…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!

For the past three years, I have taken an almost empty space, and turned it into a place for socializing, drinking, networking and anything in between. Hi, I am David Offner, and I am the scenic designer for Fringe Central.

My first design in the Hollywood Fringe Festival, was back in 2013. I was working with my longtime collaborator and very dear friend, Brandon Baruch, on a Fringe show that he had written. Then in 2015, Dave McKeever had asked me about designing a “bar space” at the Dragonfly. This would become our first year here. We walked into the smaller side of a very dark, dingy space, which had a TON of potential. We didn’t have a lot of money for budget, but when do we ever have a lot of money in theater?!?! That first year at the Dragonfly, we hung paper parasols upside down, and Brandon lit the hell out of them! It was a simple, cheap, and colorful design. 

The way the designs come together is a pretty simple story. Usually around February or March, Dave, Brandon, and I meet at the Holloway Bar in Echo Park (free publicity for the Holloway Bar), and we start riffing on design ideas. For the past 3 years, we have sat down in a bar and have come up with Fringe Central concepts over a pint of beer. Thanks for paying, Dave! From there, I get to start laying out the design that eventually becomes Fringe Central. I’ll start with research ideas, and then turn those into sketches, renderings, and plans. There are always a few key points that the Central space needs to address. The bar, the concierge space, and the ability to promote your show. These are all VERY different challenges than we normally have to deal with in theater. Instead of designing for a 99 seat house, where scenery has to travel in or out; I need to worry about foot traffic, if there is room to get to the bar, space for posters…or how the smoking porch will look. 

Designing Fringe Central is a wonderful time in my year, because I get to break the fourth wall. The audience actually interacts with the set…whether I like it or not. I might have a vision in mind for how it should look in its purest form, but the minute post cards, posters, and beer bottles arrive, it becomes a completely different space. I think over the last 3 Fringe’s, I have embraced these changes, and built that idea into the design. 

One of the most important aspects of the Fringe Festival, is that I work with incredibly talented people. We are basically glued to the space for 2 weeks, and take it from a building that is under construction, as it was this year, to a full functioning theater/bar. I believe that you are only as talented as the people that work with you. A HUGE SHOUT OUT to the scenic crew that makes the space look as good as it does. For the last three years, I have worked closely with Miles Robinson, Sara Paquette, and Brad Bentz (please hire them), plus many other interns and volunteers who bring their skills and artistic sensibilities to the project. It takes a village to make a Fringe. 

I hope you all enjoy drinking at Fringe Central!!!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Fringe Runway event at Fringe Central on June 14th. Twenty-five different #hff17 productions showed off costumes (and walked with style, grace and glitter) for our three celebrity judges. Congratulations to the winners!

First Place: Do You: Migration of the Monarchs

Second Place: Comic-Con The Musical

Third Place: Nosferatu, A Symphony in Terror.

Honorable Mention: The Rising