Fringe family, 

I want to be open and honest with you, not just as Operations Director of this arts festival but as a fellow human. I am going to ask you to give, and the only way I know how to do that is to give something to you in return. So I will give you a piece of my heart and the reason the Artist Fund is important to me. 

It’s an arduous task to ask for anything these days and I have realized that’s because I am finding it difficult to give more of myself. I, like many of you, am struggling to put my life back together post quarantine.  Too often I find the pieces just don’t fit the way they used to; they have changed shape, been broken, been duct-taped back together, or lost entirely. 

When my life has been broken in the past, I have turned to the arts. Theatre has always picked me back up, or at the very least, kept me above water. It has been my therapy, my mode of transportation, my education, and my community. Theatre became my safe place before I was old enough to know I needed one. I need theatre to move forward. Maybe you do, too?  

Collectively we need to challenge thoughts, seek to understand, heal, and dream what this world will look like in the future. We need to examine the past, learn from it, and grow. We need to laugh. We need to weep. We need art to inspire us to take the scattered puzzle pieces of our lives and create something new, something better, something worthy of our struggle. 

The artists who receive the Artist Fund stipends will tell the story that someone needs to hear, or the story that makes someone feel heard. You might be that person. I might be that person. 

So I am here to advocate for the stories that must be told and must be heard, and the effect every artist coming to #HFF21 will have on our community. I am personally donating to this fund, not because I can afford to, but because I can’t afford not to. 

Thank you for being a part of this community. Thank you for showing up and sharing your talent, your story, and your spirit with this festival. You, as an individual, are a vital contributor to the Hollywood Fringe. Our festival is merely a platform for the many voices that show up each year. 

So please, give so that you might heal so that you might help someone heal so that we can all move forward. 

Humbly Yours, 

Lois 

Hi there! I’m Stina, longtime Fringe volunteer, participant, and staff person.

It will come as no surprise to some of you to hear my husband and I are very frugal. This is by choice and by necessity. Since moving to Los Angeles nearly 11 years ago, we’ve had many underemployed years, yet we haven’t wanted to sacrifice our creative desires to full-time employment that would leave us less available to pursue our art, or, in more recent years, to be with our three and a half year old kiddo. Art is why we moved to Los Angeles—my husband is an actor and I’m a writer. 

So we’ve gotten by on part-time and freelance work, a few well-paying acting gigs for my husband, and some luck with investments. But we rarely go out to eat, we don’t own a car, we don’t go to movies, we don’t go out for drinks, etc. Not being able to do those things due to COVID wasn’t a huge shift for us. 

I say all this because I want you to know that it wasn’t a light decision for us to donate $175, the cost of one show registration, to Fringe. We’re doing it because we know what it is to struggle in Los Angeles and yet be fueled by the desire to share your art—to create, to collaborate. We’re doing it because we want to make it that much easier for another artist to share themselves with the world. We’re doing it because we believe that theatre and storytelling can change the world for the better.

The festival goal is $7,250, enough money to give out 10 stipends, but the more we raise, the more stories we get to hear and the more the world can change. I know that sounds lofty, and it is. It’s what I want to do with my life—change the world for the better. I don’t always know how, but I’m confident that theatre and storytelling is part of it, so I’m happy to put my money towards that. I hope you will be too. 

Yours in the work,

Stina Pederson

Hollywood Fringe Audience Services/Volunteer Director

Hi y’all, Fringe Programs Director Ellen here.

I would like to take a moment of your time to talk to you about our community, something that has been extremely important to me over the last 5 years.

I’ve been pondering the words “Why Fringe?” since we began the journey into the unknown of online theatre last March.

And the truth is I was wondering: where was Fringe’s place in it? Where does “office hours” or “community building” fit in an online space? Considering the burnout we were all (and still are) experiencing, how could we rely on each other in the same ways?

And why was it so important for us at FRINGE to figure it out?

I know our staff and board members were puzzled when figuring out next steps for 2021, and honestly so was I. How would we ask our community to come back for something that was so unpredictable?

In preparation for this year’s Fringe, I really wanted to figure out how we could support artists. How could we ensure their financial ability to participate when we were barely scraping by to add back staff members ourselves? 

And while I was considering this, I just kept asking the question “why fringe?” 

And then it came to me. 

Because Fringe is a space unlike any other. Even though I’ve consistently held a full-time workload outside of the organization since I started in 2016, Fringe is the first place I mention when people ask what I do for work. It’s the first thing I talk about when people ask what I’m passionate about. 

I’m passionate about our community, because it’s unlike any other. Fringe is special because it’s built by people, for people. 

It’s built by artists and venue owners, theatre patrons and arts supporters, coffee shop owners and restaurateurs.  It’s all of these components to the whole that make this the most incredible community— and create a world that I want to live in. For one month every summer, life feels like pure joy. It feels like the world is going to be okay, because artists will make it so!

The members of this community support each other in a way I’ve never seen before. I’ve seen someone literally cast a friend at Fringe Central an hour before their preview show due to a family emergency. I’ve seen countless people volunteer for each other’s shows, and give freely of their time and money and energy.

Even in an online space, I knew these feelings wouldn’t go away. And they didn’t, because I was hanging out with my friends.

Friends, colleagues, mentors, artists… family. These are the words I use to describe you, my friends at the Hollywood Fringe. I call you my family.

And when your family is hurting, you step up. 

You give. 

And I’m asking you to give. Just like you do during Fringe.

Not a lot. Just a little. So that our artists can continue in 2021 with the financial security of an artist stipend.

If each person reading this newsletter gave just $5, the Fringe could give out over 200 stipends to artists. The cost of a latte can help the return to our theatres go smoothly, and with minimal financial risk for our artists.

So I’m asking you to become a part of the power of Fringe— the power of community. 

Join us today.

Ellen Boudreau Den Herder
Hollywood Fringe Programs Director

The Hollywood Fringe would like to congratulate the 15 members of the 2021 Fringe Scholarship Program.
After numerous conversations and intense deliberation by our selection committee, faced with an incredibly difficult choice over many qualified applications for this award, we are proud to announce the 2021 Fringe Scholarship winners.

The Winners of the 2021 Fringe Scholarships are:

• 1.5 Korean
• Caught in the Mix
• Cheater
• Diary of a Crackhead
• Estrawbery Fields Forever
• Happily Ever After
• JUNK GIRLS
• Justice? Or…Just Me?: The Bite
• The Dean’s Office
• The Ivory Thread
• The Winner
• TransSetter
• VERSATILE: stories from inside the closet of a half black gay man
• Vice
• Welcome to the Vantage Point, presented by Company of Angels
  

There were additionally four applicants that struck the heart of our committee, and have received honorable mentions: Innocence, Inequity, and Injustice: Ft. 21 Chump St., Late Nite Daze and Margaret Garner solo show.

As an open-access festival, we seek to foster a ground-breaking community of artists and make performances more accessible, both to the artists who produce them and for those who otherwise cannot afford to see theatre. Our committee firmly believes that these productions will enrich audience experience and the quality of the Hollywood Fringe Festival’s artistic offerings through the presentation of unique and underrepresented themes.

Each scholarship recipient will receive free registration and a $550 stipend towards production costs, a Fringe mentor, and marketing and networking opportunities as a member of the Fringe community. Fringe Scholarships are available to first-time Hollywood Fringe producers who contribute to the ethnic, cultural, racial, intellectually or physically disabled, D/deaf, and the LGBTQ+ diversity of the Fringe community.

Dearest Fringers,

We are thrilled to introduce our first-ever HFF Artist Fund: raised by the community, for the community.

We know that artists have been hit hard financially over the course of the pandemic and we want to help. To help offset costs of producing at the Fringe, this year we have replaced our annual festival fundraiser with a campaign that directly benefits you. 

The raised funds will be given out in $725 stipends by lottery to artists who apply. The more money raised, the more productions will be funded. The only requirements are that the applicant is local to Los Angeles County and that they perform at an official HFF venue in the 2021 Hollywood Fringe Festival. 

With this fundraiser, we believe we can create a pathway for more artists to participate—even with all the challenges we’re still facing from COVID-19. Offsetting the cost for our producers has been a key factor in our planning this year, including this campaign.

A truly important part of this fundraiser is how it weaves together our artists and our venue partners; a connection that is such an integral part of the tapestry of Fringe, and one we are honored to help strengthen and serve.

We hope you give to the campaign. We hope you get funded through the campaign. We hope you share this campaign with friends, family and more. 

If we’ve learned anything from this year, it’s that our community doesn’t falter in the face of hardship. We stand together.

Won’t you join us?

DONATE TODAY

Quick facts on this fundraiser, the first of its kind!

How to support:

• Head over to our donor webpage, here. $5-500, any amount gets us closer to our goal of $7,250 (or more! Every $725 raised after $7,250 will add on another stipend).
• Share, share, share—the way we’ll reach our goal is through our combined efforts. Every ask counts—thank you for being a part of that outreach.

Who is eligible for a stipend: 

• Any producer local to Los Angeles County planning to work with an official HFF venue in 2021. Applicants do not have to be first-time producers. 
• Applicants must participate from an official HFF venue (Registration Type 1).

How to apply:

• Applicants must apply via the Google form during the application period (to be announced via email & on social media May 25). Applicants do not have to be formally registered for the 2021 Fringe at the time of application.
• Applications will be chosen based on lottery selection. 

What’s included in each award:

• $550 towards venue/production fees & $175 towards HFF registration.

Timeline:

• Our fundraising period ends on June 8th, 2021 at 11:59pm. Any funds collected before this date will be put towards artist stipends of $725 each.
• Applications will open during the fundraising period on May 25, 2021 and be accepted through June 8th, 2021 at 11:59pm.
• Award winners will be announced publicly by June 21, 2021.

Fringe On!

The Hollywood Fringe Staff