Fringe 2024 - Returning Favorites List

Here's a handy set of links to reach all the posts about returning favorites in this year's 2024 Minnesota Fringe, in alpha order:

Denzel Belin Presents - 5 Episodes of Minnesota Tonight; 4 Minnesota Fring3, it’s Minnesota 2Night’s 1st Time at Minnesota Fringe

Minnesota Tonight brings music, comedy, sketch, interviews, games and more to the table! Highlighting and celebrating Minnesota and the talent and excellence that is here, there are five unique shows to see!

Blackout Improv Does Something!!!
Rogues Gallery Arts

Blackout Improv, Minnesota's premiere all Black performer improv group returns to the Fringe bringing guests and our renowned approach to comedy which mixes humor, and heart with a social Justice bent.

 

I Favor My Daddy: A Tale of Two Sissies
Jamie Brickhouse

A gay, alcoholic son uncovers the truth about his martini and bikini loving conservative father in this darkly comic, intimate, enthralling show that shines new meaning on the old question: "Who’s your daddy?"

 

Broken Wing Productions - Sheree & Scot Froelich, Nicole Wilder - The Wind Phone

The Wind Phone is found in a quiet park, not connected to any earthly system. On it, mourners will call their loved ones passed in hopes of finding the peace to work through their pain.

 

 

Alex Church - Dutch: Made in America

A busy actor sits down for a screen test that quickly devolves into a reality-bending examination of one of the most controversial figures in American history. Portion of proceeds donated to Women Winning

 

 

 

Corpus Dance Works (formerly LC Creations) - Lily Conforti - All The Hullabaloo

In this dance show we rip through the cereal box of life looking for the prize at the bottom. Milking the nostalgia of our youth; we loop through the woes of adulthood because in the end…Trix are only for kids.

Mike Fotis Productions - The Camp Out

An Improvised One Act Play About friends in their 40s and being all alone in the woods

 

 

 

 

 

Mahmoud Hakima - Two Bowls of Cereal and Some Bacon

A surprise hit of the 2009 MN Fringe! Seeking escape from his traumatic home life, a boy finds comfort in a "Mystery Girl." But her life begins to parallel his own, leading to a dramatic turn of events. 

 

Phantom Chorus Theatre - Show Me Your Wings
MaMa Faerie Productions - Rhiannon Fiskradatz

Show Me Your Wings is a traveling, experimental, multidisciplinary rock opera created from music by MaMa Faerie. It features a live band, projections, movement, puppetry, installations, and a visual art show!

Rev. Matt and Ariel Pinkerton - A Monster Scientist and a Tattooed Anarchist Walk Into a Bar - Mermaid Productions

Two of the twin cities finest solo performers share a stage - only it's small so they have to alternate! 5 Monster Science shows! One Tattooed Anarchist in Covid Lockdown!

"Put a Needle To Me or How I Got a Full Back Tattoo During Covid Because the Government Gave Me More Money Than Any Food Service Job Ever Has" You know what's fun? Having a midlife crisis that begins with a baby and an undercut, moves onto a divorce and a job at a punk restaurant, and really CEMENTS itself during Covid Lockdown. Might as well go all out and get a full back tattoo on the Government's dime, right? Storyteller Ariel Pinkerton returns with her  tale of transformation, survival, and self revolution.
Performances: Aug 3 and 4, at 4pm, Aug 9 at 7pm, Aug 10 and 11 at 4:00pm

"Reverend Matt's Personal Best" is a series of five award-winning Reverend Matt's Monster Science comedy lectures, as selected by the Reverend - and his infectious enthusiasm for the shines through. A companion to the Fringe 2023's "Monster Science's Greatest Hits," come see shows about Medusa, Pterosaurs, Ray Harryhausen, speculative evolution, and human ancestry! Facts and jokes and Powerpoint - guaranteed!
Performances:
Friday 8/2, 7pm: Kill You As Soon As Look At You - Medusa and Pals
Saturday 8/3, 5:30pm: The Meander of Humanity - Human Evolution
Sunday 8/4, 5:30pm: Bizarrocosms - Imaginary Evolutions
Saturday 8/10, 5:30pm: Original Kaiju and Fightin’ Skeletons - The Monsters of Ray Harryhausen
Sunday 8/11, 5:30pm: Pterosaur Country - A Complete History of Pterodactyls

 

Victoria Pyan - IMP presents Collidescope
The Improv Movement Project

IMP’s seasoned cast of dancers, mimes, clowns, improvisers, and physical theater-makers takes an audience story and transforms it into an improvised kaleidoscope of bodies in motion - 100% physical, 0% verbal.

Michael Rogers (a two-fer, see below) - The Life Robotic - Playabunga Productions - John Hilsen

A robot yearns to live a normal human life... BUT it can only say what the audience texts in on their phones. Hilarity ensues as the crowd drives the action and story, all from the comfort of their own seat.

 

 

Michael Rogers (again) - As Above, So Below

A reflection on solitude and silence. As Above, So Below is a solo show that plunges into the soul's dark waters, the truth we find within its depths, and the light that we hope waits above the surface.

 

Michael Shaeffer - Thy Hard

Forsooth! A poet pitches a Shakespearean adaptation of Die Hard. Sonnets and silly soliloquies at Nakatomi Plaza with appearances by Argyle, Holly, Hans Gruber and John McClane. Yippee ki-yay, muckle rucker!

Transatlantic Love Affair - 5x5

An anthology of five tales in a classic “tréteau” style, keeping the performers in one tiny square on the stage with no sets and no props. The biggest stories in the smallest space.

 

 

 

 

Here's some handy links to this year's Top 10 list and Top 11-20 list, plus a link to all the 2024 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.

While I have your attention, please VOTE :) 

Minnesota is currently in the early voting period for our Congressional and local primaries (I had the U.S. Senate, Congress, and the Minneapolis school board on my ballot) - final day to vote in the primary is Tuesday, August 13th, but you don't have to wait until Fringe is over, go vote right now :)

Early voting for the Presidential Election itself in Minnesota starts on Friday, September 20th. We're lucky to have a lot of time to get our voices heard, so cast your vote, and then make sure everyone you know and love is registered and gets to the polls to vote. Election Day, your final date to vote, is Tuesday, November 5th.

As a queer playwright and theater maker, I want a government that's compassionate and competent enough to keep us all safe and healthy, keep theaters open and running, and personally, I'd just like to be legal myself and keep the weirdos out of government and out of my personal business (and the things I post on this blog, for instance). We all have our reasons, so let's make sure we get the leaders we need and deserve, and get our friends, family and co-workers to raise their voices, too.

Find where to vote and what's on your ballot (with links to candidate websites) and other resources at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.

For other resources on how to register, volunteer or donate, locally or nationally, check out Vote Save America.

Vote.  Raise your voice. We're not going back.