About the Project
Watch our recording/listen to our podcast below!
YouTube: Fringe 101 - Podcast
YouTube: Writing Solo Work at Fringe – Podcast
YouTube: Writing Ensemble Work at Fringe - Podcast
YouTube: How to Devise Work: Work Beyond Text - Podcast
YouTube: Big Ideas, Small Stages: Exploring Theatricality - Podcast
Sunday, November 9th, from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
In-person at The Broadwater (The recording will be available after the event on YouTube)
Interested in hearing from artists about their creative process at Fringe? Come to the Hollywood Fringe 2026 Creative Workshop Series! This dynamic series is designed to be a day of learning and collaboration that will assist Fringe participants in creative development, the writing process, and mentorship in the arts. Each workshop focuses on a different aspect of writing and creating work at the festival. The Creative Workshop series is tailored to help in various stages of the writing process.
Sessions during this year’s Creative Workshop Series Event will include…
Please remember that select workshops coincide so make sure you attend the correct session you’d like!
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Intro to Fringe / Second Stage
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Writing Solo Work at Fringe / Black Box
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Writing Ensemble work at Fringe / Second Stage
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM Big Ideas, Small Stage: Exploring Theatricality / Second Stage
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM How to Devise Work: Work Beyond Text / Black Box
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Speed Networking: Getting to Know Your Community
Come for one or all of these breakout sessions led by Hollywood Fringe award winners and veterans. More detailed descriptions can be found below. Please be sure to reserve your spot at each individual workshop ahead of time, as spaces will fill up!
10:30 – 12:00 / Writing Solo Work at Fringe
Thinking of writing a piece for Fringe 2026? Have a solo show you’ve been thinking about bringing to life, but just need a little extra push? Come on down and join us for this session in which our panelists will discuss just what it means to write a solo show and present it at Hollywood Fringe. Come hear the advice– come get inspired!
Panelists: Jamar Gilbert, Marissa Rutka, Ell C. Dellorso (check out their bios below!)
10:30 – 12:00 / Writing Ensemble Work at Fringe
Hollywood Fringe is the land of exploration and experimentation, so come on down and get inspired on how to bring an ensemble show to Fringe! At this workshop, you’ll hear from panelists who brought their own ensemble work to the festival, how they did it, and why. You’ll also hear from them about how writing an ensemble show for Fringe vs. outside of Fringe may differ. Come hear the advice– come get inspired!
Panelists: Will Thomas McFadden, Ra’Shawn Durell, Mandy Rubeli (check out their bios below!)
12:00 – 1:30 / How to Devise Work: Work Beyond Text
Here we’ll dive into what it’s like adapting work from a source material, how to perform a piece based on a structure rather than a script, and how improving & devising fit into the creative process!
Panelists: Molly Koch, Reshma Meister, Hailey McAfee (check out their bios below!)
12:00 – 1:30 / Big Ideas, Small Stages: Exploring Theatricality
Have a script ready to hit the stage? Want to learn more about how to write for a Black Box theatre and for the fast-paced environment that is Fringe? Come hear from our panelist of Fringe artists about how they wrote and/or produced for the Festival. We’ll also be discussing how to create a piece with unique solutions given Fringe constraints— sometimes the best ideas are born out of limits! Come chat about how to stretch your creative muscle when accomplishing larger-than-life images on stage.
Panelists: Young Jane, Benjamin McFadden (check out their bios below!)
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM / Speed Networking: Getting to Know Your Community
Attend this less structured hour to get to know previous Fringe participants and ask those questions you’ve been dying to ask! Guests will get into groups and rotate among past Fringe Participants.
Please email [email protected] with any access concerns or questions, and we will do our best to accommodate.
PANELIST BIOS
Jamar Gilbert (He/Him)
Jamar, a native of Mississippi, is a graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University, where he earned a BFA in Acting in 2016. Now based in Los Angeles, he has established a distinguished on-screen career, with notable appearances in acclaimed television series such as Perimeter (BET), Shameless (Netflix), Chicago Med (NBC), Justified: City Primeval (FX), CSI: Vegas (CBS), Work in Progress (Showtime) and more.
His stage work is equally commendable, with performances in esteemed productions at Writers Theatre in Chicago, Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and most recently, the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Jamar is proudly represented by Innovative Artists and Rebel Creative Group, and continues to bring depth and authenticity to every role he undertakes, both on stage and on screen.
Marissa Rutka (She/Her)
Marissa Rutka is a filmmaker and actor. She is the director and host of the unscripted web series Coffee Catch Ups. Most recently she was in the Netflix funded short film The Sale. She is also the writer and star of her award winning solo show, A Peacock in the Rubble, which premiered at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2025.
Ell C. Dellorso (They/Them)
Ell C. Dellorso is a boundary pushing performer that fuses their background in Clown, Theatre, and Comedy into a jaw dropping, tear filled, laughter inducing performance style. With an aim to always be the topic of discussion on the ride home from the show, Ell never loses sight of the intent to infuse purpose and impact into each and every performance; most recently doing so in their Debut Solo Show: The Life and Times of a Gay Bug (LTGB). LTGB explores the collective experience of being Queer/Trans, but through the eyes of a little English Bug named Ollie. Award nominated at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe Festival, LTGB aims to remind every audience goer, but especially those of a Queer and Trans persuasion, that they are seen, loved, and to, for an hour or so, remind them that they can laugh and poke fun at the oft fear inducing world outside.
Will Thomas McFadden (He/Him)
Will Thomas McFadden is an actor, writer, and director born and raised in Los Angeles. He recently co-created and starred in Absolute Legends!, which was nominated for Top of Fringe and won Best Clown/Alt Comedy at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Will also directed the Sacred Fools world premiere production of Family Fries by Pam Eberhardt, nominated for Best Drama at the 2025 Fringe.
In 2024, Will wrote, directed, and starred in the political satire What The Chuck?!, which was selected as a Best of The Broadwater and nominated for Best Comedy at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
For over a decade, he was a member of The Actors’ Gang Theater Company, performing in acclaimed productions such as 1984, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Harlequino: On To Freedom. He also directed the company’s award-winning Accidental Death of an Anarchist and the family favorites Toy Story Tempest and Much Ado About The Avengers. During his tenure, Will served as a lead teaching artist, specializing in The Gang’s unique style of commedia, clown, movement, and mask.
If you are chronically online, you may recognize Will as the voice and creator of the popular comedy animal voiceover channel Rufus Goodboy, which has nearly three million followers across platforms.
Ra’Shawn Durell (He/Him)
Ra’Shawn Durell is an actor, writer and director born in Athens, Greece. Moving to LA, he joined musical theatre productions of Rent, A Chorus Line, Hairspray & Dreamgirls, the latter of which became an Ovation & NAACP Award-winning extended run. His theatre roots allowed him to plot a shift to play & screenwriting, with a focus on queer & POC-lead genre stories in the horror space. The Mourning Show, produced in the Fall of 2022 to a sold out premiere, was a familial ghost story that followed three African American siblings as they attempted to resurrect their father with the help of a mysterious new procedure. After producing When Cinephiles Attack, a movie review podcast, and filming a supporting turn in The Uniform, an upcoming horror feature, Ra’Shawn wrote and directed The Server Slasher Massacre for the 2025 Fringe Festival. A horror-comedy about a waitstaff under attack from a masked killer, the play debuted to great word of mouth and won the Zephyr’s Zest Award at the 2025 ceremony. Upcoming projects include the horror romance, The Jitters, and Write or Die, a slasher-buddy comedy. With a stellar support system, Ra’Shawn hopes to continue to tell stories that highlight underwritten individuals, using a genre that has inspired him to create.
Mandy Rubeli (She/They)
Mandy Rubeli is an award-winning, multifaceted artist specializing in playwriting and directing. She has produced and directed three original ensemble pieces at the Hollywood Fringe, each earning critical acclaim and multiple accolades, amassing a total of eight awards and nominations. Certified reviewers have praised her work as “a reminder of why we go to the theatre in the first place” and called her sophomore piece “the best play [they] have ever seen.” Others have described experiencing her productions as “like watching an Off-Broadway show or a Netflix series.” Her work has been featured in over nine local publications and highlighted on two podcasts. Looking ahead, she hopes to tour her original pieces in the coming year and continue creating theatre that is absurd, existential, and somehow, still sort of funny.
Molly Koch (She/Her)
Molly (she/her) is a Los Angeles Based clown, performance artist, musician, and video editor whose heart and soul she owes to the open fields and haunting weather of New England. She has been practicing Clown, Idiot, and Dance with local mentors like Chad Damiani, Natasha Mercado, Dean Evans, Jet Eveleth, Corey Podell and Zach Steel. She formed the clown ensemble Holy Holy in July of 2024, they premiered their show The Birth Of Disco at Hollywood Fringe in 2025 and won Best of Dance and Physical Theatre and a Sacred Fools Award for Bold Theatricality. Website: https://www.mollybkoch.com.
Reshma Meister (She/Her)
Reshma Meister is a performer who has been making theatre around LA for the past 4 years. She has devised work with Speigelworld, FLWLS, PLANETS PLANETS PLANETS, and more.
Hailey McAfee (She/Her)
Hailey McAfee (she/her) is an award winning actor, director, and writer. Most recently she played Anna Fierling in The Attic Collective’s and her Children, a play she co-wrote with long time collaborator Rosie Glen-Lambert. A recipient of Top of Fringe, Best Drama, Fringe First for World Premiere, and the International Fringe Encore Award, and her Children can be seen at SoHo Playhouse in Winter of 2026. Other acting credits include Effie in Iphigenia in Splott (Top of Fringe Nominee, Best Solo Show Nominee) and Nicole in Three Exorcisms. Directing credits include Hedda Gabler (Best Drama Nominee) and Here Comes the Night. She directed The Hostage Situation and Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin as part of The Inkwell Theater’s LAB series.
YOUNG JANE (they/them/free ass motherfucker)
Artist; activist; journalist; freedom fighter; revolutionary, and all around menace to society, who aims to shake the soul and challenge all you know. Instagram.com/theyoungjaneshow
Ben McFadden (He/Him)
Benjamin McFadden is a multi hyphenated theatre practitioner who hails from Seattle, Washington. Ben is the Artistic Director of 14/48 Hollywood: The World’s Quickest Theatre Festival, a completely volunteer 48 hour theater festival dedicated to giving artists opportunities to shine. Ben is the creator of the award-nominated 2025 Hollywood Fringe production The Time Machine. As an actor Ben has appeared on numerous stages and screens. He is also a theater and outdoor educator, working for many schools, theatre and art centers across the west coast. Currently, Ben is a graduate student getting his MA in Theatre Education at The University of Northern Colorado.
