Jeff Larson, the head of the Minnesota Fringe Festival who served as the company’s executive director for the last three years, will step down from his position in two weeks, according to local paper StarTribune.
Larson has been with the organization for 18 years, and his departure comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by actor and playwright Sean Neely, who wanted to perform a one-man piece called Having Sex With Children in My Brain, in which he would play a convicted pedophile.
According to StarTribune, Neely filed a lawsuit this summer, and Larson declined to say why Neely’s work was rejected. “We’ll be dealing with this case in the court, instead of in the press,” he said.
This year’s festival was held August 4-14; 168 shows were accepted out of 524 applications. The board is planning a search for a replacement, economic development director for the city of Minneapolis and board president David Frank told the Tribune.
For more information on the Minnesota Fringe Festival, visit FringeFestival.org.