Fringe is a Platform for Creative Experimentation

S1E17 of What the Fringe?!

For fringe artists Jake Mierva and Danylo Loutchko, the partnership that fuels their theatre company began in a rather unconventional, and shall we say, prophetic, setting: a workshop of the second act of a five-act Russian play performed in the style of Polish avant-garde artist Tadeusz Kantor. Both were confused and amused, bonding over the chaos of carrying ladders on stage without understanding why. That experience led to their first collaboration in a one-act festival, which evolved into years of co-creating original work and founding the genre-bending and award-winning, an alleged Theatre Company.

By the end of college, the Minnesota-based duo were producing shows in professional theatres and quickly decided their company should be more than just a showcase for their own humor. They began inviting recurring collaborators into the creative process, not only to diversify the voices shaping each project but to give these artists more ownership in the work. Over time, they “scooped up” fellow performers, stage managers, and directors who shared their sensibilities and could contribute to the development of new pieces.

The Benefits of Fringe

an alleged Theatre Company's path to Fringe was driven by both practicality and artistic curiosity. Fringe festivals are built on lowering the barriers to production: no venue deposits, no pressure to mount a two-hour polished play, and room to take creative risks. The format allowed them to test bold or absurd ideas without committing to a large-scale, high-cost production. Some of alleged's shows have lived only as Fringe experiments, while others have been expanded into full-length works.

Jake & Danylo's hometown Fringe, the Minnesota Fringe, has become both a testing ground and a community hub for an alleged Theatre Company. A place to meet adventurous audiences, see other artists’ unfiltered work, and reaffirm the value of creating the kind of theatre they most want to see. It is where they can experiment, refine, and carry lessons back into their broader season of productions in the Minneapolis area. For Jake and Danylo, the creative process is a mix of structured collaboration, playful risk-taking, and a commitment to making art that matters while still making people laugh.

Genre Defying Work

While an alleged Theatre Company's concepts often lean absurd, they put equal effort into defining a thematic question early in development. Each collaborator writes freely on that question, and common threads guide the deeper structure. Themes like existentialism surface frequently, even under layers of humor. A show about a children’s entertainer unraveling, for example, explored the question: “What do you do after you’ve achieved your dreams and it’s over?”

Ideas for the duo's shows often emerge from offhand jokes or single lines in an improv session, such as “What if a game show was a play?” or “What if audience members threw food at us?” From that seed, they ask how a story could be built around it, considering characters, journeys, and worlds. Sometimes they devise with actors, but often they outline and write together, treating each show like a rapid workshop process.

Improvisation is a recurring element in productions from an alleged Theatre Company. They carefully design audience-interactive moments that allow the crowd work to breathe while giving actors clear ways to return to the scripted material. Casting for such roles often prioritizes improvisational skill over traditional acting experience. For alleged, live performance should take advantage of what only theatre can offer: a direct, unpredictable relationship with the audience. They aim to make the audience a character in the piece, ensuring that the story literally cannot occur without their presence.

Jake & Danylo seek a balance between comedy for its own sake and meaningful storytelling. They want their work to be accessible beyond theatre insiders, rooted in what they themselves would find funny, but with an emotional or philosophical undercurrent.

No doubt, Fringe is a platform for creators like Jake & Danylo. Fringe provides a platform to experiment and "let their feak flags fly." And with the slew of awards garnered over the years at Minnesota Fringe, audiences are ready for anything this company puts on stage.

Listen to Our Interview with Jake & Danylo

This blog post was inspired by S1 E17 of the What the Fringe?! podcast, and was written utilizing AI technology, in conjunction with human oversight and editing.