Minnesota Fringe Kicks Off Its 30th Anniversary Festival

It’s here: that magical time of year when almost all of the theater people in the Twin Cities—plus plenty from outside the metro area, out of state, and even abroad!—converge to celebrate the wacky, the wonderful, and the weird on stages around Minneapolis. It’s the Minnesota Fringe Festival, baby! This year’s festival, which runs August 3–13, marks Fringe’s 30th anniversary, and I’m going to be covering the action with some on-the-fly interviews with some of my friends in the community, some fans in the audience, some strangers I meet in line, and some producers and performers who are friends I have yet to make.

I’ll be sharing short reviews of the shows I see and letting you know which ones I think are especially good, unusual, or otherwise noteworthy in some way. I’ll also be talking about the restaurants in the area that you should check out, the outlying theaters serving as BYOVenues this year for independent producers, and more. Make sure you check in with Twin Cities Geek throughout the festival for all of that, and say hi if you see me out in the wild!

Full disclosure: Since I’m both in the community and writing about the community, I’ll make it a point to disclose when I know someone who is involved in a show I’m covering (to the best of my knowledge and the availability of a show’s program and the Fringe website). No funny business here!

For now, I’ll tell you about the shows I’m looking forward to seeing.

Duck Washington stars in My Only Hope for a Hero at this year’s Fringe. Courtesy of Dan Norman Photography

Since I’m directing a show in the festival this year (Works in Progress, written and produced by my husband, Dave Rand-McKay), I attended the previews on Monday, July 24. There were some standouts that I’m excited to see: 20,000 Leagues under the Telltale Heart, which has incredible costuming, a theme song, and choreography; Chris Davis Does Stuff, lovingly and comedically presented via iPad at the previews via Sam Landman; Wells Is Third on the Waitlist, a solo show that seems at once self-deprecating and congratulatory; Pearl and Eugene: One Last Shtick, wherein two extremely charming residents of a senior living facility do a bit of song and dance and one, incredibly, does the splits; and Lost in Bear Country: Birth, God, Death … and the Berenstain Bears, which involves a giant prize wheel costing $400 and a whole lot of energy. And this list is in no way exhaustive—there were so many I can’t remember what they were all called. I’m glad to have an artist pass this year.

As far as my friends’ shows, I’m really looking forward to Kill B: The Epilogue because I’m a fan of the Kill Bill films and an even bigger fan of Six Elements Theatre, whose players are such skilled stage combatants that I know it’s going to have some incredible action. I’m definitely seeing My Only Hope for a Hero, because Duck Washington is such a gifted storyteller and magnetic performer to watch. I’m going to catch Fire in My Veins: Blazing through Life with Invisible Illness, which I previously saw during its sold-out first run at Red Eye Theater, because I was so moved by Allison Broeren’s openness and humor—I’m a bit in awe of her, really. I’ll be seeing Uncle Walt and How to Kill a Horse! (the latter of which is under the Phoenix Presents umbrella) because they’re both just exactly in the spirit of the Fringe Festival; Audacious Ignatius: Lost in Atlantis, another ambitious solo show; Behemoth, from the creators of last year’s award-winning Orzel Rising; and, last but not least, The Very Model of a Modern Monster Scientist, because what’s the Fringe Festival without a healthy scoop of monster science?

I’m sure I’ll discover some new favorite performers, too. Half the fun (or more!) of Fringe is in seeing something brand new and just a little bit out of my comfort zone. Can’t wait to see you out there!

Kyle B. Dekker stars in Audacious Ignatius. Courtesy of Heidi Garrido