Variety Is the Spice of Summer at the St. Louis Fringe Festival
If variety is the spice of life, The St. Louis Fringe Festival is the spice of theater arts. This year’s festival welcomes a wide range of performances, from comedy and improv to music, dance, and musical theater — as well as drama, solo performances, magic, and burlesque. That variety makes the Fringe perfect for checking out a new genre or new work. Most of the shows are original pieces, with many crafted specifically for a Fringe festival setting.
As the festival has grown, president and artistic director Matthew R. Kerns has developed a crowd-pleasing, sustainable format that includes lottery-selected and invited artists as well as a featured headline series. I plan to see about two dozen shows this year, including all the headline series, ensuring I catch at least one show from each of the artist genres: comedy/improv, dance, music, musical theatre, theatre, and performance art.
Headline Series
Dear Evan Hanson, from Debut Theatre, is a heartfelt musical suitable for age 13+ about teens struggling with self-worth and acceptance, performed in an intimate, in-the-round setting. The Doctors, written by Dr. Jarad Schwartz, blends contemporary social commentary with satire, absurdity, and frequent laughter. Late night headline act, Auralie Wilde Presents: A Court of Tits and Rear, celebrates storytelling and burlesque in a fantasy/comedy spectacular that’s sure to elicit gasps, admiration, and applause.
The final headline act is The Wizard of Oz(es) from last year’s Fringemeister (a less formal “best of show” award) Suki Peters and the Cherokee Street Theatre Co. Peters notes that the company, known for its inventive parodies, is participating for a third time because the Fringe is a place that welcomes risk-takers and creative experimentation with few ‘rules’ to hem in the company’s imagination. Last year the company created the bold, participatory romp through teen movie fandom John Hughes Your Own Adventure. This year they head to the Oz multiverse, where things get out-of-control when one Dorothy crashes into another Dorothy, and they team up to rescue a third Dorothy.
As Peters sums it up, “for years we’d been talking about doing a parody of Return to Oz. Last fall, when St. Louis Fringe invited us back as a headliner, I knew I wanted to bring something weird, wild, and full of puppets.
“At some point I thought, ‘Why stop at one Dorothy?’ What if we threw all the Oz worlds into the same universe and just watched the chaos unfold? I pitched the idea to the team, and as we started talking through everyone’s favorite Oz adaptations, we realized something kind of wonderful: No matter which version of Oz you love, they all lead you down the same Yellow Brick Road, where strangers become lifelong friends and help you find your way. That’s a pretty beautiful metaphor for life — and for theatre.” No spoiler alerts here, but come ready for laughter, puppetry, and unexpected twists.
Festival Highlights
After you see the headline series, don’t just head home, it’s time to check out the rest of the festival’s offerings. Except for the headline series, performances are time-limited to one hour or less, ensuring that you can see one to more than 30 shows during the festival run, if you plan your schedule carefully. Among the shows on my must-see list are:
Empty Night, a conversation between a farmer-turned-thief and a Bengal tiger as they seek shelter in the same spot while trying to find food to feed their families. The Goodlucks, an insightful script about the business of theater and film and a powerful Black couple with individual and communal goals and ambitions.
Henchman, in 1603, two executioners for the Crown find their lives thrown into turmoil and uncertainty as they wait for the fight over the throne of England to resolve after the death of the monarch.
Prom Queen, a solo performance about a closeted transmasculine teen trying to find a comfortable spot between rebellion and obedience in the halls of a Catholic high school.
Pink Shirt, a coming-of-age story about a boy embracing his masculinity and femininity and discovering that he doesn’t have to fit anyone else’s definition of what a boy should be.
In the Moment, a new play about two contestants on a reality-style dating show set in a treehouse in rural Canada who discover there’s been a global catastrophe they must survive.
I’ll also be checking out comedy, and a little magic, at the Fringe. Nick Freed presents Glass Elevator: Live!, marking the second company appearance (in addition to being a co-producer for Contraband Theatre’s Bawdalogs last year). The sketch-comedy show covers a variety of hot topics — the kind that leave you thinking “Wait … What?” — with humor and insight to help you forget the constant crisis of the real world, if only for an hour. The show, directed by Freed and Summer Baer, started when they were working on a different play together and feeling a bit world weary. They wanted to “create something silly and funny and stupid and insubordinate to counteract the onslaught of negativity and division,” Freed explains. “What came out is our take on Capitalism, technology, consumerism, misogyny, and fascism … but funny! The format of a sketch show gave us the opportunity to work through and exercise our fears, angers, and demons on a wide range of topics affecting all of us every day.”
I plan to catch This Is Casually Happening: Women in Comedy curated by the very funny Molly Amburgey; I’ve been following her for years because of Fringe. Magic Synapses, by James Higround, is another must-see, even if magic isn’t commonly your thing. Higround weaves positivity and potential throughout his act, encouraging audiences to discover the magic they already possess. I’m also intrigued and planning to check out Nerves, a story about heartbreak, pain, and things left unsaid that incorporates scripted content with an audience-influenced, improvised conclusion; King John, an internationally touring one-person Shakespeare adaptation that looks at the abuse of power; and The Trivia Guy, about a trivia champion facing marriage and the one question he can’t answer.
The summer heats up with art as the 2026 St. Louis Fringe Festival takes over Grand Center from August 4–9, and you can find show descriptions, locations, and ticket links on the St. Louis Fringe website. Check out the offerings, pick a ticket plan, and spend a day, or two, at the festival. There’s a 30-minute break between curtain times for most shows, and the performance locations are generally within walking distance, leaving you time to pick up a snack or beverage from one of the nearby coffee shops and restaurants. There’s nothing quite like the Fringe for sampling a variety of art and performance.
