Fangs and Bangs (and Sangs)

Nissa Nordland

Writer/Performer/Producer
Nissa Nordland is an actor, writer, producer, musician and sound designer in the Twin Cities. She is the Artistic Director of Twin Cities Horror Festival; produces new work as Special When Lit; company member of Theatre Pro Rata; member of the Playwright's Cabal; member of the Minnesota Fringe Artist Committee and an alum mainstage cast member/writer of the Brave New Workshop. Nissa also sound designed A Sad Carousel 2: The Timely Death of Herschel Douscheburg, so you should go see that at the Rarig THRUST. Her previous Minnesota Fringe credits include: Finger Lickin' Good (co-writer, producer, chicken ensemble), Xena and Gabrielle Smash the Patriarchy (writer/actor), Stabby Stab Stab (writer/co-producer/actor), The Abortion Chronicles (ensemble writer/actor), Far Away (Actor) and Littler Women (Actor). As an ooey gooey Romantic with a capital "R", she has many favorite love songs, some of which you'll hear in the show, but "In My Life" by the Beatles is one of the most beautiful. If Nissa has a crush on someone she'll buy them lil' gifts and treats "just because", write poetry about them and giggle a lot when they sit next to her. But, though she's shy, she can be surprisingly bold and may ask someone out with a note or by drawing them a cartoon. UPCOMING: Theatre Pro Rata's The Book of Will, September 2025 (Actor); Special When Lit's Familiar at Twin Cities Horror Festival, October 2025 (Writing/performing/producing); 2025-2026 The Mystery Cafe season December-February (Actor); nimbus' Untitled Ada Lovelace Play, March 2026 (Writer); BURY THE LEADS webseries (co-created with Sam Landman) .

Dawn Bentley

Musician
Dawn Bentley is an arts aficionado who has played violin for 40 years in various ensembles from rock bands to professional orchestras with a dozen recordings in her repertoire. Studying under Marilyn Bos, Dawn made her professional debut at 13 as a member of Tutte la Corde ensemble before joining the Mankato Symphony Orchestra, where she played for 7 years. In 1993, she became the 5th member of power-punk band Katzenjammer and eventually co-created local label Snowplow Records with guitarist Andy Woodard and drummer Jamie Kingston. In addition to 25+ years in cover bands and jazz ensembles, Dawn spent 8 years as a member of Atomic Flea and promoting local kindie-rock ensemble The Bazillions. "Fangs and Bangs (and Sangs)" is her Minnesota Fringe Festival stage debut. Dawn is also a member of the Minnesota Fringe year-round staff that connects adventurous artists with adventurous audiences. Upcoming projects: |32nd annual Minnesota Fringe Festival. Your favorite love song: "Everlong" by Foo Fighters. Your crush style: My love language is "Acts of Service" - I'll probably plan an extraordinary day and cook you a gourmet meal.

Keith Hovis

Musician/Fanfiction Reader
Keith is a playwright, composer, and performer. He got his start at the MN Fringe Festival in 2013, and is thrilled to be back. His original musicals have been produced by Park Square Theater, History Theatre, and Freshwater Theatre. He has composed for Special When Lit, Fortune's Fool Theater, and Theater Mu/Mixed Blood. Proud alum and evangelist Twin Cities Horror Fest. Upcoming projects: My original musical Rollicking!: A Saint Paul Winter Carnival Musical, co-written with Rachel Teagle, is premiering this November at the History Theatre. My musical, The Ostentatious Outlaws of Neehai Valley, which is an absurd comedy about religious trauma and queerness, will have a workshop and public reading in February 2025, co-produced by Trademark Theater and Park Square Theatre. Your favorite love song: Complicated by Avril LaVigne and The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields Your crush style: Denial that the crush will be reciprocated followed by intensely awkward flirting once I'm given any signs there's a chance. Also, my love language is obscure musical theater references.

Nicholas Nelson

Musician/Fanfiction Reader
Nicholas Nelson is a Twin Cities-based singer, actor, guitarist, composer and multi-instrumentalist. As an operatic bass he has appeared with Portland Opera, Central City Opera, Tacoma Opera, Minnesota Opera and others. He is a frequent performer with Nimbus Theatre, most recently appearing as Nikon in A Life of Days. Last fall, he played Lincoln in the Fortune's Fool production of Lincoln’s Children. Nick's musical compositions have been featured in the Special When Lit productions The Fae, Incarnate, and the Fringe hit Finger Lickin' Good. Next May he will play Uberto in Pergolesi's opera La Serva Padrona, performing in Arlington and Minneapolis with La Grande Bande. He lives in Woodbury with his wife Ashley, and their sons, Freddie and Bernie. Favorite Love Song? At the moment, Too Shy to Say by Stevie Wonder. Crush style? Connecting over obscure media, much of my first date with Ashley was spent bonding over The Tick.

Sam L. Landman

Musician/Fanfiction Reader
Sam Landman doesn't normally sing or play percussion. That's his excuse & he's sticking by it. He's currently starring in "A Sad Carousel 2: The Timely Death of Herschel Douscheburg" at the Rarig Thrust RIGHT NOW, so get tickets. But this October, a show he's writing about the terrifying behind-the-scenes of a Christian kids' show ("Gospel Gus") will be premiering at the Twin Cities Horror Festival. It'd be hard for him to pick a favorite love song, but it'd probably be something by Tom Waits, so he'll go with "Johnsburg, Illinois" (the Big Time version, not the original). In terms of "crush style," he's gotten his best results when he does absolutely nothing & lets 'em just fall into his lap (which never works).

Amber Bjork

Fanfiction Reader
Amber Bjork has participated in Minnesota Fringe almost every year since 2009 either as a performer or director, most notably with The Winding Sheet Outfit as its Founding Member, directing and appearing almost every TWSO show since its first appearance at MN Fringe in 2012. Her most recent directorial credits around the Twin Cities include "5 x 5" (Transatlantic Love Affair, Fringe 2024), "The Outsider" (Ghoulish Delights), and "By the Bog of Cats" (Theatre Pro Rata), and she was last seen on stage this spring with Transatlantic Love Affair in "Red and The Mother Wild" (Illusion Theater). This October she'll be in the director's chair again with "Terms" (Four Humors Theater) at the Twin Cities Horror Festival. But DURING Fringe, you can see her in the show she directed and helped to create over at the Rarig Thrust: TWSO's The Spirit Moves You to Color the Unseen. Amber's favorite love song is "The Promise" by Tracy Chapman (because her moon is in Pisces). But her crush style is tough love flirting, Janeane Garofalo style, the kind where you can't really decide if she really really likes you or might be making fun of you. But jokes on her because it's both (because her sun is firmly in Gemini) and that's not gonna end well for anybody and everyone goes home confused.

Brettina Davis

Fanfiction Reader
Brettina Davis is an actress, filmmaker, and advocate for neurodiversity and mental health. She recently played Irina Prozorov in Three Sisters at Theater Pro Rata directed by Carin Bratlie Wethern and short films A Night at the Cabin by Donna Mosley and You’ve Been Selected by Lillie Gardner and Megen Musegades will premiere this fall. She has trained at Drama Inc. (GA), Stage Your Change ( MN), and The Freeman Studio (NY.) Brettina actively supports mental health and mental illness awareness and aims to bring those stories to film and theater. Upcoming projects: Non-Zero by M. Murray Favorite love song: I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston Crush style is definitely that 90s heart throb chic or granddaddy attire.

Derek 'Duck' Washington

Fanfiction Reader
Duck Washington is an actor, director, playwright, audio designer and improvisor in the Twin Cities. He is the Executive Director of the Twin Cities Horror Festival, a member of Blackout Improv, Theater Pro Rata, Dangerboat, and Vilification Tennis. Duck also produces shows under the company Rogues Gallery Arts. In the festival Duck is directing Jewelry Power Elite with Lauren Anderson, is playing Darthius in Hamluke and will be a guest "director" for one performance of Final Dress. His favorite love song is Protection by Massive Attack, followed by a bunch of songs by Stevie Wonder. If Duck has a crush on you, he is probably terrified in the corner not telling you about it.

Derek Lee Miller

Fanfiction Reader
This is the 21st year in a row that Derek has performed at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. You might have seen him there with The Winding Sheet Outfit in Blood Nocturne (2018), You Are Cordially Invited to the Life and Death of Edward Lear (2019), Årsgång (2022), or Stabby Stab Stab (2023); with Transatlantic Love Affair in Ballad of the Pale Fisherman (2010), Red Resurrected (2011), Ash Land (2012), These Old Shoes (2013),105 Proof (2015), and last year's 5x5; with Sandbox Theatre in June of Arc (2009) and Marie-Jeanne Valet, Who Defeated la Bete du Gevaudan (2014); with Perpetual Motion Theater Company in the Fringe-famous "show in a pool" The Depth of the Ocean (2006); or in his own solo shows Know Your B-Movie Actors (2016) andThe Banana Wars (2017). Next up, Derek will be taking a brand-new one-man show, Bay Creek, to Green Bay Fringe, Elgin Fringe, and the Twin Cities Horror Festival. His favorite love song is Ben Folds' "The Luckiest", and he is totally unaware of what "crush style" even means, unless it means never, ever letting the object of your fascination know that you feel anything at all for them, because you're deeply terrified of that kind of rejection.

Eric Webster

Fanfiction Reader
Eric Webster: Stage Actor, Voice Actor, Producer, Director, Writer, Playwrite, M.C./Host, Improviser, Teacher, and Radio Personality for stage, radio, television and commercials for 28 years. Co-founder/Co-owner, performer and Playwright for the "Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society" Theater Company and Podcast since 2016. His company, Pickaline Productions, creates original theater productions, theater education programs for schools, and business communication solutions utilizing the discipline and tenets of improvisation. He is also a "Director of Theater Programming" for Centennial High School and Middle School in Circle Pines, Minnesota, and the Creator/Writer and Performer for the original live radio theater adventure series "Shades Brigade", which is in its 12th year and over 150 episodes. 2025 MINNESOTA FRINGE SHOWS: Also performs in A Sad Carousel 2 at the Rarig Thrust. UPCOMING: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society is performing August 16th, October 25th, December 19th and January 3rd at Crooners Supper Club. Performing October 12, 19, 26 at Phipps Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets and show info at "Ghoulishdelights.com". Favorite love song: "This Guy's in Love" Herb Alpert What's your crush style? When I was in Middle School if I had a crush on a girl I used to write a notes to them that said "Will you go with me? Yes / No - check one". No one ever checked "yes". I don't recall how any others started. Other than my wife.

Jonathan Feld

Fanfiction Reader
Jonathan (he/him) is tickled as a pickle to take part in bringing Nissa's teenage angst to you through spoken word! Jonathan works as a performing artist in the Twin Cities with companies such as Open Eye, Lyric Arts, Theatre Pro Rata, Exposed Brick, and SAATH, amongst others. An Iowa native, Jonathan graduated from Simpson College with BAs in theatre arts & psychology. When Jonathan isn’t on stage, he enjoys cooking, gardening, camping, hiking, kayaking, and being outside as much as humanly possible. He would like to thank YOU for supporting the arts! 2025 MINNESOTA FRINGE SHOWS: I'm not in any others, but I highly recommend SAATH's Manasu: Echoes of the Mind and The Winding Sheet Outfit's The Spirit Moves You to Color the Unseen. Favorite love song: "I Remember You" by Skid Row What's your crush style: I just bank on my aloof shyness coming off as enigmatic.

Shanan Custer

Fanfiction Reader
Shanan Custer is a theater maker who has been involved in the Fringe since 1997, so there’s that. At this year's Fringe, Shanan is lucky enough to direct Sam Landman’s “A Sad Carousel 2: The Timely Death of Herschel Douscheburg” (go see it!) as well as being one of the guests in “Final Dress” with Michael Dallavalle and Sean Dillon (go see!) as well as, of course, Nissa’s show (go see it!). This fall, Shanan and Rhiannon Fiskradatz will open the Twin Cities Horror Festival with Songversations: we have been told the veil is thin (go see it!) and directing Ghoulish Delights production of “Witch Hunt” (go see it!). Shanan’s favorite love song is “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” as sung by any of the following: Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Billie Holiday, but not so much Rod Stewart. Shanan never let anyone know that she had a crush on them, oh my god absolutely not, next question. Even that one guy who was in the one-act with her that one year because no, no, no, so there’s that.