Congratulations to all the winners of the Fringe-sponsored awards!

We will be posting the winners of the other awards presented yesterday later in the afternoon.

THE FREAKS

• Top of the Fringe Award: T-O-T-A-L-L-Y!
• Fringe First Award (world premiere): The Birthday Boys
• Fringe International Award: BURTON
• Fringe Award for Theatre: T-O-T-A-L-L-Y!
• Fringe Award for Comedy: The British Invasion
• Fringe Award for Musicals & Operas: Rehab! The Musical
• Fringe Award for Music: The Poxy Boggards
• Fringe Award for Cabaret/Circus: FreakShow Deluxe
• Fringe Award for Dance & Physical Theatre: 4 Clowns
• Fringe Award for Visual Art: Gavin Worth Art Exhibit

THE SILLIES

The Gusher Award, for the Fringe staffer who shed the most blood
Bryan Burgess

The Fringe Central Rat Award, for making FC their Fringe home
Nik Coppin, Gedaly Gubrick, Pam Noles

Why did I tell you that? …for the most embarrassing story at a Fringe Jam
Lisa Keddie, Jon Armstrong (runner up)

The Work Horse Award, volunteers with the most commitment to Fringe
Liz Steele, Nathaniel Beaver, Gill Torres, Becca Miller

The Bike Horse Awards, Fringers most dedicated to bike transport
Enci Box, Stephen Box, Steven Leigh Morris (honorary)

Mayor of Fringe Central, for the FourSquare Mayor
Rachel Stoll

Early Planner, for the first to market their Fringe shows
David Wisehart, Greg Crafts

Congratulations to the nominees! The entire Fringe community is welcome tonight for the awards ceremony at 7pm. To guarantee tickets, purchase one online ($12). Tickets will be free at the door – make sure to arrive at Fringe Central at 6:30pm for the best chance at a seat in the theatre. Directly following the awards, we will be hosting a closing party at Fringe Central (no admission fee, cheap beer).

Without further introduction, here are the nominees…..

TOP of the FRINGE

The Birthday Boys
belz road productions

The British Invasion
best medicine productions

T-O-T-A-L-L-Y!
t-o-t-a-l-l-y!kimleigh production

INTERNATIONAL

BURTON
miles productions

The British Invasion
best medicine productions

Jesus: The Guantanamo Years
abie philbin bowman

FRINGE FIRST (World Premiere)

4 Clowns
alive theatre

The Birthday Boys
belz road productions

VENT
theatre of note

COMEDY

The British Invasion
best medicine productions

Lost Moon Radio
needtheater special project

That’s funny. You didn’t sound black on the phone.
big guns big tobacco

THEATRE

The Birthday Boys
belz road productions

Mission of Flowers
green room presents

T-O-T-A-L-L-Y!
t-o-t-a-l-l-y!kimleigh production

MUSICALS

The Fantasticks
thetribe productions

Rehab! The Musical
ecclectic theater

That Great & Dreadful Day-Tall Tales From The American Swamp
the swamp company

DANCE & PHYSICAL THEATRE

4 Clowns
alive theatre

Kill Your Television
quantum theatre

Ten West
ten west

CABARET & CIRCUS

FreakShow Deluxe
freakshow deluxe llc

I Do Card Tricks And I’m Funny.
jon armstrong

pink champagne
freakstar entertainment

MUSIC

Escalator Hill
escalator hill

The Fuxedos
the fuxedos/glazed yams, inc.

The Poxy Boggards
Angryfolk records

VISUAL ART

Gavin Worth Art Exhibit
gavin worth art

Presque Pret a Porter
dreams by machine

THE BLOAT (sponsored by www.bitter-lemons.com)

4 Clowns
alive theatre

Kill Your Television
quantum theatre

The Wolf Girls
cowboys and indians theatre company

Tweet Master or Mistress Award

Abie Philbin Bowman – Eco-Friendly Jihad
Gedaly Guberek – LA Lights Fire, High Over Heels
Gregory Craft – Friends Like These
Jacquetta – It’s funny. You didn’t sound black on the phone.
Rachel Stoll – Valentino
Tracy Eliott – The Girl Who Would Be King

Could it be? Yes it could. One day left…

Fringe will be rolling to a close on Sunday as we celebrate and remember our time together and ponder a new future now that Fringe has entered our lives. Let’s not be tearful, though, as we have much to cherish from our communal experience over these past two weeks. New relationships have been formed, miracles have materialized, and the gods have indeed wept.

I know I tend to get a bit mushy in these posts, but it’s easy to be overcome with the warm feelings, the sense of community, and the support and contributions you have all provided before and during this Fringe. I have said it before: This is a festival of community. This was fundamentally your festival and you made it the experience it became. Looking to the horizon as June once again rings in the Summer days, you will recreate it all over again. Such is the beauty and wonder of Fringe.

There yah go…a double serving of poetry to make up for yesterday’s brevity.

Now on to the news…

AWARDS
Those of you who have received ballots in your email are the official panelists for the festival sponsored awards. Specifically, this includes venue managers, participants, and HollywoodFringe.org reviewers who have contributed a substantial amount of work in the form of written reviews. You need to cast your ballots by noon Sunday for your votes to be counted. And here’s a new bit of good news: To warmly embrace our entire community, we are dropping the walk-up admission charge for the awards. Obviously there are a limited number of people we can fit in the 99 seat theatre at Fringe Central (1625 N Las Palmas), so make sure to arrive at 6:30 to secure your admission. If you have already made a reservation, it will be honored. If you feel nervous about securing a seat, you can still pay $12 to reserve one and we will guarantee you a place in the theatre.

CLOSING PARTY
Let it be known! Closing party is a chill and (no doubt) slightly emotionally-charged gathering at Fringe Central starting circa 9pm Sunday night at Fringe Central. Need T-shirts for your casts? Grab me and let’s talk bulk discounts. The gathering will begin directly proceeding the awards ceremony. There is absolutely, positively no cover charge to gather and beers/wine/sangria will be cheap.

HOUSE SIZES
My own personal obsession with house sizes is quenched to an extent today. The word on the street is that the public is starting to join our newly born ritual. I have heard from many of you that houses have grown in size and enthusiasm. Well done, everyone. Promotion works – and group promotion works better. For all those self-involved arts organizations out there that think they can live in their own little world, let this be a lesson: The arts are a group effort, what’s good for one of us is good for all. Be isolationist at your own risk. If nothing else, this is a wonderful omen for next year’s experience.

See you all tomorrow for one last day of Fringe 2010…

Ben

Two days left! Just a brief update tonight as the olde bones are a wee bit tired and all of Fringe Central seems dead set against letting me write this thing. I am normally an 8 hour sleep sorta guy, clearly this conservative schedule is on hold during Fringe time. I am sure we are all in the same boat in this respect – there will surely be time to sleep on Monday.

So here’s some updates on the news to know…

THE AWARD BALLOTS
Ok, folks…no more changes in how we are jurying this thing. Those of you who have received ballots now have them in your inbox. There are directions there on what you need to do and when you need to do it. We need your ballots locked down by Sunday at noon. You can start now, and update later…so don’t feel you need to make final decisions until Sunday. Also note that you don’t need to vote in every category so feel free leave some of them blank.

Think you didn’t receive a ballot and deserve one? Send an email to support and we will help clear it up.

THE CLOSING NIGHT PARTY
The closing night party will be happening at 9pm at Fringe Central. There aren’t going to be people hanging from the ceiling or taking their clothes off to seductive music (well, at least not on stage) this time – rather it’s going to be a gathering of new friends for one final goodbye before we meet again next year. As this is the last time many of us will see our out-of-town visitors before this is all over, I hope all of you can make it. There will be no cover charge, and the bar will continue to serve it’s ruinously cheap alcohol. We plan to go very late in the night to make the final moments count, so jot it down on your calendar now.

Ok, not so much poetry in this one…some days, you need to write in prose. Especially when you have stand up comedians behind you repeating everything you write in a funny voice.

And so we begin the final push into the closing weekend of the Fringe. Three more days of discovery, wonder, and possibility. There are simply so many amazing shows to see, it’s near impossible to decide what to see next. We have people seing 7+ shows a day, wandering from venue to venue.

People are learning how to Fringe. Many of you have joyfully commented to me today that you are seeing audience just strolling in the door – and responding very positively and enthusiastically to the work presented on the Fringe stages. Bravo – it’s your commitment and dedication to this festival that makes it a success, much more than any administrative framework we on the Fringe team may have erected. We just built the asylum (to use a slightly odd analogy), you filled it with the madness.

The Fringe ends in a few days, but the art world in LA will never be the same. Every day, Fringe will stalk the streets of LA and every year in June we shall raise our glasses to celebrate it. In a year of sadness and decline in our arts community, this is a rousing birth.

Clearly, I am feeling somewhat poetical this evening….now on to the news.

Today we bid goodbye to our art director Gavin Worth as he travels back North. I will be posting a picture shortly of the amazing awards statuettes he has created for the fortunate few (“The Freaks”). His art work is still available for view and sale at Fringe Central – so stop on by and consider a sound investment. You can learn more about Gavin and his work by visiting www.GavinWorth.com.

Also…and I know this is rapidly becoming a tiring subject…there has been an amplification on the awards process. If you have been paying close attention, we have reworked the awards methodology into a balloting system submitted by the participants. One of the criticisms of this plan is the relative lack of coverage due to the fact that most participants haven’t seen a high number of shows – what with their production responsibilities. Thus, we announce today we are expanding the balloting process into a larger Fringe network. In addition to the participant producers, each venue manager and panelist (reviewer) who has made a legitimate effort to cover shows will also be provided a ballot.

I have been writing the software code to support the balloting process in all my spare time. I hope to release a relatively bug free version of our first balloting system by this time tomorrow. Eligible voters will receive an email from us with a link to your individual ballots. I expect a few blips with the system as the code is very fresh – so please bare with us as we iron out the kinks in preparation for the big awards ceremony on Sunday at 6:30pm hosted by Mr. Jim Smallman of the British Invasion.

And speaking of the British … many of you know we hosted a US vs UK improv match this late evening at Fringe Central. Fortunate for all of you who missed it, the whole thing was captured on video (as has most of the antics during the Fringe jams). Once this is all over, expect a retrospective of the madness of our first festival along with a host of photos. I won’t tell you who “won” as we are all winners – I can tell you that this was the most epic Fringe Jam to-date and actually did end with blood gushing from someone’s head (fear not, Bryan is just fine).

I’d like to thank all our hard working panelists yet again for providing (to-date) 243 reviews of Fringe shows. This is a serious body of work as the lion’s share is substantial and thoughtful. You guys are amazing and thanks so much for your efforts.

As I have been writing this, Fringe Art Director Gavin Worth just brought me up a special award he made for me – “the golden freak”. I was so touched, I needed to add just one more mention of www.GavinWorth.com.

One more idea for those of you seeking new ways to promote your show. At Fringe Central, we are learning the subtle art of converting a packed audience into the next one … into the next one …. into the next one. Yes, some of this balancing act can be the duty of the venue manager. But as participants, you have major opportunities for creativity in this arena. Following a big act? Think of an interesting way to push that hefty audience back into the performing space to enjoy your show. Yes, simple flyering does work….I would suggest thinking more creatively. Turn that crowd around and your small house can become packed. Leverage the fact that most venues have booked slots right up against each other, keep the momentum moving. You will find that people will respond. And, of course, don’t be rude and check with your venue that your creative tactics are ok with the management.

Well done, everyone…we made it another day. The three days ahead are a golden opportunity to end the Fringe with a big bang. Let’s make it happen!

Ben