August 1st. On my way to rehearsal for a show I was directing, I decided to stop off at the University of Minnesota to drop off some flyers. I rolled in to campus at around 5:30 p.m., propped some eye-catching bright green postcards on the counters of local coffee shops, and made my way back to the rehearsal space. I drove over the I-35W Bridge a little before 6:00 to make it back to the south side of Minneapolis. When I arrived at the rehearsal space twenty minutes later, I opened my internet browser to check my e-mail. Headline: I-35W Bridge collapses at 6:05. No shit. Besides the obvious moment of panic, the whole “What have I done with my life up to this juncture that warrants me still being alive?” reaction to an intense situation, my initial response was, like that of the actors in the show, true concern for those who were trapped. But, somewhat to my own disgust in hindsight, a more selfish concern came to mind an hour or so in to the rehearsal. How will this affect the attendance of the Minnesota Fringe Festival? Thank God for Minnesotans. They pitched in, did everything they could, and no doubt saved many lives. And they still turned out to the festival in droves.
The Minnesota Fringe Festival, now in its fourteenth year, is one of the biggest in the world. And though attendance was down a bit this year due to the general zeitgeist of the Twin Cities after the collapse, the festival was still successful. With 162 companies producing 162 shows in 11 days at 22 venues, many coming from around the country, the MN fringe is a little piece of two different worlds. It can be both that extremely tangible and magnificent dream that changes a small piece of you AND that horrific nightmare where you wake up screaming in a puddle of your own sweat. The Fringe is not, unlike many of its counterparts, a juried festival. All shows are chosen randomly by lottery. This is of benefit to new, up-and-coming companies who desire a spot in a nationally recognized festival. But it also leaves a good deal of talented companies and productions on the outskirts, left with nothing but hope that enough shows will drop out and that maybe they will be called up from a waiting list the length of a Russian novel. The random chance picks for what shows are in the festival makes the audiences job a little more difficult. It’s never fun walking in blind to a show you know nothing about…and walking out ten-minutes later. That problem has been slightly remedied, however, by encouraging audience members to write reviews on the Fringe’s website. The MN Fringe also supplies ten official bloggers/critics who keep theatre-goers abreast of what shows to see and which ones to avoid like the plague. But, like anything else, taste is everything. And the Minnesota Fringe is the Old Country Buffet of theatre.
There are, of course, the local favorites; companies that have been producing shows at the fringe for nearly a decade now. Their shows receive a massive amount of hype and sell out quickly, the critics all love them dearly (as most of them are friends), warranted or not, and the audience usually enjoys the product. Then there are the neophytes; folks who have never fringed before and may never do it again. These are truly hit and miss. Some are amazing, some are absolutely wretched, and most fall somewhere in-between. There are the movement performances from local dance companies that are almost always worth a watch. There are a handful of children’s plays that keep the smiles on the youngster’s faces…and mine, coincidentally. And, of course, what fringe would be complete without the nine-hundred thousand solo-shows that stampede the festival like the beaches of Normandy.
Spread out across the city and using such venues as Bedlam Theatre, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Mixed Blood, and the Minneapolis Theatre Garage, the festival is on a fairly massive scale. But the intimacy of each show and company is what contributes to its success. And the connection between the Fringe staff and the artists is palpable. They are there for the sole purpose of helping the artists. And they are good at what they do. Aside from the courteous nature of the staff, each company is given four full access passes to see any show for free, plus twenty golden comps for their own shows to hand out as they see fit. And for those companies that worry about the four-hundred dollar entrance fee, never you fear. The fringe allows each producing company to keep sixty-five percent of the house take. That well exceeds most fringe festivals in the country, and more than covers the entrance fee and costs. Believe it or not, it’s possible to actually make some money doing a fringe. Not enough to buy that new Audi you’ve always wanted, but certainly enough to buy the arm rest. As an almost objective opinion and a completely unsolicited plug, any company out there looking to expand your reach and experience a new theatre scene should highly consider entering the lottery for 2008.
More than anything, the MN Fringe is an opportunity for artists and audience members alike to feel like a community. Each night, after a long day of fringing, an after party is held somewhere in Minneapolis. One evening in particular, myself and the members of Cockroach Theatre (Las Vegas) who were touring one of my shows to the fringe, found ourselves sitting around a table at Joe’s Garage, a local haunt, with a few pints of Midwestern micro-brews in hand. The company members ventured off to mingle with the other folk, leaving me alone at the table to watch the goings on. Sitting there, I could do nothing but smile at the dozens of audience members interacting with the performers. They were asking questions about the shows, telling stories of how they related to a particular character or plot line, and showing genuine interest in what these people had to say. One older gentleman in particular had a tear in his eye as he relayed the story of his wife who passed away to a female actor he swore talked just like her in a production he witnessed that evening. And the great part is that the artists were expressing their interest right back. They wanted to know who these people were, where they came from, and their candid thoughts on the shows they had seen. All maudlin emoting aside, it may have been the first time I saw that very real connection I heard so much about in my undergraduate Intro to Theatre class. A relationship was sparked on the stage that evolved in to personal conversation with no pretense or agenda. Lovely. Maybe it was the micro-brew talking? Maybe it was the nearly near death experience a few days earlier? But for the first time in a long time, it felt really damn good to be a part of the theatre.
For more information, please visit the Minnesota Fringe Festival Website at: www.fringefestival.org

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