Q: How did you get involved with the Hollywood Fringe Festival and what made you want to stick around?

A: I first experienced the awesomeness of Fringe during the Opening Night Party of 2016. I was attending as a guest of the incompararable Bella Luna (Fringe’s Cabaret Director). We had arrived early and through some sort of cosmic alignment I was able to get behind the bar and help out. I found a groove quickly and really enjoyed my time there that night. It turned out to be the first night of several that I was lucky enough to spend at Fringe Central. The people and energy of Fringe are amazing and almost as intoxicating as the drinks. There are no friendships quite like Fringeships and I can’t wait for this year.

Q: Tell us about your experience behind bars.

A: I started bartending shortly after I turned 21. I was looking for a job that allowed me flexibility to continue pursuing acting, so I went through a bartending training course and then got a job at a restaurant. During the few years I worked there, I found I really enjoyed the fast paced, friendly, and dynamic work that is bartending. It was the perfect fit for me. I started working at other types of bars ranging from nightclubs to hotels. I’ve held several positions including bartender, manager, loss prevention, auditing, and menu consulting. I am currently working full time at the Hollywood Pantages theatre, a bar that has been my on again off again home for 11 years.

Q: What are you most excited about your new positiion with the festival?

A: This year as Bar Manager I am excited to be more involved with the sponsored drink program, helping Fringers spread their name throughout the crowd by creating memorable libations that are branded for their shows. I also can’t wait to be a part of the experiences and the parties that bring the incredible people of Fringe back again and again.

Q: If you were a liquor, what would you be and why?

A: That’s a tough question, but I’d like to think I’d be an aged rum: flavorful, fun, and mixes well with a variety of things. Plus I’m part pirate, and more often than not, I am why the rum is gone.

I look forward to seeing last year’s Fringers and meeting all the new ones, so come on down to Fringe Central and grab a drink!

After intense deliberation by our selection committee, we are proud to announce the 2017 Fringe Scholarship winners. Each production reflects Hollywood Fringe’s commitment to expand and diversify the pool of artists producing work at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
 
The Winners of the 2017 Fringe Scholarships are:

• Do You: Migration of the Monarchs
• Blamed: An Established Fiction
• Chatter
• La Casa de Bernarda Alba
• MexiKhan: Growing Up Mexican and Pakistani in America
• Hey Hollywood, My Hustle Has ADHD 
• Secret Identity Crisis
• Supa’Nova
• Unspoken: Shakespeare’s Personae in Peril
• Who You Calling A Bitch?!?

Fringe Scholarships provide each recipient with complimentary festival registration, three performances at a Hollywood Fringe Scholarship venue, a Fringe mentor, and marketing and networking opportunities as a member of the Fringe community.
 
This scholarship is partially funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The expansion of this program is also due in large part to the generosity of the Fringe Scholarship Venues: Complex Theatres, Lounge Theatre, Sacred Fools Theater, Studio/Stage and Theatre Asylum.

For more information visit www.hollywoodfringe.org/scholarships.

Here’s a list of this year’s Award Winners – announced just moments ago at the 2016 Award Ceremony, held at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre! Thank you all for joining us at the ceremony. Congratulations to all the winners!.

Fringe Freaks (Community-Voted Awards)

Top of the Fringe: My Big Fat Blonde Musical

International: MacDeth!

Fringe First (World Premiere): My Big Fat Blonde Musical  

Cabaret & Variety: Angel’s Flight

Comedy: Lamprey: Weekend of Vengeance

Dance & Physical Theatre: Office Beat – A Tap Dance Comedy

Ensemble Theatre: Night Witches

Musicals and Operas: My Big Fat Blonde Musical 

Solo Performance: Still Got It

Sponsored Awards

A Little New Music Award for Outstanding Songwriting: Thug Tunnel

Beyond Bechdel-Wallace Award: Disrupted

Cherry Poppins’ Cherry Picks: Ripest Show: Tilt & Here There Be Dragons

FPI’s Most Wanted Award:  Actors Company, Fountain Theatre, Lounge Theatre, Macha Theatre/Film, Rogue Machine @ MET Theatre, Sacred Fools TheaterStephanie Fuery Studio Theatre, The Hotel Cafe: Second Stage, The New Collective, Theatre Asylum and Underground Theatre

O Face Awards for Orgasmic Achievement: Keight Leighn from “(A)partment 8” (Most orgasmic performance), Will Michaels from “Night Witches” (Most orgasmic writing), “Kitty” Serial Killers – Sacred Fools (Most orgasmic production)

The Duende Distinction: Moving Art Collective: Metamorphosis (for overall production)

The Inkwell Playwright’s Promise Award: Vanessa Espino for “Odilia”

Lumpy-Cramp© Spirit of the Fringe, Never in the Box Award: Wheel of Invention

The Rogue Shakespeare Award for Artistic Excellence: Daniel Llewelyn-Williams for Writing/Acting Excellence in “A Regular Little Houdini” 

The Unleashed Awards: “Porn Rock” (Most Unleashed Show), Jessica Moreno in “All Aboard the Marriage Hearse” (Most Unleashed Performance), Elizabeth Dement in “Porn Rock” (Tracey Collins Funny Girl Award) 

The Encore! Producers Awards: 

Three Clubs: 30:30:60 – A Competitive Birthday Event, 50 Shades of Shakespeare, A Whole Newd World: Cherry Tales at The Knock Shop, Broadway Noir, Live From The Grave…It’s John Belushi!, MADLIB! The Musical, Nilbog: The Unauthorized Musical Parody of Troll 2, Ruby, Human Test Subjects

Actors Company: Amy Snowden’s Confessions from LA to L.A., Charlotte’s Shorts, F—- My Life, Freakout, Girls Together Always, Makin’ A Movie featuring the Mad Jackrats (LPNSImprov), The Gay Guide to, Tinseltown, Thirteen’s Spring, She Got Off the Couch, YOU

Asylum: A Horse With a View, A Regular Little Houdini, American Man Dream, Awkwardly Fabulous, Bin Laden: The One Man Show, BOUND, CRAFTSMAN, Einstein!, Happy Hour, How to Be A Virgin (in 13 morally ambiguous steps), In The Garage, Kill All Politicians, Las Garcia, Night Witches, Occupation, Voices, Bull, Smoke

Complex Theatres: Time Stands Still, The Art of Falling Down, Suicide LIVE, I am Vertical, Cockroach Dialogues, Julianne: Live from LA!, Lolita, Daisy, Ophelia: A Love Story, MacDeth!, Punch and Judy, Slightly Dramatic, Sticky-Fingers Monologues, Tony Danza’s Letterz 2 2pac: an evening with Tony Danza, Washed in the Blood

Lounge Theatre: All Aboard the Marriage Hearse, Aurora and Larry, Bloody Beautiful, Cold Tangerines, Fairytales Against Humanity, Feast of Snacks, MmHmm, Please Stand Clear the Doors Are Closing, SpiritWheel, Strap-On, The Creeps, Uterine Affairs, Whalefail

Sacred Fools: Theatre Thug Tunnel, Office Beat: A Tap Dance Comedy, Alien Vs. Musical, Still Got It, My Big Fat Blonde Musical, Mark Twain Answers All Your Questions!, Tilt, Lamprey: Weekend of Vengeance, All The Best Killers are Librarians, Paul Dooley: Upright and Personal, Up Down Stick Stuck, Thanks a Lot! My Gratitusical, Penny For Your Thoughts, The Princes Charming, Come Fux With Us, Tell Me On A Sunday, Nine Dresses: Sex, Death, Fashion.

• Disrupted
• Las Garcia
• Odilia
• Uterine Affairs
• Yuri Speaks Out 

At the Fringe we are dedicated to providing platforms for unique and underserved artists. We are proud to announce our newest initiative: Fringe Scholarships. We are offering free registration to five participants who meet the scholarship criteria.

We are looking for artists whose festival participation will:

• Increase festival attendance and participation by local Hollywood residents
• Increase arts participation of ethnically diverse and/or low-income artists
• Enrich audience experience through the presentation of unique, underrepresented themes and/or narratives

A special committee will select the recipients. To apply for the Fringe Scholarship, fill out the online application found here by May 11.

This scholarship is partially funded through a grant from the California Community Foundation.