Minnesota Fringe Festival 2008

Today's the Royal Birthday Party and the wacky servants must frantically get the ancient monarch ready! The clowns do the dressing, teach table manners and impersonate each of the guests. This party is a mess!

Ars Longa, vita brevis

by Kari Jensen

Venue: Ritz Theater Proscenium

An eclectic, exciting mix of dance styles: classical, contemporary, jazz and ballroom. Art is long, life is short. Watch us celebrate our love of art and life!

Beowulf or Gilgamesh You Decide!

by Chopping Block and Charlie Bethel

Venue: U of M Rarig Center Arena

The audience picks between Beowulf (a peckish demon snacks on the Danish) and Gilgamesh (a god-king takes on the underworld). Mesmerizing stories told with the energy, drama, and comedic flair which have made Bethel a perennial Fringe favorite.

Cast of Dancing Delights

by Suzanne Wiltgen

Venue: Southern Theater

Six unorthodox choreographies from dorky Weebles to rabid brides and modern mooning. Don't like stuffy dance? Try these colorful, irreverent morsels of brilliant dancing sweetness.

Dreadful Penny's Exquisite Horrors

by Tantalus Theatre Group

Join us if you dare at an uncanny sideshow of longing and desire where all manner of monstrosities are revealed and reveled in, and nothing is forbidden. Audience discretion is advised.

Dying for the Chance

by Sundial Theater Company

Venue: Lab Theater

En route to the Paris Music Festival, zany Miss Bodacious croaks! Desperate for a chaperone and director,her high school students pretend she's alive. Then a bumbling Frenchman falls in love

Get It OFF YOUR CHEST!!!

by Mary Helena

Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre

Meet entertaining and engaging women who challenge us to view ourselves in our many guises. These women will make you laugh and cry, think and act (?). It's their time to download! Time to get it off their chests!

Hey, I'm Talking Murder Here!

by Rhino Productions

Three twisted tales of revenge and murder set in an unexpected future and featuring a bewildered clone, homicidal robot and a couple of talking dogs. Rod Serling, eat you heart out!

My War: From Bismarck to Britain and Back

by Klatch Productions

Venue: Theatre de la Jeune Lune

WW II. True story. Bombing raids and B-24s. Rationing and shortages. Dancing and doughnuts. Through letters and diaries, a Boomer discovers two remarkable womenher mother and grandmother. Step back in time.

Reviving the Lecture Circuit

by Meg and Rob

Venue: Playwrights' Center

Sick of modern celebrities? Sketch comedians Meg and Rob are here to help! They'll bring you lectures from six madcap famous folks who won't be profiled in People magazine But you wish they would be.

The Cody Rivers Show Presents: Stick to Glue

by The Cody Rivers Show

A two-person physical comedy sketch show.

The Dog, Moses & Me

by Regi Carpenter

Venue: Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts

Girl scientist proves human matter can be rearranged. Town librarian saves the world and helps girl attain destiny. Mother/daughter meet in each other's madness. Love and redemption, which ain't easy.

The Thinnest Woman Wins

by Dixie Fun Dance Theatre

Venue: Intermedia Arts

Try some delicious Low Carb Theater! Laugh the fat right off in this one-woman tour de force from New York City featuring a beauty pageant, baton-twirling and inappropriate body hair.

Tue., Aug. 5 @ 6:00 p.m.

SHIFT

by Jonas Goslow

Venue: Bryant-Lake Bowl

Culture. Economy. Scientific Thought. We exist amid shifting, self-regulating networks of all kinds, indifferent to the fortune and loss of the individual. This show is about the individual.

Tue., Aug. 5 @ 7:00 p.m.

adjective

by Megan Dowd

Venue: Playwrights' Center

Madison went looking for someone. Maybe someone to love. Maybe someone to screw. She found someone, stumbled across him, who she didn't expect. Who she stumbled upon, however, means everything to everyone.

Cowboy Dragqueen

by DragIn Productions

Venue: U of M Rarig Center Arena

She's back...Or is she? From the closet that brought you Fringe favorites "These Pumps are Killing Me" and "The Sound of Muzak" comes the tri of the trilogy. So saddle up and grab the reigns as our cowboy falls out of his Stetsons and into some JimmyChoo's.

Dance of the Whisky Faerie

by Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw

Venue: Southern Theater

Uncorked and mischievous, the Whisky Faerie captures a wandering storyteller. Together they dance, soliloquize and spar through bizarre Celtic tales. Will he get his whisky or will she keep her freedom?

Delirium for Two

by Theatre Novi Most

Venue: Red Eye Theater

A tragicomedy performed in Russian and English, Delirium for Two is part absurdist slapstick and part object ballet. It centers on a bickering couple who can barely understand each other. He speaks only Russian and she speaks only English. They are hiding out from an unseen armageddon that surrounds them.

Deviants

by Live Action Set

Venue: The Soap Factory

Meet four individuals you'd rather not know but can't ignore. See them in an old Soap Factory. "This surprising melange of transgressive theater and dance is disturbingly funny." Rohan Preston, Star Tribune.

Dog Man Star

by The Drama Troupe Players

Venue: Theatre de la Jeune Lune

Dog Man Star has the dreams of gods and kings. A hit play from Brad Baron dealing with the hoary topics of love, loss, memory and desire in forty minute tragicomic form.

How Does a Drug Deal Become a Decent 3rd Date?

by Green with Envy Productions

Meet a girl who keeps meeting the wrong guy, until she figures out that dating isn't about perfecting the art of what doesn't workit's about figuring out what does.

Medusa's Riddle - Fresh off the Boat

by Asian media Access

Venue: Ritz Theater Proscenium

AMA once again presents the popular 2007 Fringe show, "Medusa's Riddle." Laughter, mysteries, street anger, the bamboo ceiling, where they have in common, that's the riddle for you to solve.

My Hovercraft is Full of Eels!

by Henry Epp

Venue: Intermedia Arts

Journey into the absurd and outrageous world of Monty Python filled with outlandish characters, raucous energy, catchy musical numbers and original animations. It will leave you in hysterics!

Neither Here Nor There

by Alliteration and All

Francis' childhood twists when she's thrust into an epic journey by an undersea socialite. She's destined to travel through lands both charted and not, solve various problems and encounter unfortunate friends.

Roofies in the Mochaccino

by Empty S Productions

Venue: Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts

Hey, kidsonly six F-bombs! National Poetry Slammer Michael Shaeffer delivers rocked-out odes and turbid tantrums, tackling Transformers, 2Pac, Chewbacca, Elvis Presley, randy mammoths and mmmmmmmmuppet sex!

Sex, Lies and Abandonment: The Nature of Adoption

by Jane Kathryn Kolles

A birth mother surrenders her baby. An adoptive mother receives. After years of silence, they each have something urgent to say. Step inside the adoption journey and watch these women kick and scream through loss.

Silent Poetry - A Tribute To Marcel Marceau

by Dean Hatton

Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre

A collection of nonverbal comedic and dramatic skits inspired by the work of Marcel Marceau written and created by Dean Hatton, a student of Mr. Marceau's.

Spring Awakening

by Blue Water Theatre Company

Venue: Lab Theater

Sex, drugs and Wagner run wild in "Spring Awakening," the story of a group of German teenagers who, in 1891, must find their way out of adolescence and enter adult society in a most confusing time in their lives.

The Supercilious Ways of Walter Wading

by SPARK theater + dance

Supercilious meets super-silliness when Walter's usual path through the woods leads him to the most unusual surprise.

Tue., Aug. 5 @ 8:00 p.m.

FOOL FOR A CLIENT

by Mark Whitney

Venue: Bryant-Lake Bowl

Best solo at D.C. and Iowa Fringes! Facing 225 years in prison a comedian represents himself. An award-winning political dramedy. "Lewis Black meets Mark Twain." Read the five-star raves at www.markwhitney.com/reviews.html

Tue., Aug. 5 @ 8:30 p.m.

Audish

by The Bakery Theatre Company

Venue: Theatre de la Jeune Lune

The strange story of five girls who experience the most absurd audition ever seen by mankind. Anything can happen in this show of unfortunate events filled with humor mystery and a lot of Smartwater.

Boom

by IL Productions

Venue: U of M Rarig Center Arena

A narrative, movement-based solo show.

First Years

by Tracy Funt

Venue: Playwrights' Center

Drunk teachers, rumors flying rampant and a little bit of lovin'. You know the drill, just a regular day in an average Minnesota school... Well Kinda.

Great American Horror Movie Musical

by LSD Productions

Venue: Lab Theater

A criminal is at large. Seven brave filmmakers promise to hunt him down. Armed only with a camera, this kooky bunch sing and dance their way to making the greatest horror movie ever made, '80s karaoke style!

Kafka's Disgusting Tale of Transformation, A Buffoon's Metamorphosis

by Noah Bremer Presents

Galen Treuer and Noah Bremer of Live Action Set team up with Hopkin's Main Street for the Performing Arts to bring you this outrageous Buffoon clown monstrosity of Kafka's literary "classic".

One Missed Step

by Bold Theatre Company

Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre

Dancing for masses, being chased by the papparazzi, dating a star and uncovering secret agendas. Leaving the small town behind, Isabel goes from ballet and books to backup dancing and the red carpet.

Ophelia

by Studio Zero

Venue: Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts

An investigation into the hidden love story within Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. The piece explores a familiar story from a new perspective in a new work from this talented young company.

Sun Tzu's, The Art of War

by No Refunds Theatre Co.

The 3,000 year old manual on war's practice and philosophy used throughout history by generals and businessmen with ruthlessly effective results. Now on stage! And Funny! There will also be a mambo.

The Jamal Lullabies

by Emily Conbere and East River Commedia

Venue: Southern Theater

Four young women sing at a memorial to Jamal Slims Hall, a no-account drug dealer and a beautiful, tired-out addict.

The Nosdrahcir Sisters

by Sara and Kimberly Richardson

The imaginative lives of two quiet ladies. Teacups triumph, aliens say beep and mermaids shop in the produce aisle. A mishmash of clown, movement and object theater, where everything is funnyeven the sad.

The Pumpkin Pie Show

by Horse Trade Theater Group

A literary fist in the face. Part monologue, part spoken word, part boxing match"The Pumpkin Pie Show" is a rigorous storytelling session. New stories every night, picked at random during the performance.

The Survival Pages

by Malia Burkhart

Venue: Intermedia Arts

Ecological crisis! Global warming! Peak oil! Are you worried yet? Smell the dirt as Malia Burkhart unearths her relationship troubles with the planet through stories, original music, video and butoh dance.

The Underpants Show

by Lili's Burlesque

Venue: Ritz Theater Proscenium

No beating around the bush, Lili's Burlesque Revue is thrilled to present The Underpants Show, where you'll delight in the Twin Cities' finest variety performers doing what they do best: hot jazz, bawdy comedy, slapstick, and vintage tease. You'll see London, France, and so much more!

Tue., Aug. 5 @ 10:00 p.m.

10.10 Post 9.11: Laughter in the Aftermath

by Adam Sharp

Five satirical scenes for your inner pot-smoking hippie... or war-loving neocon wingnut. This is humor for 9/12, from a woman paralyzed by fear (as told by Edgar Allen Poe) to "George W. Quixote."

An Intimate Evening with Fotis: Part Two

by Mike Fotis

Mike sits in a chair and tells stories. Seriously. That's all he does. You seem skeptical. Trust him. It works and it's funny. Unless you need your performers to stand. Is that what you need? Do you NEED that?

Boys Don't Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses

by True Enough Theater

Venue: U of M Rarig Center Arena

Embrace your inner dork as Laura and Curt (the geeks behind "Take a Left at the Giant Cow") fog up your glasses with torrid tales of nerd romance. Did we say torrid? We meant awkward, embarrassing and unrequited.

Casanova Man

by Knightbandit Productions

Venue: Theatre de la Jeune Lune

His ex is plotting world domination. His sexy new boss hates him. He's the superhero that only saves women! But has he lost his touch? Worlds collide in this mixed drink of dating and saving the world!

Depth of a Moment

by Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman

Venue: Lab Theater

"Dazzling sophistication virtuoso level of characterization." Kyle Gann, Village Voice. Tightly-packed, highly structured movement-based theatre that opens new ground for experimentation and laughter.

HafenGeist

by Atomic Lotus & Invocatio

Venue: Ritz Theater Proscenium

Violent murder on holy ground gives rise to a possessing spirit of evil. When a brother and sister are trapped in the ruins, can they break the curse? Do they want to? A gothic ballet based on "Hansel and Gretel."

Homecoming

by Michelle DiMeo and Rosa Morsy

Venue: Southern Theater

Seeking contentment, an intimate dialogue erupts from emotionally charged movement and text in "Homecoming." Added feature: "Shower," a creative exploration of bridal customs and the gender rituals of matrimony.

JACK

by Eric Van Wyk

Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre

A bright-eyed puppet Jack turns his old beanstalk story inside out while trying to escape a human puppet-eating giant. Starvation seeds discovery and a swirling world is born. One man puppeteers all!

Phi Alpha Gamma

by Dan Bernitt

Two years ago, a gay-bashing plagued the fraternity's image. Weighing loyalty and justice, how will the brothers react when a member of their group comes out?

Red Tide

by The Promethean Theatre

Venue: Bryant-Lake Bowl

An intense psychological thriller examining the relationship between two brothers and the woman that comes between them. Tight three-person noir theater piece.

Shakespeare's Land of the Dead

by Walking Shadow