for everyone

About the Company

The company behind the Hollywood Fringe Festival was founded in January 2005 with a singular mission: Produce new and provocative works by undiscovered artists for benefit of the community.

Our inaugural production was The Hatchery Festival in Washington DC. Its mission to introduce new works was widely received as a critical injection of vigor into the community’s literary culture. The playwrights underwent an extensive dramaturgical workshop process to improve their plays, and prepare them for production. In recognition of our efforts towards community enrichment, we were awarded a grant from the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities.

In a project spreading across two months, we partnered with the 2006 Iowa City Jazz Festival and the Iowa City Arts Festival, as well as several local businesses. Utilizing classical methods of bringing theatre to the uninitiated, we sought out non-traditional performance spaces in local neighborhoods.

We recently co-produced ARTBASH with Need Theater, an immersive party exploring economic disparity in the 1920s and today. The event was a great success, bringing hundreds of patrons to the A+D Museum on Wilshire to enjoy performances from over 100 artists including dancers, musicians, theatre troupes, and more.

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Ben Hill (executive director) has over 15 years of experience in the arts. Recent presenting credits include ARTBASH at the A+D Museum in Los Angeles, a celebration of an immersive party exploring economic disparity in the 1920s and today. He founded and produced The Hatchery Festival in Washington DC a showcase of new plays from emerging playwrights; he oversaw the festival’s operations in 2005 and 2006. He is founder and CEO of Revolutions Workshop, a web development firm dedicated to bridging the gap between the Internet and the arts. He sits on the board of directors for the Rorschach Theatre in Washington DC. Ben is a senior project manager at mega-concert promoter Live Nation. He lives in Hollywood,CA.

Dave McKeever (producing director) has worked in theatres around the U.S. in a variety of capacities, most often as a composer/sound designer. His design work for the Potomac Theatre Festival was honored with a 2003 Helen Hayes Award Nomination. He co-produced The Hatchery Festival, a new play festival in Washington D.C., in 2005 and 2006. Since 2006, he has served as the Production Manager for a national touring trade show, appearing in 20 cities twice a year. He was the Production Manager for The Potomac Theatre Festival in 2001 and 2002. His current work in Los Angeles includes composing for film/television, sound editing and freelance work in sound, lighting and camera departments, in addition to his work as Producing Director of The Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Kanchan Mattoo (development director) currently works as a political consultant in Los Angeles. He is a City Commissioner on the Los Angeles Convention Center and Exhibition Authority and previously served as Deputy District Director to former Assemblymember Lloyd Levine. Kanchan also participated in creating the landmark legislation that implemented the nation’s first state wide plastic bag recycling program. Before joining the world of politics, Kanchan worked in the film industry on such films as ALONG CAME POLLY, STARSKY AND HUTCH, and DODGEBALL. He has a Master’s Degree from the University of California, Irvine and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.

Ken Peterson (visibility director) has been producing in Los Angeles for the past three years. He received his BA from New Mexico State University and his MFA from University of Iowa. Past producing credits include The Commedia Project- celebrating the classic Italian art form from festivals in Iowa City to the streets of Hollywood, The Wind-up- a variety hour that banded artists and audiences across Los Angeles, The Fringers- a series about the complexities of what it means to be an artist in today’s world, and the Hollywood Fringe- coming to southern California in June 2010.

Gavin Worth (art director) is an award winning artist whose wire sculpture and spray-painted paintings have been shown across the nation. He was born in Zimbabwe, Africa and grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Gavin has done such varied work as building a life-size replica of a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton for the American Southwest Theater Company, creating illustrations for George Ronald Publishers in London, and set design and scene painting for the Santa Fe Opera.

Stacy Jones (publicity director) received her B.A. in English and Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa. Her favorite roles there were in new works by Sarah Sander, Michael Hayden, and Sean Lewis. She co-directed, produced, and starred in David’s Redhaired Death (Sherry Kramer) in 2006. Later that year, she shot the short film Target Practice with Hatchery Arts. In 2007, she had an award-winning role in Bobby Brandenberg’s short film Momentum, and soon after moved to Los Angeles to start a Fringe Festival. She continues to pursue acting, writing, and producing new work.

Bryan Burgess (sales director) left the mortgage industry at the height of it’s “bubble” in search of something greater. After finding it in the theatre, he founded numerous companies and toured the American fringe circuit extensively with the critically acclaimed stage combat ensemble “Aggravated Assault.” Well known in the Hollywood improv circut, he performs reguraly at IOwest and is a orginal member of the championship winning group “Brontosaurus” Currently, he lives in Hollywood, CA, produces independent
films and works on Hollywood Fringe.

Nick Hill (fringe central manager) recently moved to L.A. from Chicago, where he worked as an actor for several theater companies such as The Work Group, Jackelope Theater Company, The Broken Compass and others. He was a founding member of the comedy troupe The Sean Miller Explosion. He also performed with the comedy troupe The Gentlemen Callers. Before Chicago Nick worked as an actor in Washington D.C. as well as New York City, where he worked with the Vital Theater, Two distinct Motions Theater Company, Guerrilla Theater, and the Washington Stage Guild, among others.

Alexa Hanrahan (support director) As an avid supporter of all things art, Alexa is delighted to be a part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival! A recent transplant to LA’s sunny streets, she spent the last six years studying and performing theatre in Chicago. She graduated with a BFA in acting from Columbia College in 2006, and had been involved with various theaters and companies throughout the Windy City prior to her move. She is passionate about human and animal rights, her three cats, and doing her part to make Hollywood Fringe the place to be in 2010.

Ezra Buzzington (advisory board) has over thirty films and television shows to his credit as both an actor and a director. His background in the theatre is familial and extensive. His grandfather (and namesake) was a popular vaudevillian bandleader/comic and his mother was a drama teacher and actor in the midwest. Born Jonathan Harris, he took his grandfather’s stage name when he crossed over into film. He is the founder of the Seattle Fringe Festival (the first fringe festival in the United States) and co-founder of FringeNYC, the largest fringe festival in the United States. He is a member of Theatre of NOTE and sits on the Board of Directors.

Matthew Quinn (advisory board) is artistic director of Theatre Asylum in Hollywood. Along with over twenty years of entertainment experience including acting, directing and producing, Matthew has over fifteen years of business experience. With a BS from New York University he worked several years in the high paced stock option market for companies including Group One Ltd where he worked at all facets of the company. He brings this wide range of business skills to the artistic community where he has used them to help create and manage performance spaces, served on several Non Profit Boards was Co-Chairman for the Nomad Theaters Task Force am a current member of Theater Bay Area’s Services Committee (TSC). He has worked for Asian American Theater, Custom Made Theater, Magic Theater, Cutting Ball Theater and other leading Bay Area Theater companies. At Off Market Theater he managed over twenty thousand feet of office, rehearsal, concession and performance space in addition to producing or co-producing over seventy-five productions working with over thirty different producers and companies.

John Burton (advisory board) is a former production team member of the Orlando Fringe Festival. He’s a visual and theatre artist, specializing in set, prop and puppet design. He’s sculpted corn mazes for The Amazing Maize Maze, engineered 6’ tall pop-up books at Walt Disney Concert Hall for the L.A. Philharmonic, and installed his life-size copper wire alligators at the Weiland Brewery downtown. By day, he’s Corporate Sales Director for ComedySportz Los Angeles.

Robin Conrad (advisory board) is a dancer, choreographer and educator based in Los Angeles. She holds a BA in Dance from UC Irvine and an MFA in Dance from CalArts. She recently completed work as the choreographer on Sofia Coppola’s new film, Somewhere In the past five years she choreographed a White Stripes video directed by Sofia Coppola for which she taught supermodel Kate Moss to dance. For her work on the project, Robin was mentioned in British Vogue and noted as a member of Coppola’s “smart mob” in The New York Times Magazine. She also choreographed a number of commercials for British and American television, a video for the rock group Scissor Sisters, and a dance sequence for the NBC drama Heist. In 2005 she worked on a series of dance images with world-renowned photographer, Philip Lorca diCorcia that were critically acclaimed and appeared in galleries worldwide. Her choreography was featured at the RedCat Theater and was nominated in 2006 for two prestigious Horton Awards. Her work has been performed at numerous venues in Los Angeles including: The Palace Theater; Highways Performance Space; The Electric Lodge; The Comedy Store; The Argyle Hotel and the Silverlake rock club, Spaceland. Robin is on full-time faculty with the Fullerton College Dance Department. She also worked as a graduate instructor at CalArts, a guest choreographer at L.A. Valley College and a guest lecturer at University of California, Irvine.

Holly Payton (advisory board) is the founder and director of the World Festival Network (WFN), the nerve centre of all things festival bringing together festivals globally and all who are involved in them. She has worked in the festival business since 2001 managing the Brighton Fringe; and has been a Venue Director at Edinburgh Fringe and the Venue and Performers Manager at Edinburgh Fringe. Holly has visited and worked for many International Festivals and played an integral part in bringing Brighton Fringe from a company with a £57k in ‘03 to a £270k turnover in ’08. Holly is now on the Brighton Fringe Board of Directors, Steering committee of Oxford Fringe and a member of IFEA, BAFA and have strong links with CAFF. She has traveled around the world talking about the WFN and spreading the word virally. She has given festival advice to new Fringe festivals in the UK, Hawaii and Athens. Holly has strong links with many international Festivals and know the managers of many, particularly in America, Canada, Europe and Australia. The idea of the WFN came from an in-depth knowledge of how festivals work, changing trends and who is doing what and where. She is a source of knowledge for festivals but also performers and wants to gain more contacts and ideas and share them with the world.

Terence McFarland (advisory board) is Executive Director of LA Stage Alliance, greater Los Angeles’ largest performing arts service organization, dedicated to building awareness, appreciation and support for the performing arts in Greater Los Angeles. He holds both an MFA and a BFA from California Institute of the Arts, an Associates Degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and certificates from Polimoda in Florence, Italy and the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders – Arts from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a director, producer and performer having performed in Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck at UCLA Live and directed site-specific spectacle based work throughout Los Angeles including a week of plays in Suzan Lori Park’s 365 Days/365 Plays 2007 festival, 100 YEARS OF ARTISTS AT WORK, presented by the National Association of Artists Organizations (NAAO) at REDCAT in 2007, the 2005 NOW Festival at REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grow commissioned by Heidi Carlsen for Highways Performance Space in 2007 and the former EviDence Room space (now Bootleg Theater). He has performed in works created by Janie Geiser, Kitty McNamee, Susan Simpson and Ken Jacobs. He was a founding member of the TENT Theater Collective and a former member of BurningWheel. He devised movement for Jean Genet’s The Maids directed by Katherine Noon of Ghost Road at LMU. His film work has been presented in many international film festivals including Outfest and MIX/NYC. He was the original voice of Rick in Rick and Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World. He has trained with Ryan Heffington, Kitty McNamee, Anne Bogart/SITI Company, Augusto Boal, Song of the Goat, Travis Preston, Janie Geiser, Wendell Beavers, Mary Overlie and Jennifer Miller/Circus Amok. Additionally, he has guest lectured at CalArts, UCLA, USC, LMU and Occidental College.

Jay Lopez (board of directors) is an event producer and coordinator whose recent credits include Beyond Eden, a new contemporary art fair, East of Eden, a multi-gallery exhibition and art fair at the Los Angeles Municipal Gallery, CA Boom Design Show held this year at the former Robinsons department store in Beverly Hills, The East Hollywood ArtCycle Street Festival and The Silver Lake & East Hollywood Day of the Dead Festival. He is an active member of both the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council Arts & Culture Committee and The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Arts & Culture Committee, as well as the Silver Lake Gallery Alliance. Jay serves on the board of the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee as the Education/Outreach council chair. Jay’s background is in Real Estate and has been in the industry since 1991. He has taught Real Estate Practices, Real Estate Principles, Mortgage Loan Brokering and Real Estate Financing at East Los Angeles College. He is currently gallery director at drkrm.gallery and Junc Gallery.

Stacy McKee (board of directors) is an Emmy Award Nominated writer and producer on ABC’s hit show GREY’S ANATOMY. Along with the show, Stacy received a Writer’s Guild Award for Best New Series in 2006 and she has been with the show ever since. Before Grey’s, Stacy worked on several other ABC shows. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from Emerson College and her Bachelors degree in studio art from Skidmore College.

Jordan Jones (board of directors) was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jordan moved to Denver Colorado where he received a BA in Communications from Regis University. After his schooling he spent several years traveling in third world countries working for and helping to grow several non-profit organizations in different countries. Upon returning to The States Jordan moved to Hollywood where he became involved with the family business, Musso & Frank Grill, the Oldest Restaurant in Hollywood. As a fourth generation co-owner Jordan has made sure to be very much involved not only in the business but in the community in which it serves. He sits on several community committees in the Hollywood area and is a true supporter of what the neighborhood has to offer and of “the art scene” in Los Angeles.

John Mitchell (board of directors) has been a producer and director for over twenty years, having produced and directed literally hundreds of shows in Northern and Southern California. John’s first professional experience in theater was as the Assistant to California Music Theaterss Producing Director in Sacramento. This was followed by a stint as the youngest box office treasurer in the history of Sacramento Theater Company. His original musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol played for more than five years in various theaters in Sacramento. He served as Marketing Director for the Lambda Players, was Artistic Director and Founder of Miracle Productions, Ltd., and served as Production Stage Manager for Shakespeare in the Park, Sacramento. Most recently, John worked for three seasons as Producing Director of Sacred Fools Theater in Hollywood, where he produced, among other shows, the World Premiere of the Penn Jillette and Stephen Banks comedy Love Tapes. John produced the original musical BUKOWSICAL! (2006-2008) at the Tricklock Theatre Revolutions Festival (Albuquerque, New Mexico), in Los Angeles and at the New York International Fringe Festival. This was followed by directing and producing the one woman show Now That She’s Gone both in Los Angeles and at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival. Delighted to be a part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, John believes that it is time for the city he calls home to be a player in the presentation of world class theatre entertainment. John is currently a partner is EMP Theatricals, LLC in New York and is the Director of Sales at Entertainment Lighting Services in Sun Valley, CA.

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