read in a magazine article, thus heightening our understanding and our empathy.

The Label Maker is Jena Young’s solo show in which she asks the audience to play a game where she asks us which of two diagnoses the symptoms she lists fit. Then she tells her story that relates to those, and by the end, we know which one applies. The trick is, and it’s sort of the point, many of the symptoms of mental health diagnoses are shared. It’s one reason why diagnosis and treatment can be difficult.

Jena’s stories are powerful, and they help us to understand how things from our childhood often directly shape how we behave and how we see the world, and sadly, how we value ourselves.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/the-label-maker

Too Fat to Run is a solo show by Chicagoan Eileen Tull. Unlike a lot of solo shows, Tull doesn’t just walk around the stage making well-planned hand gestures while telling her story. She is in constant motion, running, rolling, or squatting on her exercise ball, which she makes good use of in many ways throughout her show.

It is about her battle with her weight and her relationship with food and exercise. And it’s about her training for and running the Chicago Marathon. She is a very physical performer, but also a master of expressions and vocal delivery. Her eyes and smile signal her intelligence, which is quick, and her humor, which is sharp.

This show got big laughs from me and the rest of the audience. Tull is a very enticing performer. You immediately feel like you want to be in her circle of friends because she is genuine, and she faces her trials and tribulations with humor and an “I can do this” attitude.

I’ve not really heard anything about the show, perhaps because it’s in the outlier location of Open Eye Theatre, or maybe because this was only its third performance. Which is actually great news; that means you all have two more chances to see it before it closes.

I have made the journey out to Open Eye from both the Cedar Riverside hub and the Phoenix Theater without missing a slot. It takes 10 minutes from either location, and there is parking available, so if you haven’t made it out yet, do. This show looked like it was going to be the award winner today until I saw the next one, though it is a close second.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/too-fat-to-run

Braingystics is like one of the best comedy sketches you would ever see on SNL, but it runs for an hour, and it knows how to end.

What is Braingystics? Well, it’s easier to talk about what it isn’t, and that is a pyramid scheme. It is not a pyramid scheme. It is a self-improvement seminar wherein we, the audience, learn about the process, which sounds a lot like a pyramid scheme, but this is definitely not a pyramid scheme. It is a process by which we can all learn to stop thinking, thereby opening our minds to 100% potential. It’s also about selling super-absorbent shams.

This is so sharply written and dense with jokes that fly at you like they are being fired out of the mouth of a carnival barker. Filled with inspirational babble and platitudes that sound great and mean absolutely nothing. The wordplay, the linguistic misdirection, and the sincerity with which it is all delivered are exquisite.

It is written and performed by Peyton Brown and Jared Jeffries, and it’s the kind of show you wish ran nightly for a month so you could bring family and friends with you to see it again. The performances and the timing by both Brown and Jeffries are uncannily good, with Jeffries giving off very strong Will Forte vibes.

This is The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner and one of the best shows of the entire 2026 Minnesota Fringe Festival. One more chance to see it Saturday at 2:30 at Open Eye Theatre. Get there if you can!

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/braingystics-seize-the-mind-

MN Fringe Festival Day 7! A Confluence of Magical Arseholes (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner), Leave Room For Jesus, Minnesota is the Shire, A Woman’s Place is in the House

Day Seven of the Minnesota Fringe Festival is now but a memory. Oh, but what a time we had on day seven. Don’t believe me? Well, just take a gander at these four new reviews I’ve written up with you in mind. Depending on what your tastes are, any one of them might need to be on your must-see list.

The evening was divided distinctly into two halves, completely by accident. The first half we’ll call Fun, with a capital F. Not to its face, of course, but you know, in the car ride on the way home. The second we’ll call the politics of MN. Now, I’ll be honest, I’m more of a Fun guy, but I like to sample the vegetables as well, though they are more of a side dish for me. Whatever your leanings, meat, vegetable, animal, or mineral, as you plan your Fringe, I hope these reviews are of some help.

I’ve heard more than just me lament that choosing one show over another is like a Sophie’s choice. It was only after I heard the other person say it that I realized how first-world it is of us to compare having to choose between someone’s improv show and someone else’s improv show, with choosing which of your children should live.

Go to the Minnesota Fringe website here: https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026 to get the scoop on all of this year’s shows. I believe you can filter them by “meat” or “vegetable,” which will make it easier for the picky eaters in the crowd. As I do every year, I’ll be posting short reviews of every show I see as fast as I can, including my daily naming of The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner.

You know, try as I might, I can’t see everything, and unlike Marla in Leave Room for Jesus, I’m not about to clone myself to make it possible. So I encourage you to also follow my colleagues at http://www.cherryandspoon.com/ and https://letteredintheatre.wordpress.com/. You can also access all of the shows on the fabulous new theater website of the Twin Cities, 79 Seconds on Stage, at https://79seconds.org/. That site has links to all of the Fringe shows, as well as any reviews that might be out there for them from print and digital review sources. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should.

The evening started off with The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner, A Confluence of Magical Arseholes by The Winding Sheet Outfit (TWSO). Now, I’ve seen shows by this company at the Fringe and the Twin Cities Horror Festival. I know exactly the tone of show I’ll get, and I also know it will be among the most polished and creative… except, like Melancholics Anonymous (MA) this year, TWSO completely surprises us by doing something completely different. It’s still one of the most polished and successful, but it’s as if MA and TWSO swapped personalities. And like Watership Down, this is proof that talented people create great things and should not be held to our expectations of what they can or should do.

The show is directed by Amber Bjork in full view of the audience. Mark! Use the feckin’ door they bothered to haul on stage! It’s about the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a British secret society founded in 1888. It focuses on the poet W.B. Yeats and his nemesis, Aleister Crowley. This is a true-ish story taken to comedic heights and features the most utterances of the word “cunt” that I imagine have ever been spoken on the Rarig thrust stage in one hour.

The cast is filled with people you will see in other shows at this year’s Fringe. Bjork is also involved in Tech, out at Strike Theater, which one of my fellow bloggers says is in the running for their favorite Fringe show so far. Mark Benzel is in Silent Movie at the Barbara Barker Home for the Criminally Insane, oops, sorry, that’s The Barbara Barker Center for Dance. If you think Benzel is good in this, just wait ’til you see him in Silent Movie; he’s in 3D in that one!

Sam Landman, who also appears in his improv show Bury the Leads with partner and muse Nissa Nordland over at Mixed Blood, plays George Bernard Shaw. Derek Lee Miller plays Bram Stoker here, but you can also see him in his own solo show that is absolutely hypnotic, Bay Creek, also at the Barbara Barker Center for Dance.

That alone is reason to come see this show. If you know any of those folks, you’ve already put it on your schedule, I’m sure. But it also features the return of Michael Rogers, who abandoned us this year like a thong whose elastic has finally snapped for Rhode Island, where all thongs go to die. It was great to see him bounding about the stage in such a juicy villainous role. Great cast, great script, great accents actually, I don’t know how accurate they are, but they’re fun. I love the interplay between the characters and between the characters and Bjork. MUST SEE!

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/a-confluence-of-magical-arseholes

Next up is Leave Room for Jesus, and I’m so glad that this one has improv, or it might have been a tough call for today’s award. This Wednesday evening show was either sold out or within a couple of seats of sold out. Part of what made this show so much fun was that the crowd was totally into it. Not in terms of shouting out suggestions when asked, we were having fun, but we are still Minnesotans after all.

Hannah Wydeven plays Marla, an evangelical pastor who belts out songs and scriptures, frequently based on audience confessions. She is backed by the heavenly angel backup singers and has a few special guests show up. I would say that while one song, at least, seemed to be rehearsed, all of the others seemed to genuinely be improvised on the spot.

One of my favorite scenes, though, was that one pre-written song, which has Sophia Schott, who we just saw at Aamodt’s Apple Farm in The Hobbit, which she killed in. She is great here as well, singing a song to Marla’s daughter, who dresses in a rather provocative style. She sings to her about how great it is to cover up your body. She’s repressing some desires that begin to get the better of her, which is played hilariously.

There is also a great surprise character played to perfection by Will Schroeder. This one is for the young at heart, but not for the young. Obviously, given the improv nature of the show, much of it will be different every night. The night I went was definitely R-rated. R for ridiculously fun!! But seriously, not for kids.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/leave-room-for-jesus

Now we move on to the portion of the night where things get political, but we get to ease into it with Minnesota is the Shire or Fair & Back Again, a show that uses J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth as a way to view Minnesota. It starts by making the argument that Minnesota is very much like the Shire, from our landscape to our State Fair. It’s worth the use of a Fringe slot just to see the photos of Jeremy Motz, Rhymes with Boats, at the fair looking like a bearded twelve-year-old.

Written and performed by Sean McArdle, the focus then changes to the occupation we face, beginning last winter when ICE began to terrorize us. He aptly compares it to the penultimate chapter of The Return of the King, “The Scouring of the Shire.” While things definitely get dark, and there are several clips he plays of videos he made last winter or audio recordings that capture the anger and fright he and all of us were feeling at the time, it also contains hope.

McArdle compares Minnesotans with Hobbits, and again I think he makes a good argument for that viewpoint. The show has moments that are quite raw and powerful, but those moments are tempered by the lighter ones. The bits of Tolkien nerdery help to create a nice balance between the heaviness of the topical and the fantasy of the literary.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/minnesota-is-the-shire-or-fair-back-again

The final show takes us out of the realm of fantasy and politics and into the genre of science fiction and politics. A Woman’s Place Is in the House has a woman from today go back in time to 1922 and recruit the first four women ever elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives to come back to the future with her to speak at a rally before this November’s elections to help inspire us to be better and fight for equal rights for everyone.

They each speak at the rally using their actual words from the past, and it’s scary how appropriate their comments are to today’s world. Along with the four past politicians, each show features the Minnesota Frog Brigade and cameo speeches by women currently serving in the MN House, as well as members of the League of Women Voters, ERAMN, and the Women’s March Minnesota.

It’s a clever concept for reframing the arguments and trying to present them in a new way that might connect with folks differently. The problem with it is the same one we always run into when like-minded folks gather around a topic: you are sort of preaching to the choir. You are not likely to finally get through to people because the people in the room are already with you. What it can do, however, is reignite the passion to act and to get involved to work towards the goals addressed.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/a-woman-s-place-is-in-the-house

MN Fringe Festival Day 4! Empty Nest (Winner of The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award), Fast Death of a Salesman, Silent Movie, I Will Become the Silver Surfer, Muskie, Too Much of a Good Thing, The Importance of Being Eternal

It’s day four of the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and I have now seen 18 shows and awarded three The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Awards. So just 29 shows and six more Fringe of the Day Awards to go. At the end of the Fest, I’ll have a few additional awards to announce, including the first ever The Stages of MN Improv Best of Fest Award! As you plan your Fringe, I hope my reviews, and particularly the Fringe of the Day Awards, are helping you to make responsible choices. To check out all the shows, go to the Minnesota Fringe website here: https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026. As I do every year, I’ll be posting short reviews of every show I see as fast as I can, including my daily naming of The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner.

You know, try as I might, I can’t see everything, and that has nothing to do with the price of tea at the Seward Co-op. It simply isn’t possible, I’m not in touch with H.G. Wells anymore and no longer have access to his time machine on weekends. So I encourage you to also follow M’colleagues at http://www.cherryandspoon.com/ and https://letteredintheatre.wordpress.com/. You can also access all of the shows on the fabulous new theater website of the Twin Cities, 79 Seconds on Stage, at https://79seconds.org/. This site is a marvel, if you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to.

Empty Nest hits incredibly close to home. Levi Weinhagen and Laura Zabel’s show is on the surface about becoming empty nesters and opens with their top ten parenting mistakes. But beyond parenting it’s really about this time in the life of a couple. It’s broken up into different segments some done together some individually. Laura’s monologue on menopause is particularly relatable as my wife has been dealing with it for a couple of years and I personally have been going through the change my whole life. Another segment is about finding shared interests. Which for my wife and I is menopause, it’s nice to be with someone who finally understands hot flashes after all these years. This show has a little of everything from theater parody, storytelling, to clowning. For marrieds who have grown children there is a lot that will make you laugh out of recognition. This is truly funny and relatable to me, which is why this is The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner!

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/empty-nest

Fast Death of a Salesman was a close second, so close! It confronts an important issue facing theaters today: how to interest young people in the theater. While it does raise questions about how to do so, Dr. Duke Didier’s solutions are hilariously idiotic. He and his theater students are trying an experiment on his 10-year-old nephew, Braedyn. For example, because Braedyn seems to only show interest in things that move quickly, they will perform Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at a speed so fast that the actors cannot even speak the lines. Instead they have been recorded and sped up electronically, and the actors will just lip-sync while acting out the play. Along with the actors, Didier, sorry, Dr. Didier, has hired an auctioneer, who has secretly always dreamed of being onstage. That role is played with comedic brilliance by Steph Callaghan, whose performance alone puts this on the must-see list. But the entire cast is excellent, led by Jeremy Motz (rhymes with “boats”, honestly, I now say that in my head every time I write or say his name). Motz is something of a specialist of the pre show performance. It’s worth being first in line so you don’t miss a moment of his performance as the pompous Dr. Didier, which begins the moment they open the house.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/fast-death-of-a-salesman

This next one hit two of my sweet spots: silent cinema and 3D. Silent Movie is an improv show in which the cast spin three wheels, which will determine what their performance will be about. Ours was a western with a Groundhog Day loop starring Erin Sheppard (one of the company members). Then the cast acts out that scenario in the style of a silent movie for the rest of the runtime. But I left out the best part, it’s in 3D!!!! You can purchase 3D glasses before the show for $2. If you don’t want to fork out for the glasses, you can just close one eye and everything will appear normally, but in 2D. I recommend the glasses, as the 3D is amazing! There aren’t really any “poppy-outies,” but the depth is incredible. It feels like you are actually in the room with the actors; I caught myself reaching out and trying to touch them several times. Like all improv, a good concept isn’t enough, you have to have a great cast, and this is. They are called The Improv Movement Project, which, as the name implies, means they are very heavy into movement. This is very physical improv; not even bullets are allowed to go unperformed.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/silent-movie-

I Will Become the Silver Surfer. I Will Protect You. is the first solo show from An Alleged Theatre Company member Jake Mierva, who also wrote and directed Fast Death of a Salesman, which I saw earlier in the day. Well known for their comedic shows, this starts out with a sense that it will be a nerd-out comedic show, and what Mierva does throughout the show physically is definitely humorous. The words he is saying are not. To be clear, that isn’t a criticism, it’s intentional. The physical acts as a counterpoint to the character’s explanation of his struggles in life; his traumas are a part of this very dark script. It’s an uneasy balance that, to be honest, Mierva doesn’t always find. It’s an odd show, not funny enough (again, intentionally) for folks who are looking for laughs, but perhaps too funny for those Fringers who are more into the serious monologue shows about a person’s trauma and mental health struggles. One thing it does accomplish is showing us that Mierva is capable of both comedy and drama. It doesn’t fail or succeed but lies in that uneasy place between the two, reserved for a very specific Fringer.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/i-will-become-the-silver-surfer-i-will-protect-you

Muskie is the first of two Jaws parodies I’ll be seeing at this year’s Fringe; the other is called Chum!, which is a musical. Which reminds me of that year in the late 1990s when Hollywood put out competing volcano movies. This one is set during the fishing opener competition on Lake Mille Lacs. The night before the opening, a young man disappears while skinny-dipping when he is pulled under by something in the water. It’s up to a disgraced fisherman and his sister, the sheriff, to convince the mayor to shut down the competition and get everyone off the lake so they can go fishing for the mythical muskie. I would like to highlight the performance of Maija Dahlberg who plays Alex a young scout who participates in the fishing opener. The whole cast is fun, but on a stage full of adult actors this young actor steals the show. Filled with MN humor and a wonderful muskie puppet, this one’s a lot of fun for fans of Jaws, hotdish, and PBR.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/muskie

Too Much of a Good Thing is a solo show by Rachel Redleaf about her breasts. Specifically, about her relationship with them, from her childhood wish for breats to the point where she realized you have to be careful what you wish for. Ending her breast development at size H, Each weighing 8 lbs. she comes to the decision that reduction surgery is the right choice for her. Redleaf injects her mamologue with a lot of humor, but there are also some dark moments along the pink path her story follows. Redleaf shares a lot in order to fully tell her story, and it’s because of that openness that her show feels complete. The show definitely has a sexual side, but don’t come expecting to be titillated, this isn’t burlesque. You will laugh, you will see Redleaf handle her breasts a lot, but you are going to gain an understanding of what real life is like for someone who has been given too much of a good thing.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/too-much-of-a-good-thing

The Importance of Being Eternal is a mash-up of vampires and Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. It works surprisingly well, and aside from either a forgotten line or missed technical cue, which seemed to bring the show to a standstill for what was probably less than a minute but must have felt like ten to the cast, it’s extremely slick. The contrast between the manners of Victorian England in Wilde’s original and the eroticism of the vampiric world provides a lot of the play’s crowd-pleasing content. The crowd I saw the show with at 10:00 PM on a sunday night was extremely lively for a play about the undead. If vampires are one of your erotic turns, you’re going to lust for this play. To be truthful, I did feel a little old for this show. I probably would have enjoyed it more at an earlier time slot, when people my age were still up and attending shows. It is clever, sexy, and a lot of fun, but speaking only for myself, I think this is a young person’s show, particularly if you went through a Twilight phase, which I didn’t.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2026/the-importance-of-being-eternal

Minnesota Fringe Day 9: Ranger Jim, Withering Lows: A Love Story Better Off Dead, 50: A Totally Rad Comedy About the Gnarly Reckoning of a Gen Xer! (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner), Trust ̶E̶x̶e̶r̶c̶i̶s̶e̶s̶ Exorcises.

Day 9 of the Minnesota Fringe Festival was a sad day and a great day. Sad because the JackDonkey Productions show 503 written by and Starring Jeffrey Nolan had to cancel it’s third performance in a row due to illness. My thoughts are with Mr. Nolan and I hope that he’ll be feeling back to full health and able to perform his last show on Sunday. Let this be a lesson to all of us, when someone you suspect might be a genius has a Fringe show, make sure you are their for opening night. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. But, as I said it was also a great day as well, because every show I saw was a contender for The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award. Sometimes two or three (on a weekend) might be battling it out in my brain, but tonight they were all duking it out. That’s a nice problem to have, especially this late in the festival.

Ranger Jim is a show I didn’t have on my schedule originally but several people said it was their favorite show. So, when I looked at my schedule and it had me going from strike to Rarig, then back to Strike, and then ending back at Rarig I decided to sacrifice MicroMedics which I hadn’t heard anything, good or bad, about and add Ranger Jim. Mostly because I didn’t want to make the trek from Strike to Rarig twice in one evening and avoiding the more rush hour slot made the most sense. When Jim Stowell began his show in which he tells stories of his 16 seasons working as a Park Ranger in National Parks I thought I might have made a mistake. He didn’t seem like that charismatic a performer and I realized, I hate nature. OK hates a strong word, and I certainly appreciate it much more now that I’m older. But still nature has never been my go to for entertainment. Boy by the end of his show those opinions had been completely reversed. Stowell is a fantastic storyteller, and his presentation is perfect. The stories are about people that he has met on the job and they are great stories that beautifully wrap up with either a fantastic bit of humor or a wonderful point of view of life. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/ranger-jim. I went in to Ranger Jim with hopeful but not super high expectations and left thinking I may just have seen The Fringe of the Day Award winner. Then Heathcliff said hold my beer.

Withering Lows: A Love Story Better Off Dead is a sequel of sorts to Wuthering Heights a book I adored in High School. This is another show that was not on my schedule originally, this slot was one of those dinner breaks I promised myself. It’s ok though, I had my fingers crossed, so the promise didn’t count. Frankly it was on my first pass list, which contained more shows than I could see and then went off my list after the first Fringe preview, which is why when you hear from people that they loved a show, you should take a second look. I’m not even sure how to describe this show, it’s a comedy that also feels like a faithful continuation. The performers are all excellent, the script really nails these characters and points out the things that I think most readers who like the book grudgingly admit are issues with these characters and what people who hate the book point out as the main reasons for reviling it. It’s a ghost story, but it doesn’t try and scare us. It doesn’t need to, the pleasures of the show come from other quarters. Which includes a killer musical number which alone is worth seeing the show for. One caveat is that if you don’t know Wuthering Heights from either the book, one of the many movies, an illustrated comic book adaptation, or an ill conceived musical version, you might not really get this show. But you’ll still love the musical number! To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/withering-lows-a-love-story-better-off-dead- I left this show thinking now that just edges out Ranger Jim because of the musical number and I bet that’s going to be my Fringe of the Day Award winner. Then Jason Schommer said hold my Daiquiri.

50: A Totally Rad Comedy About the Gnarly Reckoning of a Gen Xer! is my third Jason Schommer Fringe show and his best yet. Why did this beat out Withering Lows? Does it have a kick ass musical number too? Well, actually it has live music interludes throughout and some of them even turn into sing-alongs. And they are the soundtrack of my life. the music is played and sung by JC Lippold he is a fantastic compliment to Schommer’s brilliant script. This felt so much like my life in terms of cultural touchstones and specific life events that no other show had a chance tonight. Plus this was the most I’ve laughed at a Fringe show this year, and I’ve seen some really funny funny shows this year. But here’s why this hit me so right. And These are not in any order in which they appear in the show but just as they come to me.

Featured prominently in the show is the song “Closer to Fine” by the Indigo Girls. I have a playlist on my phone titled “Sing”, this is a list of songs I have as potential songs I would attempt at an evening of Karaoke, if I drank, which I don’t. So, it’s mostly used if I’m driving and tired and need something that I can sing along to in order to stay awake. It’s a favorite.
Cheers is mentioned along with Newhart as shows Jason would watch late at night with his Mom as a teenager, For me it was my Dad but those were our shows. We loved Norm, and my Dad always kind of reminded me of Norm, he was about the same shape, had a similar level of ambition career wise, and he spent most evenings at the Ground Round with his buddies, which we all called Cheers. Plus, my wife and I just finished a rewatch of Cheers so we were primed for that sing along!
His Mother died about 20 years ago, for me it was my Dad, 20 years ago.
He also is upset by the single space after a period rule. I don’t know when this changed, but when I learned about it, several years ago now I was incredulous. Why the change I exclaimed! To which some replied, it’s always been that way. OH NO IT WASN’T!!! Anyone who reads me regularly will know that I do not have nearly as firm a grasp of the rules of punctuation as I should. So I promise you there is zero chance I made up my own rule to follow. I was taught and for once it stuck. Two spaces after a period! I accept that it has changed. But don’t attempt to retcon it, I ain’t buyin it!
I also loved TV as a kid, I equated the arrival of the Fall TV preview edition of the TV guide to the opening of your stocking on Christmas morning. It started with the Saturday morning cartoons and as I grew older moved to prime time. As a kid I always chose TV over nature.
Loved Magnum P.I. but also Remington Steele!
I loved my Castle Grayskull too, it was a great toy!
I’ve been on that hike in Hawaii!
Jason was laid off recently, me too!! I don’t know why I’m so excited by that one.
I was a huge fan of Days of Our Lives, and I specifically remember the fight between Tony and Andre that ended with Andre dying in a pit of quicksand, that was also the island that Roman was killed by Stefano DiMera, not that on Days of Our Lives anyone is ever actually truly dead. But I didn’t realize that at the time. Roman falling off that cliff was reenacted many many times with my action figures.

As was the Tony and Andre DiMera fight by the quicksand with my Dagobah playset. Which had a little hole covered with foam that you could push your figures through, it was perfect for quicksand.

This IS The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner. If you are a Gen Xer, you’ll love this show! To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/50-a-totally-rad-comedy-about-the-gnarly-reckoning-of-a-gen-xer- Sorry Phil

Trust ̶E̶x̶e̶r̶c̶i̶s̶e̶s̶ Exorcises by Phil Gonzales was on my schedule later in the festival but I ended up taking it in tonight after 503 was cancelled. Which may have caused it to lose The Fringe of the Day Award, who knows? But Phil, seriously, would it have killed you to sing a little? This was a great show about the shockingly abusive High School theater teacher that Phil was exposed to as a teenager. Gonzales uses the same story wheel he did last year for his show on The Berenstain Bears. Wherein he spins the wheel and whatever space it lands on he tells the story that goes along with it. So while every show deals with the same topic, it’s unique every performance. The stories really are great and while Phil might not have won The Fringe of the day Award, I did leave with a little crush on him, so hopefully that’s some consolation. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/trust-e-x-e-r-c-i-s-e-s-exorcises

That’s it for day nine of the Minnesota Fringe Festival you can click on the Fringe website here to get details on all of the shows https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025. Don’t forget to tune into The Stages of MN YouTube channel for mini episodes all week long from The MN Fringe Festival https://www.youtube.com/@TheStagesofMN

Subscribe to the channel so you’ll always know when a new episode has dropped. Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I’m also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read review roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

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Minnesota Fringe Day 8: Grief, It’s what’s For Dinner (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner), Big Honor Student Energy, The Writers Room: A Failed Documentary, The Year of Sluttery.

So after a day off at a very frustrating Minnesota United game it was great to be back in the theater for Shows 31 to 34. But my Theater day actually began with a matinee performance of The fantastic Singing in the Rain at Artistry in Bloomington. If I can I’ll have a review of that up this weekend but it may have to wait until Monday. Here are my Reviews for day Eight of the Fringe Festival!

Grief, It’s What’s For Dinner is The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner. It’s a play that turns out to be a powerfully affecting way to talk about a difficult subject matter, early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Creator and star, Kayla Hambek is telling the story of her experience as a caregiver for her Mother, who passed away in April of this year, after living nearly 12 years with the disease. Sounds like a rough show right? Well it is told with a ton of humor and puppets. Why? Well two reasons, for one when we talk about difficult things sometimes it helps to remove ourselves a little and puppets have always been a surrogate conduit for our difficult emotions. Also it’s Fringe, of course there are puppets. In true Fringe fashion, at their opening performance the dog in the photo above, who is not known to anyone in the show, wandered on stage. Gotta love Fringe. The entire cast for this show is just great, but extra shout out to The Stages of MN Superfan, and the first audience member I ever had come up to me and ask for a picture (making her in a way the spark for the at a show with… montages on the YouTube Show), Sher U-F, who plays multiple roles, but really transforms when playing Kayla’s mother. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/grief-it-s-what-s-for-dinner

Big Honor Student Energy is Chicago traveling artist Alisa Rosenthal’s solo show about being an over achiever. By this she means going all in on anything she attempts. Probably her biggest hurdle is that what she attempts doesn’t meet most people’s criteria of a worthy goal. Like being a musical children’s party performer or going to clown school. But what she has learned and what she teaches us by the end of her show is that everyone’s path is different and what matters is what fulfills you. Most people measure success by how much money they have or where they are with their careers, the cars they drive and the size of their house. But what Rosenthal has learned and I concur is that these things are not always a measure of success, unless those are the things you value. I just accepted a new job after being unemployed for over a year. I’ll be making a little less than 45% of what I made before. But you know what? I’m excited about it. Because instead of working for corporate America in a job I wasn’t passionate about, I’ll be supporting special education students in a local high school. I’m also working nonstop taking The Stages of MN to the next level. I feel very successful right now, not because I have a lot of money, I don’t, but because maybe for the first time in my life I feel like I’m doing something that matters with my life. All of it geared towards doing what I can to make the future brighter for theater and hopefully for high schoolers who need a little extra support and their teachers. Thats how I’m measuring success, not by how much I added to some corporations bottom line. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/big-honor-student-energy

The Writer’s Room: A Failed Documentary is a sketch comedy show and like all sketch comedy some of it works and some of it doesn’t. The measure of success lies in what the ratio of success to falls flat is. This show falls very far in the success column. Even the bits that don’t entirely work still have laughs and a clever idea behind them. My favorite bits include the bridging sequences of the performers discussing ideas for their Fringe show, parts of which felt very ad libbed, in the best possible way. I also really liked “Hot Sauce Therapy” and “A Wes Anderson Sex Scene“. When you feel like you’ve seen one Improv show too many, switch gears to this highly entertaining Sketch show it’s full of laughs and the appealing cast make it a very enjoyable show. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/the-writers-room-a-failed-documentary

The Year of Sluttery is a solo show performed by a writer under the pseudonym Scarlet. A former High School teacher and Sunday School teacher she performs excerpts from her book. It’s primarily about the year in which after getting out of the second long term relationship of her life, and in her 50’s, she went looking for some sexual fulfillment. It’s about the losers she hooked up with and the lessons she learned from each. For the most part the stories are fun and as Scarlet points out in the beginning she is not an actor she’s a writer. The strengths of the show are the stories, the weakness is her delivery, it’s not bad, it’s just as she promised, she isn’t a performer. There is an over reliance on repetition at times that might work better were it presented by someone with more performance experiences and she relies on the phrase bitches a bit too much. All in all it’s a fun time and there is a positive message about female sexual empowerment. Scarlet also has really cool swag on sale at her shows including her book, t-shirts, and cum rags. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/the-year-of-sluttery

That’s it for day eight of the Minnesota Fringe Festival you can click on the Fringe website here to get details on all of the shows https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025. Don’t forget to tune into The Stages of MN YouTube channel for mini episodes all week long from The MN Fringe Festival https://www.youtube.com/@TheStagesofMN