Minnesota Fringe Festival

Well, it’s been a long time since the Minnesota Fringe Festival was truly fringe-y. These days, our local take on the international non-juried theater celebration is more like a flokati rug: an explosion of fuzzy theatrical productions sprawling hither and yon in a delightful tangle. And just as Austin’s homegrown SXSW music festival expanded in recent years to include film, so does the Minnesota Fringe now include a dozen-plus art exhibits (“Visible Fringe”) and, new this year, five comedy acts (“Standup Fringe”). Not that there’s any danger of them upstaging the onslaught of pure thespian power that will invade Minneapolis for a week and a half, from a “hip-hopera” hailing from Olympia, Washington, to the locally produced Don’t Conceal, Reveal! A Minnesota Handgun Western, and in between, 174 other musical, puppet shows, monologues, cabarets, etc. (pictured above, Death Penalty Puppetry). If you think you’ve spotted the next Urinetown, the fledgling FringeNYC musical that became a bona fide Broadway sensation – put the word out on www.fringefestival.org, the fully loaded website that’ll give you all the details you need, and then some. Or call 612-604-4466 for tickets.