THE HOLLYWOOD FRINGE ANNOUNCES
THE OPENING OF FESTIVAL REGISTRATION
to coincide with the launch of the Festival’s website

Hollywood, CA- Registration for the Hollywood Fringe Festival opens November 16, 2009 to coincide with the launch of the festival’s new website at www.hollywoodfringe.org. Registration can be completed on the website by anyone who contracts a venue. There are no restrictions regarding art form, content, length, or ticket pricing for the festival; specifics will be left to participants and venues to determine. Registration is $200 for a project with multiple performances and $125 for participants producing free or single-performance shows. Registration fees pay for a listing in the Fringe Guide, artist services and discounts, online ticket sales, and festival assistance. Registration closes April 1, 2010. The Festival takes place June 17-27, 2010.

THE MODEL
The Hollywood Fringe team has adopted a model similar to Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the first event of this type. In this model, any artist can join if they find a venue and pay the registration fee. This model allows artists and venues to seek out compatible relationships and make decisions about a myriad of production questions (such as ticket price, show length, and artist compensation) independent of a centralized Fringe organization. Says Ben Hill, the Festival Director: “In a city already flourishing with artists, we’d like everyone to participate on their own terms.” The company feels that a system wherein any artist can join promotes entrepreneurship in the arts and helps the festival grow organically.

THE WEBSITE
The Festival’s online presence assists participants with some of the unique challenge facing this model, particularly finding and maintaining relationships with venues. Starting November 16, artists can create pages for potential Fringe projects. These pages can include information about length, content, and venue requirements as well as relevant photos and videos. Venues also have pages that include information on the spaces, open slots, and current state of programming. The Fringe organization is compiling video tours and ground plans for each venue.

Participants can apply to any venue with an open slot; once they are accepted to a venue, they are prompted to pay their festival registration fee. Decisions like ticket pricing and box office splits will be made between the participant and venue. Like a social networking website, both artists and venues can be proactive about communicating with each other and finding a good match. If an artist struggles to find a venue, they still have a forum in which to create and test-drive their projects.

Venues are encouraged to accept local, national, and international artistic projects as well as showcase the work of their resident artistic companies. Aside from artist and venue services, the website will contain information about anything and everything Fringe. Ben Hill, the Festival Director, is also in charge of technology for the festival and the website is his conception. Gavin Worth developed all original artwork for the site.

The first official Fringe venues include: Second City, The Paul G. Gleason Theatre, iO West, Theatre Asylum, Art|Works, The Lounge Theatre, Comedy Sportz, Theatre of NOTE, and the Stella Adler Acting Studio. These venues (with many more in the coming weeks) will begin accepting applications immediately.

ABOUT HOLLYWOOD FRINGE
The Hollywood Fringe Festival is an annual celebration of the emerging arts.

Environments for the Fringe include both traditional and unorthodox venues; fully equipped theatres, street corners, clubs, bars, and places unexpected. Performances are self-produced by local, national, and international arts companies and independent performers. In the spirit of most Fringes, participation is open and uncensored.

The Hollywood Fringe seeks to build an immersive festival worthy of the neighborhood’s reputation. The company is currently establishing partnerships with arts companies, community organizations, and other local businesses in the Hollywood area to host and participate in the festival.

Key Festival Facts
Dates: June 17 – June 27, 2010 (annual)
Artistic Companies: 100 (projected)
Number of Performances: 500 paid (projected)
Location: Hollywood, CA

Participants seeking more information can contact the festival at [email protected] or by visiting the website at www.HollywoodFringe.org.

We are proud to have another Hollywood heavy-hitter join us in the Fringe festivities: Art|Works Theatre & Studios in the heart of Santa Monica’s Theatre Row.

This is one of those ideal Fringe venues: A proper theatrical space perfectly sized for Fringe shows (84+ seats) with a marvelous front lobby, three studio spaces that can easily house fringe shows, and a wonderful lot in the middle – perfect for hosting outdoor events.

Special thanks to Olya Petrakova, the manager of the space and a fervent advocate for the arts in Los Angeles and the world.

Make sure to learn more about Art|Works on their website.

Ben

We happily announce a partnership with Theatre of NOTE – one of the heavy hitters in the Hollywood Theatre scene. NOTE is the seventh venue to join Hollywood Fringe for Festival 2010.

We’ve actually been working with NOTE for a while now and are most pleased to make it official. Ezra Buzzington, board member at NOTE and co-founder of Seattle Fringe and FringeNYC has been advising us for a while now.

Here’s a little more on NOTE from their website…

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Our Mission Statement:

We at Theatre of NOTE are an enduring ensemble of diverse theatre artists in the heart of
Hollywood who inspire, inform, and ignite our audiences by discovering courageous voices and creating entertaining, provocative, and revelatory theatrical works.

Our Values Statement(s):

• Theatre of NOTE stands for an ability and willingness to take artististic risks.

• We find a strong sense of communal self in our generosity, integrity, respect, diversity, and the democracy of our organization.

• We choose plays that illuminate universal truths of emotional honesty, passion, and humanity through theatrical extremes.

• We maintain a safe and professional artistic environment in which we can risk, express,
  learn, and flourish while working in many capacities with fellow visionary theatre artists on challenging premiere theatrical works.

• We treat our company members and guest artists with respect, encouragement, love,
  and support for each other’s artistic growth, vision, and experience.

• We welcome our audiences with enthusiasm, intelligence, and a desire to share the best
  of what NOTE has to offer.

We are most pleased to welcome The Lounge Theatre to the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Lounge is owned and managed by Theatre Planners and its founder and managing director Racquel Lehrman. For those of you looking for help with your theatrical endeavors – marketing, design, printing, producing – make sure to check out their list of services.

This our our sixth venue to join the Fringe and our second on Hollywood’s Theatre Row. It also has the distinct honor of being the closest venue to FringeHQ.

Here’s a little blurb on the Lounge from website:

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The Lounge Theatre is located at 6201 Santa Monica Bld @ El Centro just one block East of Vine. The Lounge is a completely renovated 50 seat theatre. Our space is unique in that we offer a full kitchen and huge Lounge area where guests of the show can network on our comfortable couches in the Lounge while enjoying beverages before or after the theatre show. Call us for more information about rates and availability. Come see what the best on Theatre Row has to offer.

Matthew Quinn and Theatre Asylum were amongst the very first to support us during the planning process. It is the first venue to join from that part of Hollywood’s Santa Monica blvd know as Theatre Row.

Mr. Quinn is a partner with C.A.F.E. Arts and owner/manager of both Theatre Asylum in LA and Off-Market Theatres in San Francisco. He has witnessed first-hand the benefits a Fringe can provide a city’s arts scene. Matthew has been amazingly supportive of our efforts thus far (he is on our advisory board) and we couldn’t be more grateful for his sage counsel and encouragement.

This is a fantastic space (two, actually!); I think it wins my personal honorable mention for “most comfortable seats” in Hollywood. Theatre Asylum is an ongoing host to some of the most interesting and innovative work in comedy. Check out their MySpace for more information on what’s coming up.

This is the fifth Fringe venue to sign for those keeping count. More to come!

Here’s some more information on Theatre Asylum for the curious amongst you:

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This beautiful 72 seat (from Warner Brothers Private Screening Room) Venue is located on Santa Monica Blvd & Vine 0n Theatre Row in Hollywood.

It’s 1900 sq/ft with a 20 × 20 and a full inventory of lights, sound and video. Part of the Elephant Stageworks and originally called Elephant Theater Asylum, we are proud to be part of this thriving artistic community.