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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