HFF12 prom is on! Consider yourself cordially invited!

On Wednesday night (after our #HFF12 Tweet-up at 7:30pm) we’re going back to school at Fringe Central Station for the first ever Hollywood Fringe Prom. We’ll have the corsages, the photo booth and the spiked punch. You just need to get your best prom outfit on and find a (really hot) date to slow dance with. Oh and there is that matter of who will be your HFF12 prom King and Queen!

There will be a dance party downstairs, karaoke upstairs and making out in the corners. So relive your prom without all those awkward people from highschool you may not have liked.

Details- 9pm – 2am at Fringe Central Station.
Official Hashtag: #HFF12Prom.
Dress: We’d love it if you could dress fancy.

Also, we do need some help decidingProm King and Queen. Please email [email protected] your nominations for our official vote. Winners will be crowned the night of HFF12 Prom.

We will be marching in the LA PRIDE Parade on Sunday June 10. We will have a marching group of 50 people, and still have slots available for those interested in participating. The event begins with meeting and lining up at 10:00 am and is usually completed by about 2 pm. It takes place in West Hollywood and is a huge visibility opportunity – approximately 400,000 people attend LA PRIDE, and we’ll be dancing down the parade route for them for the second year.

Last year’s event was a blast – a great bonding event for all who participated, and a great opportunity for participants to pass out Hollywood Fringe Guides and postcards for their own shows. Participants are welcome and INVITED to dress up in costume, as crazy and wild as possible. We would also love a few excited volunteers interested in donning the famous FREAK suits for the parade – guaranteed to be the most popular people there.

The theme for this year’s LA PRIDE is …and proud of it! It’s the perfect theme for us – the Hollywood Fringe Freaks – to go and celebrate ourselves, our art, and our festival. Fringe Freaks and proud of it!

I hope you’ll join us on Sunday! Send an e-mail to [email protected] and we’ll see you there.

Meghan

With HFF12 around the corner, it’s time to talk about what you new Fringers can do with your show marketing in the final few weeks to increase the visibility of your show in the fringe and larger Los Angeles Theatre community.

1. Write a Press Release. You may not be a PR person professionally, but if
you’re producing a show you MUST write a press release. Post it to the Fringe site. Pursue reviewers you want to see your show and send it to them. Spread it as far and as wide as you can.

2. Go to everything you can and bring cards. Show up to the opening party, hang out at Fringe Central Station, meet up with other Fringers to hang out, and go see shows. Do these things and bring your show cards or business cards. Network within the community to increase your audience and get to know some of the great people that make up both Hollywood Fringe staff as well as Participants, Actors, Producers, etc. Even at non-Fringe related events you should have cards on you. You never know who will want the information.

3. Tweet, Facebook. If you don’t have a Twitter account and/or Facebook
account – you should. For Facebook, create an event or a fan page around
your show with the information you need to get out and share that. On
Twitter you can create a personal account or a show account – both are
totally okay. Follow @HollywoodFringe for news, and check out the #HFF12
community hashtag. If you don’t know Twitter, do the tutorial when you sign up – it’s great. (Bonus Hashtag: #LATHTR)

4. Do more than blast information. Doing all these things can be great for
visibility, but you need to make people want to talk about your show or share a tweet, which is often the hardest part. Consider giving a discount to participants, raffling off tickets to your twitter followers, or including a charity donation from your show profits if it makes sense. Doing these things will set you apart from other shows that are just trying to sell tickets.

These are just a few basic ways to help improve the reach of your marketing plan and you will see many veteran fringers already doing these things. Don’t be afraid to think out of the box with your marketing so long as you’re not making your message confusing.

Rachel Stoll Armstrong,
Social Media Manager

Last year, we were super excited when KPCC joined our awesome list of
media partners. This year, they are returning to support our Venue Sign program by providing discounted rates for on-air spots that will air throughout the 2012 Hollywood Fringe (you also may have
noticed them on the home page of the site!). It’s a real pleasure to
partner with an organization that focuses so much on culture and
community.

About KPCC
89.3 KPCC-FM is a part of member-supported public radio network Southern California Public Radio (SCPR). Reaching more than 600,000 listeners every week, SCPR is the most listened to public radio news service of any kind in Southern California and serves the diverse communities of Southern California with award winning local news coverage as well as the most NPR (National Public Radio) content available anywhere in the region. KPCC, SCPR’s flagship station, has garnered over 200 journalistic honors including 3 Distinguished Radio Journalist awards (from the Greater LA Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists) and the 2008 top honor for Breaking News from the LA Press Club. SCPR also features signature public radio programs from American Public Media, the BBC and Public Radio International. Listeners around the globe can access news, join blogs, download podcasts, as well as hear a live web stream at www.scpr.org.

Hollywood, CA— Hollywood Fringe Festival organizers announced details about Student Fringe today, an arts education program the Festival is launching this year. For two days during the Fringe— June 8th & June 15th— the Fringe will bring local schools and students to Fringe venues for a full day of educational and youth-friendly programming provided by Fringe artists and students. “The program has two goals,” said Meghan McCauley, Outreach Director, “to provide an alternative arts education experience for local youth and to give Fringe artists the opportunity to give back to the community.”

All Student Fringe programming is completely free for students and educators. The Fringe is also supporting transportation costs, thanks in part to a partnership with Los Angeles Councilmember Eric Garcetti. Just over 200 students from Bancroft Middle School (Hollywood), East LA Performing Arts Academy (East Los Angels), Gabriella Charter School (Echo Park) and Southeast Middle School (Southgate) will attend. McCauley continued, “Some of these kids have only seen high-budget or classical theater. Some of them have seen very few live performances at all. We feel like every child should have the opportunity to experience the arts; and beyond that, the inspiration and resources to create their own opportunities.”

Fringe groups include: Lost Moon Radio, Pam Noles’ “Death 40 Feet Tall!”, Four Clowns, Joshua Silverstein (spoken word artist & educator), Stage Combat with Peter Berube, and “Poe and Mathews: A Misadventure in the Middle of Nowhere”. All participating Fringe artists were hand-picked due to their youth-friendly performances or their educational expertise. Many will provide interactive workshops or Q&A sessions. There will also be student performances by GCS Company, a 28-member company of dancers from Gabriella Charter School in Echo Park, and H20, the highly acclaimed show choir from Hollywood High.

The third annual Hollywood Fringe Festival will run June 14th to June 24th, but programming will actually begin during Previews Week starting June 7th. Student Fringe will occur on the first two Fridays: June 8th and June 15th. Performances will take place at the Fringe Central Mainstage (at Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd.) on June 8th and at Actor’s Circle Theatre (7313 Santa Monica Blvd.) on June 15th, as a donation from Coeurage Theatre.

ABOUT HOLLYWOOD FRINGE
The Hollywood Fringe Festival is an annual celebration of the emerging arts. Environments for the Fringe include both traditional and unorthodox venues; fully equipped theatres, street corners, clubs, bars, and places unexpected. Performances are self-produced by local, national, and international arts companies and independent performers. In the spirit of most Fringes, participation is open and uncensored.

In June 2011, over 200 groups participated and over 20,000 tickets were sold, making the festival one of the largest of its kind in the United States. The event has been called “an artful feast” by the LA Times, “a roaring success” by Backstage, and “a triumph” by LA Weekly.

The Hollywood Fringe’s Mission Statement:
Host an environment for bold and experimental works
Champion underground art and artists
Vitalize the arts industry in Los Angeles
Promote and enrich the Hollywood neighborhood

Key Festival Dates
June 7th-12th- Fringe Previews
June 13th- Fringe Opening Night Party
June 14th-24th- 3rd Annual Hollywood Fringe Festival
June 24th- Fringe Award Ceremony & Closing Night Party

Participants seeking more information can contact the festival at [email protected] or by visiting the website at www.HollywoodFringe.org.
Follow @hollywoodfringe on Twitter (or use the #hff12 hashtag), become a fan of our facebook page, or check us out on tumblr.

For Press Accreditation: www.hollywoodfringe.org/press and click “Request a Press Pass”.