2013 Fringe Intern Blogs: Part Five (the Final Edition)

In the Interns’ final blog posts, they contemplate what they’ve learned and how they feel now that the festival is over. A big thanks to all our 2013 interns!

From Our Veteran Intern, Sammy:

I’m wearing my yellow 2013 Fringe shirt and my Christmas boxers in bed thinking of Hollywood Fringe and a time when I wore this shirt with pants and sandals. I’m thinking of the days when we strutted Santa Monica Blvd, read Moby Dick on Santa Monica Blvd., tapped danced on Santa Monica Blvd.

Hollywood Fringe 2013 was truly marvelous, invigorated with life and community. The Awards Ceremony last Sunday was thrumming, radiating heat and theatre- melting the Styrofoam bowls of Yoshinoya. Twas a party to be proud of. And not only that, all of the performances recognized, and all of the ones that should have been recognized, were so inspiring, original, awakening. I swear I left every play with a new epiphany.

The fact that it was in the same location- that Fringe Central Station this year was the same Fringe Central Station as last year- created a parallel of the event for me. As someone who literally dropped out of LA, and returned just in time for Fringe, it felt like no time had gone by. Last year was a dream. I remember the first show I attended, ‘Texas Loves Lyla’, where the person next to me said, ‘Welcome to Hollywood’, and just like that I was immersed in the dream. This year was the dream realized. No longer did I feel like an observer, learning and mystified by the goings on in Fringe Central. I felt I belonged in it. Hollywood Fringe is a beautiful fish bowl of the dream; a perfect theatre community where everyone is so motivating, where everything is exciting, where anything is possible. On June 30th, they dumped the Hollywood Fringe fish bowl out into the great Ocean of Los Angeles.

Now that we’re out in the ocean, let’s keep Fringing. With extensions starting this week, there are so many plays to keep seeing and so many people to talk to. Let’s keep the party going!

Love,
Sammy

From Our Newbie Intern, Emilie:

When people asked me about my internship at the Hollywood Fringe Festival this June, I was at a loss to paint an accurate picture of what exactly my job entailed. However, now that time has given me some perspective, I have been able to articulate some of the important things my internship taught me. You might have heard somewhere that people from my generation have short attention—did you know that according to recent statistics there are 115,000 domesticated llamas in the US? Because Hollywood Fringe is so “with it” and we are “the cool kids on the block,” this blog post is coming at you in list format, to accommodate the ADD tendencies of generation selfie (See Ezra Koenig’s tweet: “Generation selfie needs to take a good look at itself in the mirror”).

10 Things I Learned From My Internship At The Hollywood Fringe Festival (No Cat Photos Included—Deal With It):

1. There is never enough popcorn.
2. When telling someone that you don’t have a t-shirt in his or her size, try and use the most tactful, euphemistic language possible. (IE. “They run very small” or “We’ve sold out of a lot of sizes”)
3. Be nice to people!!!!! This means remembering their names, what shows they are working on, and any other personal information they might have told you in the past. In an organization like Fringe that prides itself on building community, it’s important to show that you’re invested, and that you value what everyone has to say.
4. If you don’t know the answer to a question, find someone who does. Providing misinformation when you’re a part of a large organization hurts everyone involved.
5. Take pride in your space! Fringe Central Station served for many participants and show viewers as their first glimpse of what Hollywood Fringe is and what we’re about. The little things (throwing away cups, keeping the bathroom stocked) make a big impression and help the Fringe forge its own image and reputation.
6. Wait up for the Munchie Machine.
7. Have fun. If you have the opportunity to make your late-twenties, male coworkers sing Britney Spears’s “…Baby One More Time” for karaoke, you should probably take it.
8. Pretend your whole experience is an improv game, or that you are the heroine of a romantic comedy hell-bent on remaking her life in a positive fashion, and say “yes!” to everything. Put in extra hours, take the comped tickets, and make the Chipotle run. Not only does saying “yes” prove that you’re a team player but it also opens you up to all the experiences Fringe has to offer.
9. Talk to the people you’re working with! And not just superficial “how was your day” chatter. When you intern with an organization like Fringe, you are surrounded by people who, like you, are passionate about the arts, but who, unlike you, have spent time pursuing them in the real world. One of the most interesting parts of my job was seeing how people incorporate theater and their various passions into their lives, whether it be as their main careers or not.
10. One of the most fundamental lessons of acting classes holds true for those offstage at Hollywood Fringe: be in the moment. So many disparate personalities converge for this event, and it’s really wonderful to take it all in and enjoy everyone’s company. Savor the fact that despite the scary, dystopian darkness of our world people still come together to make and appreciate art!

Take that, Buzzfeed!