If you’ve tweeted @HollywoodFringe, reblogged a Fringe Tumblr post, liked a Hollywood Fringe Facebook update, or participated in the #HFF13 tweet-up, you’ve likely already interacted with me. My name is Rachel and I manage the social channels for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. I’m also the instigator of this new Staff Spotlight series which we’re kicking off today. Every two weeks, we’ll feature a different Hollywood Fringe Staff member and ask them questions about what they do at the festival.

For this spotlight, I’ll answer the most common questions I get about the Hollywood Fringe and social media in this blog post.

How did you end up doing social media for the Hollywood Fringe?

The first year of the festival I had been arranging meetups for local LA fringers prior to the festival in LA and essentially dominating the #HFF10 hashtag and interacting with other participants. For the 2010 Festival, I was named Twitter Mistress because of my incessant tweeting. The second year I was also a participant and helped to promote shows including Voices from Chornobyl. Most fringers from 2010 and 2011 know me mostly from interacting with me on Twitter from my personal account ( @RachelStoll). After two years of being a participant, Ben Hill and Stacy Jones asked me to come on board to help them run social for the 2012 festival.

You don’t have to use Twitter to get a “full” experience just like you don’t have to go to see every show or visit every venue to get the “full” experience. Every fringe experience is unique and complete in itself. A lot of participants are on Twitter and it can be a great way to meet new people. If you do want to connect with other artists prior to the festival I’d highly suggest diving into the #HFF13 community and start tweeting. We’re already beginning to ramp-up for the festival and conversations are already happening.

Why do you host tweetup/What is a tweet-up?

Tweetups are where people from Twitter get together IRL (in real life) to meet and chat and tweet. It’s a great way to put faces to handles. I host them because I think it’s important to meet people offline and for me it is sort of a throwback to my informal tweetups and meetups during the 2010 festival.

What new stuff are you working on for this year’s festival?

More engaging blog content is one of my main objectives for the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival. I feel like the blog has a lot of potential, so you’ll be seeing some cool stuff this year that we haven’t done before. I’ll also be launching Twitter chats this month as a way for participants to connect on certain topics and get questions answered about the festival. These are different from tweetups since they are entirely online and are only an hour.

Also, I’m working on integrating more images and video into everything. And there’s some top secret stuff in the works as well.

Have you thought about [insert social network here]?

Yes, but feel free to suggest anyway. We are really selective about which networks we use because we want them to make sense for the community and the festival.

Happy New Year! Now that 2013 has arrived, it’s time to start preparing for the fourth annual Hollywood Fringe Festival. Registration opens in just over three weeks, so start the adventure and create a project today. This year, we’ve extended the festival an entire week (read more about the new dates here).

We know, we know— June feels awfully far away, doesn’t it? That’s why we’ve decided to put on a party on February 2nd, the first annual Fringe Benefit. And of course, the first of a series of Town Halls is coming your way on January 17th. Read on to learn more!

The Fringe Benefit
We’re happy to announce that we’ll be hosting a new event in 2013, the first annual Fringe Benefit. The affair will occur February 2nd at last year’s Fringe Central Station locale and will serve as both a fundraiser as well as a registration kickoff for the 2013 festival. The event will feature live entertainment, a silent auction and a one-night revival of the Fringe bar. Tickets are $25 at the door, which will open at 7pm sharp (pre-sale tickets are $20). Attendees must be 18 or older. All proceeds will go toward the 2013 festival.

The full lineup of entertainment for the Fringe Benefit will be announced at the festival’s first Town Hall of the season.

2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival Town Hall #1
2013’s first Town Hall will be held on January 17th at 7:00pm at Theatre Asylum. This is the first of three town halls that we’ll be hosting before June and will focus on the registration process and participation in this year’s fest. All ages and levels of experience welcome. Anyone interested in attending should RSVP on the website in order to secure a seat. We’ll also be recording the Town Hall as per usual, so you can check it out here on our blog if you can’t make it that night.

2013 should be an exciting year filled with new developments and an even bigger party, so make sure to follow us on Twitter (@hollywoodfringe or via #hff13) and Facebook, or follow our blog for more updates.

And as always, if you have questions, feel free to email us at [email protected].

Today we were happy to announce that the next Hollywood Fringe Festival will be a week longer than the three previous events. The fourth annual festival will take place June 13th-30th after a week of Previews taking place June 6th-11th. The festival is already one of the largest uncensored performing arts festivals in the country, and we hope that extending the length will expand opportunities for both artists and audience members. Together, we sold 25,000 tickets in 2012, giving back all $200,000 to participating artists and venues. We want to make those numbers even bigger.

Today we also announced the first of a series of Town Halls meant to assist venues, participants and other community members prepare for Hollywood Fringe 2013. The first Town Hall will focus on the Registration process and will be held on January 17th at 7:00pm at Theatre Asylum. Don’t worry, if you can’t attend, you can still learn all sorts of stuff by listening to recordings that will be posted here on the Hollywood Fringe blog.

Feel like Fringe is a long lost memory? It’s not! Registration opens on Feb. 1st, which means this is the perfect time to start whipping up your production ideas for the 2013 festival. Take the first step toward registration and create a project! Read more about the registration process here.

Ben Hill, Festival Director, on the extended festival dates:
“Since 2010, we’ve made it our mission to include all types of artists and arts supporters, adopting a ‘come-one-come-all’ mentality meant to unite us in our endeavors to create. A very special community has emerged, one that encourages and cherishes the work of others. This supportive community is part of the reason our attendance has increased dramatically from year to year. By adding an additional week for Fringe 2013, we hope that we can provide a wider range of entertainment for audiences while also welcoming more producing groups into our already-diverse pool of performing artists.”

Key Dates for 2013:
February 1st- Registration Open
April 1st- Registration Deadline for Guide Inclusion
June 6th-11th- Fringe Previews
June 12th- Fringe Opening Night Gala
June 13th-30th- 4th Annual Hollywood Fringe Festival
June 30th- Fringe Award Ceremony & Closing Night Party

Want more information? Contact the festival at [email protected].

Follow @hollywoodfringe on Twitter (or use the #hff13 hashtag), become a fan of our facebook page, or check us out on tumblr.

Looking for more to artistic opportunities as this summer draws to a close? Our friends at REDCAT are calling for artists to participate in ARTmageddon, an event showcasing our city’s cultural offerings as well as diverting our attention from the upcoming “Carmageddon II” the weekend of September 29.

Here’s the notice we received from REDCAT:

Calling all artists, arts organizations, and venues… Join ARTmageddon!

Are you planning an arts event for Carmageddon weekend? Thinking of holding one? Already have something running or on view September 29 and/or 30?

Very soon the media, city officials, metro, and pretty much everyone else in Los Angeles will all be talking about one thing: Carmageddon II. Let’s unite in response and offer Los Angeles residents an alternative view of what to do on Saturday, September 29 and Sunday, September 30… ARTMAGEDDON.

Running parallel to Carmageddon II, this two-day citywide celebration of the arts encourages Angelenos to stay out of their cars and, instead, walk-bike-metro to their local galleries, theaters, music venues, museums and more. Via www.ARTmageddonLA.com, we are telling your neighbors to experience your art.

Already, we have the support Metro, the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, ForYourArt, LA Stage Alliance, and a growing consortium of community partners; but what we really need now is you. Please contact Camille Schenkkan and Lyn Cowan, artist & organization liaisons, at [email protected] to join this collaborative effort. Participation is free and open to all.

Together we can get everyone talking about “ARTmageddon weekend,” and exploring the great exhibitions, screenings, performances and concerts happening in their neighborhoods. Most recently, the Los Angeles Times joined our effort running this feature about ARTmageddon.

With Carmageddon II only three weeks aways, we hope you’ll get involved and join ARTmageddon today.

- The ARTmageddon Team

Greetings, Fringers-

Thanks to all who joined us at the Post-Mortem Town Hall! A big thanks goes out to all those at the Theatre Asylum for hosting us.

In this Town Hall, we discussed a wide range of topics surrounding the 2012 Festival.

For those of you who missed it, we recorded the proceedings.

Enjoy!

Ben

Still have questions? Email us at [email protected].