‘We don’t survive unless we have a sense of humor’ — Four LGBTQ+ Productions to see at Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025

From an improvised sapphic game show to a high-energy musical about death starring children, these LGBTQ+ Fringe productions showcase the nuances of queer joy with humor and heart

At the time of publication, there are only about six weeks until the 32nd Minnesota Fringe Festival, the largest performing arts festival in the Midwest.

From July 31 to August 10, 99 total shows will be performed on stages across the Cities in a collective celebration of fringe theatre, or theatre produced outside of major institutions that often employs non-traditional styles and subject matter.

Minnesota Fringe executive director Dawn Bentley says the festival is “the fertile ground where new and experimental theatre can be developed.”

The festival showcases new and unique queer productions every year, something Bentley says is important now more than ever.

“People in positions of power are trying to make [queer people] disappear,” she says. “Now more than ever, I want them to know that they are safe, and that they won’t disappear to us.”

Even as LGBTQ+ rights are being eroded, artists in this year’s Fringe Festival recognize the importance of showcasing queer joy and, in classic Fringe fashion, they are doing so in unexpected and exciting ways.

Lavender spoke with the production teams of four LGBTQ+-led shows in this year’s Fringe, must-sees in the making that are just a taste of what the festival has to offer.

To stay up-to-date about this year’s Fringe Festival, follow @mnfringe on Instagram or sign up for their newsletter at minnesotafringe.org.

“Joan of Arc for Miss Teen Queen USA” — Melancholics Anonymous

Seven-time Fringers Melancholics Anonymous play with gender and dabble in blasphemy (as any good queer creative should) by transporting Joan of Arc, 14th century martyr and patron saint of France, to rural South Dakota with a new mission from God: win Miss Teen Queen USA.

Inspired by movies like “Miss Congeniality,” co-writers Rachel Ropella and Timothy Kelly say “Joan of Arc” asks what it means to be an outsider in rural America.

“We really wanted to make a piece that centers those who maybe feel like they’re about to be set on fire, but can find community through unlikely ways,” Ropella says.

And if that synopsis doesn’t pique your interest, there will be plate spinning and a show-stopping holy goose puppet, too.

Melancholics made a splash at last year’s Fringe with “Beanie Baby Divorce Play,” in which Kelly performed in drag as the Princess Diana bear.

“Fringe feels like home,” he says. “It’s a great community of grassroots artists.”

Overall, Kelly and Ropella say they hope “Joan of Arc” audiences feel joy, even just for the hour the show lasts.

“Joan of Arc” will be performed at the Rarig Center Stoll Thrust Theatre.

“Cabin Fever” — Small Waves

In another reinterpretation of pop culture, partnered playwrights Naomi Brecht and Mikela Anderson have teamed up with Minneapolis-based company Small Waves to put on “Cabin Fever,” a sapphic reality game show set in the Minnesota Northwoods akin to “The Ultimatum: Queer Love.”

Hosted by drag queen Buttercream, the performance is of the show’s season finale, with contestants vying for the bachelorette’s hand and the “key to the U-Haul.”

Besides scripted beats, the show will be completely improvised and even influenced by the audience, so no two performances will be alike.

“We’re putting a bunch of our gay friends on stage and seeing what happens,” says Small Waves co-owner Della Christ.

Christ’s wife and Small Waves co-owner Katie Christ explains the connections between theatre, reality TV and sapphic culture as key to their inspiration.

“Confessionals in reality TV shows are like the modern soliloquy,” she says. “Also, in both reality TV and sapphic culture, you have these archetypes of character: the U-Haul lesbian, the lipstick lesbian, the Hey Mama’s. I’ve been telling people this show is kind of secret nerdy.”

The four say the show will exemplify queer joy as resistance and poke fun at the messy lesbians they all know and love.

“Death! A Musical” — Twin Cities Youth Theatre

Perhaps ironically, “Death! A Musical,” a high-energy exploration of the end of life, was co-written and directed by a 13-year-old and will be played entirely by kids.

Gabriel Shen, a seventh grader at The Blake School in Minneapolis and artistic director of Twin Cities Youth Theatre, says their desire to write a musical came first, but then they couldn’t stop thinking about death.

“People don’t really talk or think about death, especially kids, which makes it interesting that kids are doing everything,” Shen says. “I think a musical is a good way to show that death isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

The story follows Alana Hemming, who dies and journeys through the afterlife to complete tasks in order to come back to life.

Shen describes MN Fringe, and theatre in general, as a welcoming community for queer youth, including the more than one-third of the “Death!” cast they say identifies as LGBTQ+.

“It shows that youth, especially queer youth, are capable. They have opinions, they want to help the world. Hopefully, it’s an empowering musical for youth,” they say.

“Journey to Joy, Again” — Marie Cooney Stories

After recovering from two traumatic brain injuries, storyteller Marie Cooney says she proclaimed at a family reunion, “Coming out as a lesbian was easier than coming out with having a disability!”

Her family laughed, but as Cooney’s one-woman Fringe show “Journey to Joy, Again,” will show, it’s a true statement for her.

“The show will explore what it meant for me to be a very outgoing, capable person who suddenly wasn’t anymore,” she says.

Cooney says that despite appearing able-bodied, she is very sensitive to bright lights and always wears a visor or dark glasses. She says she also struggles with losing her words, forgetting names and finding her way home.

“People didn’t understand what had changed,” an experience she says is similar to passing as straight as a queer person.

After years of recovery, Cooney says she finally feels capable of doing a full-hour performance relying on an outline of her story that she can adapt to with each in-depth, highly personal performance.

“I feel like I’ve arrived. I am whole again,” she says.

Cooney also used her experiences with her injuries to push for accommodations at Fringe for other people with invisible disabilities, such as providing a warning before each show that contains “strobe-like lights,” not just strobes.

While “Journey to Joy” will be emotional and vulnerable, Cooney says humor is still instrumental in conveying the story’s key theme of hope.

“We don’t survive unless we have a sense of humor,” she says.