This year’s numbers reflect a growth trend that has been in place since the festival began in 2010: 

• The festival sold over 65,000 individual tickets (from 17,000 in 2010).
• The festival sold an estimated $540,000 in tickets this year (from $50,000 in 2010, almost 1,000% growth).
• In its eight year history, Hollywood Fringe has returned over $2.3 million to artists.
• 375 productions participated in this year’s event (from 180 in 2010), mounting 2,064 performances at 51 spaces throughout central Hollywood and some West Hollywood locations.  
• 1,802 artists and producers participated in this year’s Hollywood Fringe.

The central Fringe organization doesn’t retain any of the ticketing proceeds; all $540,000 have been returned to Fringe artists and venues.

Want to see Fringe continue? Please make a tax-deductible donation at hollywoodfringe.org/donate. 

Embracing the Fringe

I have never been the cool kid or the popular one – the girl that everyone wants to be like and hang out with.  Don’t get me wrong. I’m super rad awesome (do people say “rad” anymore?) – but in a geeky, loner, chicken wings and beer kind of way.

Google says that Fringe means “not part of the mainstream; unconventional, peripheral, or extreme.”  That’s pretty much me – minus the extreme. I’m not extreme at all.  

The noun form of Fringe means “an ornamental border of threads left loose or formed into tassels or twists, used to edge clothing or material.” Yeah, that’s me too; a frayed edge; dangling decoration, hanging out on the borders of all that is mainstream and #basic. I like that.  

I know now, that I am Fringe and that you – the one reading this, is also Fringe. Fringe is a state of being – of existing.  Fringe is determination, passion, and hard-work. Just look at the amazing staff, interns and volunteers that put on the Hollywood Fringe Festival.  These amazing people – my friends – constantly put in 110% to make this festival happen. And they do this because they believe in it’s importance.  They believe in its ability to positively impact the community and artists and local businesses.  They come up with radical programs and strategies and welcome diverse voices and faces to the table.  

This is what Fringe is.  Fringe is acceptance and love; friendship and commitments and most importantly – it welcomes the unconventional, peripheral, and extreme. It embraces the differences and then gives it a platform to show itself to the world.  

As I wrap up my two years of being the Publicity Manager of the Hollywood Fringe Festival and pass this honor to someone new – I want to express my sincerest gratitude to all of my dear Hollywood Fringers – staff, interns, producers, actors, writers, designers, and spectators.  Thank you for teaching me so much and allowing me to make the mistakes that I’ve learned from. Thank you for so much support and encouragement. Thank you for all the hugs and the laughs. Thank you for sharing your profound and inspiring art with me.  Thank you for giving me a home away from home – a place to roll around in my awkward geekiness and feel safe. I am so proud to have been on the Hollywood Fringe staff and look forward to continuing to being part of the Fringe community.  

Cheers to all you frayed edges, dangling on the borders and making the world a better and more beautiful place.

Peace and Blessings,

Brittany G.

…And the lights have come down on our 8th Hollywood Fringe Festival.  

It has been such an amazing journey to see this festival grow into the force of nature it has become in Los Angeles.  Every June, for the past 8 years, thousands of artists have performed for tens of thousands of audience members.  We had incredible, record setting numbers this year (exact audience numbers to be revealed soon) and we are growing every year.  375 shows! 2000 performances! Over $2 million back to participants since our inception in 2010!

Those are amazing numbers.  I love those numbers!  And I am proud of them.

But what I can’t quantify is the way it feels to walk into Fringe Central and see this unbelievable community we’ve helped build. To see the camaraderie, the enthusiasm, new friendships, old ones, deep conversations, laughter…  Our Fringe community is about more than numbers.  It’s about support, collaboration, friendship.  I think I’m most proud of that.

This will be my last year as a member of the Hollywood Fringe staff. Don’t worry!  I’m not done with the festival completely —  but I will be taking a step back from activities day to day.  At the end of this year, I’m excited to be moving into more of a leadership role, on the festival’s Board of Directors.

Thirty years from now, when June rolls around, I want to be able to walk into Fringe Central, saddle up to the bar, look around, and still see our incredible Fringe community thriving and celebrating.  And I’m going to do everything I can to ensure that future happens.

There are too many people to thank for their support over the years.  But this festival wouldn’t happen without the shared vision that Ben, David, Stacy and I had over 10 years ago.  And we couldn’t have done it year to year without the hard work of Meghan, Lois, Stina, Vanessa, Bella & the rest of the amazing staff who put their everything into the festival.

I love this festival and I love the family that I’ve found within it.   Thank you, everyone.

We are happy to share with you this year’s Award Winners – announced just moments ago at the 2017 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:  Shakeslesque: (To Thine Own Cherry Be True)

International:  Ladies in Waiting: The Judgement of Henry VIII

Fringe First (World Premiere):  Turbulence!

Cabaret & Variety: Shakeslesque: (To Thine Own Cherry Be True)

Comedy:  Easy Targets

Dance & Physical Theatre: Definition of A Man

Ensemble Theatre: The Motherf**ker in the Hat

Immersive Theatre: Apartment 8

Musicals and Operas: Turbulence!

Solo Performance: Under the Jello Mold

Sponsored Awards

ShoWorks Don’t Wait. Create! Award: Chimpskin

The Screamiest:  A(partment 8)

The Spirit of the Fringe, Never in a Box Award: TOYS

The Duende Distinction: Christina Evans – Choreography - TOYS

Tip Your 2Cents Award for Distinctive Voices:  Chimpskin

The Ripest Show:  Definition of Man

A Little New Music Award for Outstanding Songwriting: Turbulence!

Larry Cornwall Award:  Magic 8 Ball (My Life with Asperger’s)

Rogue Machine’s “Premiere” Award:  Urban Unrest – Urban Theatre Movement

Beyond Bechtel-Wallace Award: Thanksgiving

Diversity in American Theatre Award:  In the Valley of The Shadow

Soaring Solo Artist Award: Magic 8 Ball (My Life with Asperger’s)

The Inkwell Playwright’s Promise Award: In the Valley of The Shadow

Short and Sweet Award:  CHATTER

O-Face Award for Orgasmic Achievement (Most Orgasmic Performance): Yozmit Walker - Do You: Migration of the Monarchs –

Best Fringe Flyer:  An Evening With John Wilkes Booth

The Unleashed Award:  Thanksgiving

The LAFPI Most Wanted Award:

Actors Company, Art of Acting Studio,  Assistance League Playhouse, Epiphany Space, Complex Theatres, Hudson Theatres,  Los Angeles LGBT Center, Rogue Machine @ MET Theatre, studio/stage, The Loft, Theatre of NOTE, Three Clubs, Thymele Arts, Urban Social House, The New Collective

The Encore! Producers Award:

Complex Theatres – Video Games, Narcissus and Echo, Trixie: The Musical, Human Hothouse: The Aftershow, 13th Grade, Desert Warrior, Claim Jumper, Even If It’s Wrong, Toys, Confessions of an Arab Woman, Incantessimo, Mistero Buffo, Too Many Hitlers, Ripley’s Dystopia, Broke and Ugly, Mary’s Medicine, Under the Jello Mold, Slashed, An Evening with John Wilkes Booth, Do You. Migration of the Monarchs

Lounge Theatre – Bitch Brow, I’m Too Fat For This Show, Just Like Life, NICAEA, Sapo Cancionero: Live Your Heart Out, Thanksgiving, The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign, Transmission – A One Tran Show

Sacred Fools Theatre – Quantum Entanglement, Bono & the Edge Waiting for Godomino’s, Easy Targets, Definition of Man, Divorce: The Hip Hop Musical, The Joe & Joshua Show!, Why We Become Witches, Kinsherf’s Coat, A Harmony Boy’s Christmas, Charlie Moose Makes His Move, 12 Bars, Urban Theatre Movement presents: Urban Unrest, The King’s Language, High Rise, Orange Mango Cabaret

Three Clubs – Buffy Kills Edward, Shakespeare and Chill, Hot Dates, Legends of the Hidden Three Clubs, Psychosical, Nights at the Algonquin Round Table,

Studio/Stage – Blamed: An Established Fiction, Nothing Bad: A Werewolf Rock Musical, Here Comes, Rutherford, Herpes: A Love Story, The Tempest: All Women Cast, So You Want to be a Vampire, The Spidey Project, Three Can Keep A Secret, MEXISTANI! Growing up Mexican and Pakistani in America, Gamers
 
The New Collective – Just Sayin, Got A Minute, I Do … Do You?, Life, Death and … Entertainment

Actors Company – A Void, Bravo 25, Dead Boys, Dying City, mismatch, Pagliaccis, Songs of the Fall, The Complete History of Drag in a Few Mo-mo, Trump in Space

Asylum – 6 Figures, 86’d, Andy: The Red Nosed Warhola, CHATTER, Cheek (and other stories), Chemo Barbie, CringeFest: An Uncomfortable Anthology, Devadasi, A Story of Sex, Power and Devotion, Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, Hello Again! The Songs of Allan Sherman, Homebody/ The Anxiety Cure, Just Old Woman from Old Country, Save Me a Spot!, Scarlet Pimpernel, SECRET IDENTITY CRISIS, Secure Storage, SNATCHED…Stories From Down There, Solomon: King Poet &, Lover – A Tale of One Man & 700 Wives, Space Play or The Number of Nothing, Terror on The High Seas, The Amitycode, The Brick – A One Man Musical, The Motherfucker With The Hat, The Rise and Fall of Dracula, The Sacred Beasts, The Second Coming of Klaus Kinski, This Our Now, Two Motherfuckers on a Ledge, Willy’s Lil Virgin Queen

My first foray into Fringe was in 2010, when I co-wrote and directed a silly piece called Deicide, a Sorta Musical. I became hooked by the HFF bug, and I’ve been involved ever since.

I became Staff Lighting Designer in 2012 when I helped mount some colorful lighting in Fringe Central, before it became that infamous paint store. It has been a pleasure to help Fringe Central evolve from its humble origins into the supercool “Place to Be” it is today (although I do miss the popcorn machine).

Fringe helped me hone my skills as a playwright. I have written four original pieces which premiered in Fringe, and I don’t think I would have had the opportunity to see my work on a stage without the festival, which has served as both a platform and an incubator for my work.

I teach a workshop each year with Corwin Evans called “How to Tech Your Fringe Show". We want participants to know that great design is possible despite the narrow parameters and time constraints of a theater festival. I also like to offer my services as a designer for whoever needs a design that tells a story. This year, I designed 12 shows!

I like to tell people Fringe is my Burning Man. For one month every year, I get to drop everything and live in FringeLand with all my friends and collaborators. I love the sense of family and community this festival fosters, and I especially enjoy watching new and exciting young voices discover an opportunity to get their work seen. 

I hope to see everyone at Fringe Central this year. I’ll be the guy with a Gin, Soda and Bitters in my hand. Happy Fringing!