Allegra J. Lingo

After first being published at the age of 13, Allegra Lingo promptly forgot she could write until taking a writing class in college, and hasn’t stopped since.  After finishing her BA in English at Kalamazoo College and a year at the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama and Theatrical Studies (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland), she made her way back to Minneapolis and found the Minnesota Fringe Festival.  She has performed in six of the last eight Minnesota Fringes (Spoken Word Fringe 2001, 2003, and 2004) and branched out on her own in solo shows with Hubcap Frisbee (2005), A Heap of Broken Images (2006), and I Hate Kenny G (2007), the latter a critic and audience favorite which won the Fringe Encore Slot at the Playwright’s Center, was chosen as part of the Fringe Invitation by the Actor’s Theatre of Minnesota, and picked as part of the Fringe Encore Series at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.  When she’s not performing her own words, she tours as the sax player for the group Buckets and Tap Shoes, who recently returned from their first Broadway gigs in New York where they were heralded as “little known, but utterly brilliant” by the New York Times.  In her spare time, she is the principal alto sax player for the Minnetonka Concert Band, works as the Audience and Volunteer Services Director for the Minnesota Fringe, and is currently trying to talk her way onto the Amazing Race.  She and her partner Amy live in downtown Minneapolis with their two cats Louisa and Carly and dog James. 

She is a tonic. Even if you don't know her, you will leave the performance feeling like you spent time talking with a good friend. And in the midst of the wonderful madness that is Fringe, this is the kind of pause that really recharges your batteries, and makes you appreciate your own life and blessings just a little bit more than before.   — Matthew Everett, Fringe Blogger