A Letter From The Hollywood Fringe

Dear Fringers,

We would like to start out this letter by recognizing the atrocities being committed against the Black community. This must stop. Hollywood Fringe rejects the inequities and injustices that are upheld by systemic racism. We mourn the lives of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, George Floyd, Riah Milton, Robert Fuller, the 608 LA County Residents whose lives have been lost at the hands of police since 2012, as well as the countless others affected by police brutality in the United States and across the globe. Hollywood Fringe stands with Black Lives Matter.

In order to uplift Black voices and give space to community action, Fringe has paused our planned online June celebration and programming until further notice.

As a staff, we have committed to the following long-term goals to address racial  inequity in our own community:

• Work with our ACCESS committee to assess our organizational practices and processes and identify areas of inequity that need addressing. More on our ACCESS committee’s goals here.
• After each ACCESS committee meeting, our staff will meet to reflect and address the issues.
• We will increase the number of scholarships available to underrepresented artists in our community (this year we have increased to 13, in 2021 we will increase to 15).
• Along with adding workshops that represent BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) voices and expertise within our own community, we will increase our partnerships with BIPOC theatre companies and artists on our current list of creative and producers workshop series.

We are dedicated to working towards the above goals in alignment with our mission statement: to produce an annual, open-access, community-derived event celebrating freedom of expression and collaboration in the performing arts community.

To maintain space to hold these conversations, the Hollywood Fringe will be presenting the following upcoming programs:

Wednesday, June 17 from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm & Wednesday, July 1st from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Virtual Office Hours | Discord/Zoom

During these Virtual Office Hours, we encourage artists to come in ready to discuss the structural inequities in our community. There will be separate breakout sessions to address any issues you have witnessed directly with Fringe staff. If you are unable to attend this meeting, please feel free to email [email protected] with any questions, comments, or concerns you would like to see the Hollywood Fringe staff address.

Saturday, June 27 from 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Listening Session & Roundtable with the Hollywood Fringe ACCESS Committee

An open, brave and receptive discussion organized, moderated and led by the Hollywood Fringe ACCESS committee to identify ways to institute change in the Hollywood Fringe and the LA Theatre community at large. This discussion will be on Zoom, pre-register for a spot here. The chat will also be live-streamed on YouTube.

If you are not able to attend, but have a question, comment or discussion topic suggestion, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/eoqXfG7ZVQ5KU63V6

We look forward to listening to you, our community, and addressing these issues. We are committed to doing better and being stronger together.

Thank you,

The Hollywood Fringe Staff