Don't Nap on Naptown: Applications Close in Five Days!

(Heather Meyer and Danna Sheridan, the masterminds behind Let Me Say This About That. Photo by Amber Bjork)

You might be aware that there are ONLY FIVE MORE DAYS to apply for the Minnesota Fringe festival lottery, but perhaps you'd also like to try your hand at touring a show to some of the friendly Midwest festivals. Indy Fringe runs August 12 - 23 (overlapping us by a few days) and their lottery applications close on the same day. So while we're staring down the barrel of a whole lot of application deadlines, I asked artist Danna Sheridan about her experiences with Indy Fringe!

We're so lucky to have Danna Sheridan as an improviser and actor in the Fringe family, not to mention the Twin Cities community at large. And we're so happy to be friends with the folks at Indy Fringe in Indianapolis, aka the Crossroads of America. It's actually better known by the locals as Naptown (because IndiaNAPoilis), but Indy is anything except a sleepy Midwest town. Danna's not only toured there, she used to live there and was the first person I went to for all the fun stuff both onstage and off.

NOTE: We also spoke with IndyFringe's Executive Director who pointed out several updates to their festival since Danna last participated. For the latest information, be sure to check their Artist Resource website.

Hey friend. Where might MN Fringe patrons know you from?

Hey friend. Let Me Say This About That, 5 First Dates, Truth or Truth (independently produced Fringe show)

What show did you bring to Indy?

Let Me Say This About That with Imaginary Podcast Network co-star Heather Meyer.

I knew that! Ask me how I know! Because I saw it there….or rather, I joined you on stage. Thank you both for that, it was super fun. It’s almost like you know how to tour a show like a pro!

We've been to a number of fringes around the US.

Certified tour-sperienced! I know you’re an Indy native and you’ve been to the festival several times, so what would you say is the Indy Fringe vibe? What kind of shows tend to hit it off there on the regular?

The popular shows can be very Indy-focused. For example, Becoming Rob Johanssen was the show from one of the popular comedy groups the year we were there with Let Me Say This About That. Rob is a local actor who's well-known in Indianapolis. The show had a lot of references to local performers (including me, haha!)

Hell yeah, local boss. How were your house sizes?

Houses were pretty small, but a lot of local restaurants and shops allow flyers, so I would try to bring those to promote the show. And posters!

Solid advice. That’s something that’s true at a lot of Fringes—they allow and encourage posters! (Minneapolis actually has a law against outdoor postering which is why it's never been a MNFringe thang. Experienced touring artists are usually so ready to throw down a big part of their marketing budget to posters that we often have to make a special note to those coming into Minnesota that we're the odd ones out on postering!)

So Danna, for folks that haven’t been there, are there some hot venues to put up some snazzy posters or major areas to concentrate some promos and connections?

The Indy Fringe venues are mostly all on the same long street, so there's a lot of opportunity to walk & talk with other performers and audience members. We also saw some young adults busking. The best part of IndyFringe is that there are so so many restaurants between all the venues - some of my favorites are Chatham Tap and Mass Ave Pub for bar food, Ralston's for cocktails, 45 Degrees for sushi and martinis. There are also cute gift shops like Silver in the City.

Amazing. What else might Minnesota artists find different about Indy Fringe?

Shows don't start exactly on time! As performers, we had to tell our tech when to start each show - they didn't give us any calls (house is open, places, etc). Managing that was all up to us. We even had to find our tech one performance to ask him to start the show. We attended another show that started several minutes early - it had been running long, so the tech decided to start early. I would be prepared to be a lot more self-sufficient.

Also not unusual outside of Minnesota: expect a lot less strict rules and gentle hand-holding. Check. Any other revelations?

When we went, Indy was doing a 3 weekend structure*, so it was hard to see a lot, and harder to see other traveling shows that were there for a different weekend. There were some really incredible shows - Indy has a lot of producers that ONLY produce at the Fringe. Indy has several huge community theaters, and a lot of those actors get involved in Fringe, so I think the acting can be top-tier. Other than that, I think it was good for us to see how different regions might take our show. We did a scene with a queer couple, and the Indy audience seemed very uncomfortable with it. That's not something I would've even thought about in MN.

*Indy has experimented with their festival structure and now runs on an 11-day structure like MN Fringe, overlapping us by a few days in 2026. They have also made changes to be more strict with performance start and end times and note that LGBTQ shows are among their top-sellers each year.

Interesting, and good to know—audiences are a little bit different everywhere for sure, but I'm glad you did your show your way! Speaking of, I know you also took the show to Green Bay (our partner for the Border Buddies lottery). Would you also recommend that festival?

Sure - we loved Green Bay!!

And what about Minnesota Fringe, eh??? EH???? You’re applying, right?

Yes... But I’m still deciding with what!

Well, you’d better get on it, applications close this Sunday, February 15th!  Other than that, what's up next for you, friend????

Two shows at Strike Theater:

• Improvised Love is Blind Feb 19, 20, and 21, as well as
• A romcom genre show on Feb 13 & 27, Mar 13 & 27!

Fantastic as always. Thank you to Danna, my very good friend, my lovely artist, and, incidentally, a kick-ass billet during the festival for such lovely insight to Indy Fringe!

If you’d like to take a trip to the absolutely WONDERFUL city that is Indianapolis and its star-shaped intersections, you’d better get on your application! Indy Fringe overlaps Minnesota by a few days, August 12 – 23. Applications close the same day as ours, February 15th.

Applications for Indy Fringe are open now!

You have 5 more days to apply for the Minnesota Fringe lottery! Get your Fringe on!

Coming Thursday: Touring Regular Tim Mooney's gonna tell us about KC Fringe, whose applications close on Feb. 17!