How to Fringe: The Minnesota Fringe Festival turns 30, hosts 101 different shows Aug. 3-Aug. 13
It’s back! The Minnesota Fringe Festival opens Thursday, Aug. 3, launching 11 days and nights of hour-length stage performances in 16 venues throughout Minneapolis. That’s 101 different shows — or 102 if you include the self-guided tour of the West Bank, more on that later — hosted 515 times, much but not all of it happening in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. It’s a 30th anniversary special that promises oddball delights, delicious dramas and some inevitable hits and misses. A crackerjack team of Pioneer Press reporters will post select show reviews at twincities.com/tag/fringe-festival.
Sound overwhelming? Let our Fun Fringe FAQ guide you.
WAIT, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?: Let’s slow things down. After 30 years, the non-juried, lottery-driven Fringe Festival has become a staple of the Twin Cities theater scene, offering audiences a wide range of mostly-homespun productions, from stand-up and improv comedy to musicals, dramas, horror, burlesque and even magic acts and kids’ shows. It’s billed as the Twin Cities’ longest-running summer celebration of the performing arts — a theatrical grab-bag that ropes in the entire spectrum of talents, from actors who should probably be someday famous to well-meaning would-be thespians who need not quit their day jobs. Sorry, not sorry.
TELL ME MORE: Can’t wait for a taste of both the wheat and the chaff? A preview night on Wednesday, Aug. 2 at the University of Minnesota’s Rarig Center will feature three-minute selections from some 30 out-of-town productions, including acts from both out-of-state and Greater Minnesota, introduced by the performer commonly known as Silly Miss Tilly. There’s no ticket necessary for preview night, but you will need to wear your festival button.
A BUTTON?: What’s that you say? You don’t know what the Fringe button is? Every patron must buy a button — a one-time purchase of $5, available at any box office where Fringe tickets are sold — to get into the festival itself. Hold onto your button for the run of the shows, and keep in mind that it’s good for year-round discounts at participating theaters, bars and restaurants.
WHERE DO I BUY TICKETS?: Pre-sale tickets to individual Fringe performances are available online until 11:59 p.m. the night before a show, or at the box offices, which are cashless. Tickets are generally $18 online or $19 at the box office ($13 for youth 12 and under, either online or in person). Multi-show passes offer steeper discounts (10 shows are $120, five shows are $70). If you want your seat guaranteed, there’s an online option for that. Visit MinnesotaFringe.org.
HELP ME I’M OVERWHELMED: With 101 shows, that’s to be expected. The best advice would be to use the drop-down menus in the online directory at MinnesotaFringe.org to search for a show by date (the festival runs Aug. 3-13), genre (horror!), content (audience participation!), feature (first-time producer!) or venue (Bryant Lake Bowl). Once a show synopsis catches your fancy, you’ll see links to reviews left by other patrons, as well as cast and crew bios and even in some cases YouTube video trailers.
CAN YOU JUST PICK RANDOM SHOWS FOR ME TO WATCH SIGHT UNSEEN?: Sure. The synopsis behind “Stabby Stab Stab” is pretty dang dark (and inspired by a true story). One hopes “Star Trek: The Next Improvisation” is as deliciously geeky as the title. A man who has devoted his Fringe career to lifting the veil on monsters, real and imagined, rounds up five of his best takes in “Monster Science’s Greatest Hits,” featuring different monsters each night on Powerpoint, from Satan to Muppets. The one-man memory play, “Reincarnation Soup,” won multiple awards at the Orlando Fringe. And “Grindr Help Desk: The Musical” sounds G-string rated. Don’t skip dinner before “Starved: The Astonishing True Story of the University of Minnesota Starvation Experiment.”
FREE STUFF: If you’re looking for a free taste of the festival, head over to “Fringe Central” — the Red Sea restaurant and bar at 320 Cedar Ave. in Minneapolis — for night after night of free performances, running from about 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.-ish each night. The free stuff kicks off Thursday, Aug. 3 with tap dancing, magic tricks and other controlled mayhem. On Friday night, John Heimbuch presents a one-man rendition of “Gilgamesh.” The tassels fly Saturday during a burlesque performance by the cast of “Absurdity.” The next night features stand-up comedy followed by live music from the 1940s-’60s. And so forth.
MORE FREE STUFF: Two Minnesotans and veteran Fringe-rs who made their way to Los Angeles as film directors made a feature-length movie about two Minnesotans who made their way to Los Angeles as actors making a Fringe play about two Minnesotans who… you get the idea. “Hollywood Fringe” is available off the Fringe website and free to watch online for the run of the festival, thanks to a limited engagement with Minnesota Fringe.
FRINGO!: Diehard Fringe fans can get a Bingo-like card stamped by ushers at each performance, making them eligible to win 10-show passes to next year’s Fringe during a closing night party at the Red Sea. Fringo cards are available at any box office in Cedar-Riverside.
VOLUNTEER: Want even more free stuff? Consider volunteering. Fans as young as 12 years old can be put to work, mostly ushering, but there are also more hardcore jobs for versatile “Fringe Mavericks” and “oddball jobs” for gophers. Group volunteerism is also an option. You can even serve as a billeter, hosting an out-of-town artist in your home. Incentives include a Fringe button and discount codes to see shows for free, as well as a T-shirt.
TIP YOUR THESPIAN: Tipping is all the rage these days (and sometimes rage-inducing), but if you’ve ever seen a fundamentally moving, hilarious or horrifying production and wished you could reach out and thank the performers, now you can. Some of the individual shows listed online sport a dollar emoji sign. That little digital button will take you to the artist’s Venmo, PayPal or Cash.me account, where you can leave as much money as you care to. If a page doesn’t open, log into the money transfer app first and then click the emoji icon again.
CAN I BIKE HOME?: Yup. A group ride departs each night from the corner of Cedar and Riverside at 11:30 p.m. sharp, heading to the Midtown Greenway. BikeMN will provide lights and safety tips. On Aug. 9, they’ll even provide snacks.
BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE INSIDE: Consider an outdoor Fringe “show” where you’re the star of a free, self-guided walking tour of the West Bank, which was once known as Mni Sóta Makoce, a historic homeland of the Dakota people. With 17 stops you can visit at your own pace, the digital map for the “West Bank Neighborhood History Walking Tour” was curated by Mary Laurel True and students at the University of Minnesota on behalf of the West Bank Business Association. All the world is, after all, a stage…
STOP TALKING AND SIGN ME UP: No can do. But you can buy your own darn tickets at MinnesotaFringe.org.
