Fringe 2025 - Returning Favorites - A Handy List

Here’s a handy list of links to all the returning favorites posts I manage to crank out between now and the start of the festival (and there’s a lot them), alphabetical by show title, just like in the show listings on the Minnesota Fringe website:

503  - Jackdonkey Productions 

A Completely Serious and Not At All Comedic Review of Farts, Flatus, and Flatulence, aka The Fart Show - Kyle B. Dekker

A Good Cancer To Have - Theatre on the Rocks (Sam Sweere)

A Sad Carousel 2: The Timely Death of Herschel Douscheburg - LandmanLand (Sam Landman) 

Breach - Third Space Theater (Alex Church) 

Breakneck Twelfth Night - Timothy Mooney

Delete Later - The Young Artist’s Council of Youth Performance Company

Dice of Destiny: Neon City, The Improvised 80s Action Movie - The Bearded Company

Dolly Who’s Holiday Horror Show - Destiny Davison

Fall of the High School Valedictorian- Philip Simondet

Fangs and Bangs (and Sangs) - Special When Lit (Nissa Nordland)

Grief, It’s What’s For Dinner - Aethem Theatre (Kayla Hambek)

In the Garden of American Heroes - Andrew Erskine Wheeler (Wheeler In The Sky)

Invasive Species, or: In Space No One Can Hear You Steam - Snikt!Bamf!Thwip!

Jon Bennett: American’t - Jon Bennett

Manasu: Echoes of the Mind - SAATH

MicroMedics - Wet Splat 

Ranger Jim - Dogdog-Beardog (Jim Stowell)

Rec League - Mike Fotis Productions 

That Which Is Green - Michael Rogers

The 4 Ws and the H of Murder - Lady Z Productions (Maureen Bourgeois)

 

The Abortion Chronicles - Mermaid Productions (Ariel Pinkerton)

The Big Secret - Brad Lawrence

The Gentlemen’s Pratfall Club - Comedy Suitcase (Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen)

The Shrieking Harpies: Period Piece - The Shrieking Harpies

The Spirit Moves You To Color the Unseen - The Winding Sheet Outfit (Amber Bjork)

The Temporary Tattoo Trio - an alleged Theatre Company 

This - Tim Uren

Trust Exercises Exorcises - Raffish Ripoff Productions (Phil Gonzales)

Your Hello To My Goodbye - Cornucopia Productions

Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10, and Top 11 to 20  for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.  

As I’m sure many artists are, I find myself struggling with the idea of just “taking time off” (what a luxury) and submerging myself in a whole lot of theater for 11 days while the world is on fire so… I’m going to put some phrases and links down here (and at the end of each post going forward) and if you find yourself compelled to explore one or more of them, so much the better.  There’s a lot going on, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed and tune out, but as Congresswoman Sarah McBride recently said, “If everybody shows a little courage, nobody needs to be a hero.”  I freely admit this list and these links are hardly exhaustive.  It's just something to get started.  Do what you can, where you can, however you can.  Let’s help one another get through this.

Contacting your elected officials about the issues that matter to you (and protesting as necessary)
Starvation in the Gaza Strip
Immigration raids around the United States
Ukraine fighting off invasion by Russia
Trans rights
Climate change action
Housing shortage and the unhoused
Reproductive Rights
Voting rights, and running for office
The courts, from the Supreme Court on down to the local level
Don’t forget to laugh - even gallows humor is still humor 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fringe 2025 - Top 11 to 20

This was a tough one this year, folks.  Which is, oddly, a good thing.  I could have easily built a Top 30 this year, there were that many good, intriguing options to choose from.  But I already pushed a Top 10 out to a Top 20, a person’s gotta stop somewhere.  If everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.  Even so, you’ll see that I still fudged a little bit on some entries :) So here’s the links to the Top 11 to 20 part of the list, which I’ll be adding to as the posts go up daily as we approach the start of the festival:

11A - Comfort Zone Presents: CHEMISTRY
11B - Ping Prov - Ryan Klima

12 - Aspara, The Musical - Narate Keys

13 - Cabin Fever - Small Waves - Mikela Anderson, Naomi Brecht, and Katie & Della Christ

14 - All Your Shimmering Gold - SUPERMOON (Michael Torsch)

15A - J & R - The Drama Experience
15B - Romeo and Juliet: Lottery Style - Katherine Warmka

16 - Clown Funeral - Octoberdandy Productions (Jen Scott, Levi Weinhagen, Chris Rodriguez, and Mark Benzel)

17 - Songs Without Words (or, The Mendelssohn Play) - Jennifer Vosters

18A -Tapeze - Twin Cities Trapeze Center
18B - husk/vessel - KAIROS Dance Theater 

19 - The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch! - Joking Apart Theater 

20 - Hamluke - Nightfall Productions (Brad Erickson) 

Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.

As I’m sure many artists are, I find myself struggling with the idea of just “taking time off” (what a luxury) and submerging myself in a whole lot of theater for 11 days while the world is on fire so… I’m going to put some phrases and links down here (and at the end of each post going forward) and if you find yourself compelled to explore one or more of them, so much the better.  There’s a lot going on, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed and tune out, but as Congresswoman Sarah McBride recently said, “If everybody shows a little courage, nobody needs to be a hero.”  I freely admit this list and these links are hardly exhaustive.  It's just something to get started.  Do what you can, where you can, however you can.  Let’s help one another get through this.

Contacting your elected officials about the issues that matter to you (and protesting as necessary)
Starvation in the Gaza Strip
Immigration raids around the United States
Ukraine fighting off invasion by Russia
Trans rights
Climate change action
Housing shortage and the unhoused
Reproductive Rights
Voting rights, and running for office
The courts, from the Supreme Court on down to the local level
Don’t forget to laugh - even gallows humor is still humor 

Fringe 2025 - Top 10

This was a tough one this year, folks.  Which is, oddly, a good thing.  I could have easily built a Top 30 this year, there were that many good, intriguing options to choose from.  But I already pushed a Top 10 out to a Top 20, a person’s gotta stop somewhere.  If everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority.  Even so, you’ll see that I still fudged a little bit on some entries :) So here’s the links to the Top 10 part of the list, which I’ll be adding to as the posts go up daily as we approach the start of the festival:

1 - Jewelry Power Elite - Lauren Anderson (Rogues Gallery Arts)

2 - The Show Must Go On: a Backstage Escape Game - David Pisa

3 - Death! A Musical - Gabriel Shen and Twin Cities Youth Theatre

4 - The Kendra Plant Variety Hour: Good Things Edition! With Special Guests

5 - The Wickie - Richie Whitehead

6 - Joan of Arc for Miss Teen USA - Melancholics Anonymous

7 - La Tunda: A Reimagining of a Colombian Folklore - JexArzayus Productions

8 - Mind Reader - Steven Nicholas

9 - simone weil and the (insufferable) existentialist breakfast club - burnt ghost collective

10A – Director’s Cut: Where Play Becomes Magic - Deconstructing Directing (Andrew Roblyer)
10B – Final Dress - MDV Productions (Michael DallaValle & Sean Dillon)

 

 

Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.

 

 

As I’m sure many artists are, I find myself struggling with the idea of just “taking time off” (what a luxury) and submerging myself in a whole lot of theater for 11 days while the world is on fire so… I’m going to put some phrases and links down here (and at the end of each post going forward) and if you find yourself compelled to explore one or more of them, so much the better.  There’s a lot going on, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed and tune out, but as Congresswoman Sarah McBride recently said, “If everybody shows a little courage, nobody needs to be a hero.”  I freely admit this list and these links are hardly exhaustive.  It's just something to get started.  Do what you can, where you can, however you can.  Let’s help one another get through this.

Contacting your elected officials about the issues that matter to you (and protesting as necessary)
Starvation in the Gaza Strip
Immigration raids around the United States
Ukraine fighting off invasion by Russia
Trans rights
Climate change action
Housing shortage and the unhoused
Reproductive Rights
Voting rights, and running for office
The courts, from the Supreme Court on down to the local level
Don’t forget to laugh - even gallows humor is still humor