In this installment, Sammy & Mary take us through the highlights of their first week on the job.

From Our Veteran Intern, Sammy:

Did you feel it?

“Happy Fringe!” and the world got a little bit brighter, a little bit lighter, a little bit more hilarious. The 2013 Hollywood Fringe Opening Night Party was a night to remember. Despite my jetlag, which may have made the night all the more dream-like, the Opening Party was a beautiful reunion and a theatrical revival. So many new faces, so many new shows… it was almost overwhelming.

Bryan’s Bar was swarming and the toilet line was to the dance floor. The screening room was flashing Fringe TV. The dance floor was grooving and invoking the mood and the Fringe Crush (one of the specialty cocktails) went quickly. The outside was packed with cigarettes and chats. The Munchie Machine solved the mystery in my stomach. It was a scene set in the finest fashion, a foreshadowing of other Wednesday nights, of every night at Fringe.

I kept seeing flashes of last year: talking over there, brooming cigarettes over there, mustache-ing with Neil and Meghan, being adopted by Ben and Stacy, watching Lyla rock as Prom Queen, bouncing the door with Dickie and Ricky. And so many more. They were everywhere.

And now I have these new memories and these new innovative shows to see and these new people to meet.

I am so terribly excited for this year to come. Nothing will ever be as perfect as my first Hollywood Fringe experience, except maybe my second Hollywood Fringe Experience.

Happy Fringe!

Sammy

From Our Newbie Intern, Mary:

Hey Fringers! It’s Mary once again checking in with you all. It’s hard to believe it, but previews are in the books and we’re now officially on! I had a wonderful first week of my internship. Everyone is awesome and I love that Fringe is like a big family with an annual reunion in June. I admit, it’s always tough to be ‘the new girl’ but I can already tell that by next year, I will know everyone’s name who comes through the Mainstage Box Office.

Load-in at Fringe Central Station was such a great success and I had a blast with my fellow Volunteer Intern, Amber, greeting and connecting with each of the volunteers who came by to help us out. To see the space go from bare to fairy garden just shows you that magic really is possible when you gather theater peeps in one room!

I do have a highlight from last week: working with Stacy and Vicky (as well as Emilie and Nick) on FringeTV. Here I thought it would be a stiff interview of “So, Mary, what do you think you will take away from this internship?” but instead, Stacy has created a hilarious farce (or is it??) of adorable FringeTV Intern Vicky and company sharing the woes and quirks of our so-called internships in a very interesting break room! I cannot wait for you all to see our “party” in the mop closet!

This weekend will find me working at the box office as well as catching some shows after. If you see me, remember to say “hi” and let me know how you’re enjoying the festival. Til next time…

xo, Mary

This year, we’ve asked two of our interns to give a weekly chronicle of their Fringe adventure. Mary, a Volunteer Intern, is completely new to Fringe; Sammy is our Outreach Intern returning after a great experience in 2012. Here’s the first installment of their weekly Fringe blogs.

From Our Newbie Intern, Mary:

Hey Everyone! This is Mary checking in with you all— I am a proud 2013 Volunteer Intern and Box Office Agent. When Liz, our dynamo Volunteer Director, mentioned to me there was an opportunity for me to blog and share my experience as an Intern, I was stoked! Blogging has been a passion of mine for over a year now and any chance I get, I am there.

So, today was our very first Intern meeting and orientation. I was so thrilled to be among such a diverse, vibrant group of people who have all come together to share their love for the arts. Going over the basics (appropriate wardrobe and where the microwave is, among other ins and outs), we also got to learn a bit about one another and take a stroll over to The Fringe Mainstage. I admit, I learned a ton of amazing things about how The Hollywood Fringe Fest came to be and where we’re headed. And, of course, the SHOWS! I am really excited to check out as many as I can.

And, as you may know, us Fringers like to have FUN. There are some awesome parties in the works. I need to find a poodle skirt, ASAP (I will explain later…).

I think that’s all for now, but hopefully I will be reporting back again soon to tell you some tales from the Fringe Box Office. Make sure to stay in-touch on Twitter (@HFFVolunteer, @Hollywoodfringe) and come say “hi” when you check out a show!

Xo, Mary

From our Veteran Intern, Sammy:

Hi, I’m Sammy!

I’m the Outreach Intern for 2013, so I’ll be following Meghan McCauley, the Outreach Director, around. You might remember me from last year…or you might not. But I truly fell in love with the Hollywood Fringe, and I am so excited and happy to be back. As Meghan says, ‘it’s like Christmas time’! Each play is a gift, and each night brings us closer together as a family.

I’ve even been helping out during the school year while studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and even while living in Paris for a couple of weeks. I’ve been learning and experiencing all of the research and emails Meghan sends out in order to make Fringe Family into a fabulous and magical event (sorry for sending the blog summaries late, Meghan! I was so flustered moving into my apartment in Paris! There was a leak and the electricity wasn’t working when I arrived!).

Throughout this past year, my Outreach Intern experience from Fringe 2012 carried me along and kept me motivated, inspiring me to get involved in theatre lighting and tech at school as well as host open mics! All of the friends I made at the Fringe were so incredible. I totally stalked them all on Facebook with my friends at University… ‘yea, these are my friends.’

So, basically, I’d just like to say “hi”! And I can’t wait for Fringe 2013!

Sammy

Who are you and what do you do here?

Hi, I’m Stacy Jones Hill! As you can see up there in the subject line, I’m the Communications Director for the Fringe. In a way, this means I get to be a part of almost everything that goes on here, which I like just fine!

When did you get involved with Hollywood Fringe?

I’ve been around since this festival was just a spark of an idea and I’m so proud of what it has become. I started off as the Publicity Manager in 2010, writing press releases and trying to spread the word about a festival that was untried and untested. Seeing the festival take off that first year was a dream come true and though it is a lot of hard work from year to year, it continues to be an extremely rewarding experience.

How has your position changed over the years?

Since that first year, I’ve taken on more responsibilities: a lot of writing, a lot of organizing and even more collaborating with our awesome Fringe staff. One of my favorite new roles involves my job as head of FringeTV, which we started last year as a way to capture and cover all the different facets of the festival. It has been a great learning experience and a ton of fun.

What keeps you coming back to work on the Fringe?

Watching new relationships and partnerships develop because of the festival has been and continues to be really inspiring for me. Seeing a deserving playwright get published, a young director get recognized for great talent, an actor secure a manager for the first time or a new theatre company launch with a bang is worth the year-long, tireless effort to continue to put up the Hollywood Fringe. Maybe that sounds cheesy, but I live for that stuff.

That alone would be enough to keep me coming back, but even my own personal and artistic life continues to flourish because of the people I have met here. Some of my most treasured friends and artistic co-conspirators started out as acquaintances I only knew through Fringe.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?

I wouldn’t want to fight a horse-sized anything, let alone something horse-sized that could also fly. I’d take my chances with the duck-sized horses. I used to play soccer; I’m not afraid of getting my shins bruised.

I’m Jeff Worden, the Front of House Manager of the Hollywood Fringe Festival!

What does the Front of House Manager do?

I do my best to ensure you’re having a great time at Fringe Central Station. Whether that be enjoying a cold beer or a cocktail by the bar or laughing at your friend’s rendition of The Police’s “Roxanne,” I want to make sure the night is smooth and the smiles are plenty. That’s why they pay me the big bucks.

What’s a day like at Fringe Central Station?

Usually, it’s a lot of verbs: cleaning, counting, pulling, shifting, sorting, pushing, answering, standing, sitting, laughing, writing, watching, listening and sometimes punching – – the clock! Oh, and loving. And meme-ing.

How did you get started with the Fringe?

I like to think it was kindled back in college, when I went to school with a bunch of crazy dreamers who wanted to somehow – despite their better judgments – make theatre. The truth of the matter probably resembles something more like the little sucker fish that hook onto the bottom of a shark; the Fringe does most of the heavy biting into the Hollywood art world and I get to nibble at the fleshy bits leftover.

That’s graphic.

Yes, but I like graphics. Not graphs, so much, because they’re boring.

Greetings, Fringe Community!

When we began planning the Fringe in the Summer of 2007, there were moments when our lofty visions for the festival seemed mere figments of our imaginations. How could we possibly align the human and material resources to actually produce on these visions? I think many of us have been there before; when an idea is so new and delicate, its prospects seem impossible or at least implausible. Goodness knows, many of us have nurtured these ideas only to see them discarded the next morning over coffee.

Something about this particular idea stuck. Its force grew and through the sweat, minds and hearts of so many others, its being took shape. And here we are 6 years later, 3 festivals down and one epic June set to begin.

Including our upcoming festival, the Fringe has presented a total of 846 shows, over 3500 performances and 357 world premieres. In just three years, we have become the largest performing arts festival West of the Mississippi. No small accomplishment as the road to the present has been far from easy.

We give 100% of box office receipts back to the artists who participate in the festival. We regularly use 100% of the registration funds raised through the Fringe on promoting the festival. Our staff regularly donates the majority of their time to make this happen. And there’s so much more to accomplish.

Here’s where you fine people help. We are attempting to raise a very modest $15,000 by June 12 so we can pay our many bills once the festival closes on June 30. If we raise more than that? Fantastic, it will be poured directly into the 2014 festival.

What bills you say? To name but a few: Ad buys, printing, distribution, staff, rents, utilities, insurance, entertainment, website costs, permits, rentals, merchandise. The list goes on and on; it is not inexpensive to run a festival of this magnitude.

If the Fringe is something you truly value, if you feel this is an event needed in the world of theatre, then I ask you: Please help us today. We very much need it.

We have big ideas for the future: enhanced programs for students and families, new modes of intra-fringe transportation, pole signs along LA streets, a broader international outreach program, new perks for participants and novel ways to celebrate the wonder of theatre.

This Fringe has shaped our lives and filled us with purpose and so we give much of our lives to it every day of the year. Please join us, it feels really good.

Fringe On!

Ben Hill, Festival Director
Hollywood Fringe Festival 2013
www.HollywoodFringe.org