Hollywood Fringe Festival Begins Thursday

The first-ever Hollywood Fringe Festival takes over LA for 11 days beginning this Thursday with nearly 200 artistic companies presenting more than than 800 performances and workshops in dance, music, theater, comedy, visual art and cabaret. More than 30 venues are co-hosting the festival, which includes fringe-type venues like parks, churches and a beauty parlor, as well as both black box and larger theater spaces.

Festival Director Ben Hill and the core group behind the Hollywood Fringe were the team behind the Hatchery Festival in Washington, D.C., which showcased the works of emerging artists. “In Washington, I saw the effect a unifying event had on an arts ecosystem,” said Hill. “We wanted to create a launching pad here in LA’s theater world.” The Hollywood Fringe Festival provides a “freedom to fail environment.”

While every city’s Fringe festival is different, Hill says that this festival is modeled after the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh. It’s an open and uncurated festival, which means that anyone can join. “Your entrance isn’t dependent on someone else’s taste.”

Seeing multiple shows in the festival probably won’t be a budget-breaker. According to organizers, there are many free shows on the schedule, and the average ticket price is around $12 (high-end tickets are around $25). The number and diversity of events means that some productions will be good, others not, but there will always be diamonds in the rough just waiting to be discovered.

We've checked out the schedule, and there are so many intriguing titles to chose from, such as Pot! The Musical, ! Death 40-Feet Tall !, That Great and Dreadful Day-Tall Tales from the American Swamp, 55 Minutes of Sex, Drugs and Audience Participation and feeling sorry for roman POLANSKI.
Check out the entire list of participating companies and events. Tickets are available at www.hollywoodfringe.org or by calling 866-811-4111.