While theater productions such as “Mean Girls” and “Book of Mormon” have had their share of the limelight on the big stage, other niche and experimental productions have found a home in the fringes.
The Hollywood Fringe Festival is back for its 14th year in Los Angeles and will showcase nearly 400 live theater shows from local/regional writers, directors and producers through June 30 at 29 different Los Angeles venues. Programming at the event ranges from comedies, dramas, musicals, clowning, and other shows that focus on gender and sex positivity.
The event is one of many worldwide Fringe Festivals inspired by eight performance groups that appeared uninvited at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947 and performed on the “fringes” of the event. Their defiant acts grew to inspire other festivals, including the Hollywood Fringe Festival, which was first held in 2014.
“The spirit of the Fringe Festival is that community is key, and I think sometimes in traditional theater, we can forget that,” said Ellen Den Herder, executive director of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
“We’re an inclusive community in general, and the Fringe Festival represents Los Angeles as the fabric of inclusivity that it is. We have a huge queer population, and it is not a majority White city. It is a shame that a lot of theater doesn’t reflect that, and so we’re excited that we do have theater that [the queer and diverse] community is seeking and an audience that gets to come out and see themselves represented on stage.”
SEE ALSO: This new play imagines what would happen if Trump flees from the law after his felony convictions
Most festivals have a vetting process in order for acts to be invited to perform, but this event is considered open access, meaning it is completely open to any performer to showcase their talents and is also completely uncensored. Although it is open access, the festival does have a strict code of conduct and does not allow any performance that…
Read the full article here
