Final Dress

Michael DallaValle

Actor/Producer
Michael took his first improv class in 2011, and he hasn’t stopped learning and performing since then. He took that first class hoping to control his paralyzing fear of public speaking, not realizing this little improv thing would grow into a passion. Michael studied improv at HUGE Theater, Brave New Workshop, and ComedySportz and has been very lucky to learn from some of the best improvisers in the country. He has performed around the Twin Cities in DillyDallHaus, Glorious Humans, and The Rusty Nails. He was a cast member of the hit show Family Dinner at HUGE Theater from 2012-2016. He is the co-director of the smash, Improvised Love Is Blind. Michael is part of the cast of Sketches of Minnesota, produced by DangerBoat Productions and about to enter its second season. Michael currently teaches and servers as the Education Director at Strike Theater. When Michael isn't improvising, he is likely riding his bike around the Twin Cities, playing a board game, or rubbing his cat's belly.

Sean Dillon

Actor/Producer
Sean is a theater-maker, which is every bit as pretentious as that sounds. He writes, performs, directs, and produces scripted theater and improv. Founder of Oncoming Productions, Co-founder of the Improv Movement Project, Co-director of Off Book, and on the Board of the Twin Cities Horror Festival. His plays The Deep Dark and The Last Bombardment have performed locally, and he’s taken the stage with Theatre Pro Rata, Walking Shadow, History Theatre, The Playwrights Center, Ghoulish Delights, Dangerous Productions, Lincoln Center Institute/Aquila Theater Co in NY, Cape Rep Theatre MA, and in the film The Wackness, and with improv outfits including DillyDallHaus, Star Trek: The Next Improvisation, Attenborough: The Improvised Nature Documentary, and so many others that no longer talk to each other. Fringe audiences may know him from Promiscuous Fiction (2013), Failure: A Love Story (2014), Geminae (2018), Chorus (2019), and the Fringe-Award-Winning Improv Movement Project (2024).

Shanan Custer

Guest Director (July 31, 8:30 PM)
Shanan Custer has been involved with the Fringe since 1997, so it's safe to say that she loves it very much! Shanan is a theater maker--actor, director, writer, improviser--as well as an educator. You can catch Shanan about town with the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society (at Crooners and the Bryant Lake Bowl on the regular) and with Songversations, a storytelling cabaret show that she creates with Rhiannon Fiskradatz. Shanan needs new headshots, but otherwise is just doing her best.

Isabella Dunsieth

Guest Director (August 3, 10:00 PM)
Isabella Dunsieth is a writer, improviser, and actor in the Twin Cities. She has a BFA in Acting from The University of Minnesota/Guthrie Actor Training Program. Since graduating she has been a founding member of the improv groups Latins on Ice and Opera Punks. She is an Associate Artist with the Birth Play Project and a core cast member with the Brave New Workshop. You can currently see her directorial work in the half-improvised and half-scripted show Off-Book at the Jungle Theatre.

John Heimbuch

Guest Director (August 4, 7:00 PM)
John Heimbuch is the Artistic Director of Walking Shadow Theatre Company, and a frequent stage, screen, and immersive director. His original stageplays and adaptations include Mae West and the Trial of Sex, Cabal, A Midwinter Night's Revel, The Three Musketeers, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Drakul, The Transdimensional Couriers Union, Squawk, and William Shakespeare's Land of the Dead. He also performs Charlie Bethel's solo versions of Beowulf and Gilgamesh around the United States. Find him online at walkingshadow.org and johnheimbuch.com.

Mike Fotis

Guest Director (August 8, 5:30 PM)

Duck Washington

Guest Director (August 9, 4:00 PM)
Duck is an actor, director, audio designer, improviser, producer and playwright who has been working as a theatre artist in the Twin Cities for a quarter century. Duck is the Executive Director of the Twin Cities Horror Festival, and is a company member of Blackout Improv, Theatre Pro Rata, The Theater of Public Policy and Vilification Tennis. Duck has been a regular performer in the MN Fringe and you might recognize him from such shows as, My Only Hope for A Hero, Caucasian-Aggressive Pandas and Other Mulatto Tales, Finger Lickin' Good, Family Friendly Pulp Fiction, The Sound of Footloose, or Macbeth the Video Game Remix. Also in this year's festival, Duck is directing and producing Jewelry Power Elite, a one woman show starring Twin Cities comedy legend Lauren Anderson, and is performing as Darthius in Hamluke.