We are ten days into the 2024 Minnesota Fringe Festival! It's not through and I'm still seeing shows and volunteering, but I wanted to stop and shot out some of my absolute favorite shows that I recommend. Catch them if you can for the remaining festival and make sure to follow these fantastic artists.
Blackout Improv Does Something!!!
By Rogues Gallery Arts
Created by Blackout Improv
Created by Blackout Improv
@ HUGE Improv Theater in Uptown
Wow! I really enjoyed this show. It wasn't a surprise because Blackout Improv has had some great performances in the Twin Cities but this was maybe my favorite. It's improv so every performance is different but the performance I saw has a special guest: comedian and musician Devhon Bland. Lots of laughter during his set. I've seen him around town at standup performances but again, this was an especially great performance. My performance also had a bit with Destiny Davison a.k..a Dolly who did a very heartfelt and charming puppet improv with the rest of the cast. (Last year Dolly's show Dolly Who was my favorite Fringe show! Check out my shoutout last year.) And the show ended with a few rounds of the swag hat which was improv suggested by the audience, which after some conversation with the performers became some shenanigan inducing improv! Five Kitties! Ten Kitties! All the Kitties.
More about the show: 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.
Daddy Issues
By Pretend Productions
Written by Allison Vincent
@ Phoenix Theater in Uptown
By far the most moving and absolutely impeccably crafted and performed piece I have seen this year at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. I sobbed through this performance but still felt uplifted and connected during Allison VIncent's engaging storytelling about her own experiences with caretaking for her father. Stunning.
More about the show: Daddy Issues is a solo show recounting Allison Vincent's caretaking for her father while also negotiating their complicated relationship and the demise of his memory and her childhood home.
Written by Allison Vincent
@ Phoenix Theater in Uptown
By far the most moving and absolutely impeccably crafted and performed piece I have seen this year at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. I sobbed through this performance but still felt uplifted and connected during Allison VIncent's engaging storytelling about her own experiences with caretaking for her father. Stunning.
More about the show: Daddy Issues is a solo show recounting Allison Vincent's caretaking for her father while also negotiating their complicated relationship and the demise of his memory and her childhood home.
TransMasculine Cabaret, Starring Vulva Va-Voom
By Vulva Va-Voom & Company
Created by Vulva Va-Voom
@ Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis
Created by Vulva Va-Voom
@ Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis
What's a Fringe festival without some song and dance? Especially when it's well performed and includes some meaningful stories that definitely made me tear up. Vulva covered important issues and entertained with song and dance. I couldn’t believe the show was ending at curtain call—the time flew by! I highly recommend this clever and well-performed cabaret.
More about the show: Hardships, meet hilarity. "TragiComic transgender-identifying true confessional" & "obscene, maniacal burlesque star" sound incompatible...but this gritty nightclub headliner combines stranger things onstage.
Holy O
By Lauren Hance of Out of Mind ProdcutionsDirected by Amelia Peterson & Cathy Lam-Patrie
Holy O is like the pick your own adventure of the Minnesota Fringe 2024. Artist Lauren Hance emerges from a pile on the floor where the stage (an Uptown coffee shop) is littered with clothes. Lauren's character Vera asks the audience (we were all wearing handmade gold pipe cleaner headpieces and playing saints!) to choose a piece of clothing and then we get to hear a story. The piece is a combination of the sacred and sensual. I loved it. Check out the Artfully Engaging artist interview with Lauren. Also whenever I think of this show I can't stop singing Madonna's "Like a Prayer." Coincidence?
Holy O is like the pick your own adventure of the Minnesota Fringe 2024. Artist Lauren Hance emerges from a pile on the floor where the stage (an Uptown coffee shop) is littered with clothes. Lauren's character Vera asks the audience (we were all wearing handmade gold pipe cleaner headpieces and playing saints!) to choose a piece of clothing and then we get to hear a story. The piece is a combination of the sacred and sensual. I loved it. Check out the Artfully Engaging artist interview with Lauren. Also whenever I think of this show I can't stop singing Madonna's "Like a Prayer." Coincidence?
More about the show: Vera is contemplating becoming a nun, but can’t let go of her vibrators. Step into the role of “saint,” and help Vera make the biggest decisions of her life, starting with what shirt to wear.
I've seen a lot of great shows this Fringe! I'm headed out the door for another full day of theater, dance, magic, improv, and music. Every show I attend I am in awe of the effort and bravery it takes for these artists to take the stage and make live art happen. Not every show hits perfectly every time for every audience member. That's okay! Every person has different preferences and is in the mood for different art at different times. Make sure to check out the Minnesota Fringe website to look for shows that interest you. The show pages also have audience reviews, so take a look!
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