Every year the Hollywood Fringe Festival transforms the heart of the film capital of the world into a playground for theatre — from absurdist experiments to painfully sincere solo shows — that is the largest west of the Mississippi.
For the past few years it has been the epicenter of new immersive work in Los Angeles. Last year was the first year that immersive was an official category at the Fringe, but long before that companies like Capital W and artists like Annie Lesser got their start at the festival.
So whether you live in LA or you’re part of the vast immersive diaspora, think about coming down and discovering what the Fringe has to offer.
Who will be the new voices that break through at this year’s Fringe?
Will strange encounters await beyond the borders of the Fringe Zone?
That’s what we aim to answer here in our annual guide to the immersive listings at the HFF. After all, the glory of the Hollywood Fringe is that it is a fully uncurated festival. Of course, that means you could use a little help figuring out what’s what.
Now we haven’t seen ANY of these shows, so we can’t vouch for their quality, but we can tell you what’s caught our eye and give you a little more context as you chart your course through the Fringe firmament.
And then, for fun, we’ve got a couple of things that you out of towners, and adventurous locals, might want to check out.
The Fringe starts in June, but tickets for the Fringe go on sale May 1st — at 11AM PDT — and if it’s anything like last year some shows may sell out within minutes.
Catch up with our takes on Fringe shows via our Fringe Diary.
SPOTLIGHT
Rochester, 1996
Where: Thymele Arts 5481 Santa Monica Blvd
Price: $50
Run Time: 3 Hours
Tags: #immersive, #maturethemes
Contact: light
Expect sparks when two of LA’s most interesting companies collaborate.
Capital W and DryCræft have teamed up for “a new immersive piece exploring questions of faith, identity, service, and family through a day in the life of a young urban pastor and his teenaged child.”
Note: the show may include themes related to sexual and domestic violence.
The Stars
Where: Hollywood Blvd.
Price: $27
Run Time: TBA
Tags: #lone, #immersive
Contact: Light
Ceaseless Fun completes its thematic season “The Outline of a Human” with their first foray into the Hollywood Fringe.
“A 1-audience adventure down Hollywood Blvd, exploring our desires to see and be seen, to know and be known. It is a site-specific commentary, a critique of the Hollywood experience, and a void into which you may shout your most pressing questions.”
The Guest and The Host: Make Music
When: May 3 — June 22
Where: Hollywood / Hollywood Hills participants notified within 24 hrs in advance via email
Price: $50–75
Tags: #music, #participatory, #experiential
I beta tested this. It’s amazing. Just go. -Noah
How many people come to LA with stars in their eyes, dreaming of making music? Imagining that one day they’ll be summoned up into Beachwood Canyon to sit across from a producer and cut a track.
Dream no more. This is that.
No. Really. THIS. IS. THAT.
From theatre producer Spencer Williams (Walk The Night) and music producer Andrew Heringer (formerly of Milo Greene & Atlantic Records) this is a real, honest to Hoyle, music making experience that anyone can participate in. Simply lovely.
NEW WORK FROM OLD FRIENDS
Snow Fridge
Where: Hollywood Pig ‘N Whistle; 1666 N McCadden Pl
Price: $25
Run Time: TBA
Tags: #lone, #improvised, #immersive,
Contact: Moderate
Immersive actors Keight Leighn (Apartment 8, Covell) and Karlie Blair (Safehouse ’77, Lust Experience) started their work collaboration during the LA edition of Whisperlodge, and now they’re pushing their improv and immersive skills to new heights with a show assembled around each participant.
“Hello. Welcome to Snow Fridge. You are here, at the beginning. Our purpose is to see you through your story. The one you will experience through this individual, improvised, immersive show that began right here, at your beginning. Your show will be unique, created for you alone. Hello. Welcome.”
Death and Coffee
Where: Apartment 8
Price: TBA
Run Time: 15 mins
Tags: #lone, #solo, #intimate, #poetic, #coffee, #tea, #death, #grief
Contact: Light
Annie Lesser’s Getting To Know You was one of two shows that introduced immersive/interactive work to the Hollywood Fringe, and her A(partment 8) changed the game. This year she’s back with a deeply personal, one-woman/one-audience member show about loss.
ONES TO WATCH
Designers and concepts that have caught our eye.
The Witnessing
Where: Thymele Arts
Price: $15
Run Time: 45 minutes
Tags: #suspense, #horror, #docutheatre, #paranormal
Contact: light
Color us interested and then some: a purported docudrama about a paranormal event.
“A chilling multi-sensory exploration into a shocking paranormal case. Actual footage, photographs, artifacts, and recordings from the investigation bring this terrifying ordeal to life. From THE UNMARKED DOOR composer Rolfe Kent (Dexter, Sideways, Up in the Air)& dir. Lola Kelly (Hall & Mirror’s YOU).”
Escape from Godot
Where: OMR Theatre at The Complex
Price: $25
Run Time: 90 minutes
Tags: #escaperoom, #absurdist, #Beckett
Contact: light
OMG OMG OMG YES.
“You’ve been invited to a show! But it is that show. You know, THAT show.
The one your friend is in. The one you’re obligated to attend. You enter the theater and take your seat for a performance of that show.
“That very famous play that has been called ‘important,’ ‘the quintessence of existentialism,’ and ‘a meaningless trudge between the cradle and the grave.’
“Oh no. This is going to be dreadful. You have to get out of there.
“You have 60 minutes to escape.
“Are you feeling Lucky?”
If this turns out to JUST be a production of Godot that they won’t let you leave I’m not sure if that makes me disappointedly angry or proud of their cheekiness. Guess we will just have to see. — Noah
What Went Wrong
Where: Near Hollywood Blvd.
Price: $20
Run Time: 25 minutes
Tags: #VR, #interactive
Contact: Moderate
A VR/theatre hybrid.
“In this immersive, intimate virtual reality theatre experience, audiences peer inside the memories of a recently broken-up couple and attempt to figure out “what went wrong” with their relationship. But nothing is ever quite as easy as it seems, especially when the human mind and heart are involved…”
The Study
Where: The Flight Theatre at The Complex
Price: $10–20
Run Time: 90 minutes
Tags: #interactive, #horror, #comedy, Content Advisory: sexual violence
Contact: light
“A psychological study of the flight or fight response set in a college lecture hall. Your choices determine the outcome of each study. In this immersive, audience interactive, video game and theatre inspired piece. From the creators of THE VIDEO GAMES.”
One Brief Moment of Joy
Where: Undisclosed location in Hollywood (Guests informed 24 hours in advance)
Price: $0–50
Run Time: One Hour
Tags: #interactive, #participatory, #livestream, #maturecontent
Contact: light to moderate
An intriguing experiment blending a live, interactive event with a livestreamed component.
“Breaking into the inner circle of rising filmmaker, E.K. Verlaine, twelve newcomers secure invitations to an upcoming experimental shoot at a private bungalow. Collaborating with members of the ‘One Brief Moment of Joy’ movement, these impromptu gatherings provide an exploration into the empathy of everyday moments through performance, film, and music.”
Ticketed guests will be pre-screened. Livestream content may contain disturbing material.
One Last Thing Before You Go
Where: Thymele Arts
Price: $30
Run Time: 25 Minutes
Tags: #lone, #death, #interactive, #improvised, #supernatural
Contact: light
A unique, immersive, interactive experience for one audience member along the supernatural border between life, death, and afterlife.
Unreal City
Where: In and around Theatre Row (mobile show)
Price: $25
Run Time: One Hour
Tags: #interactive, #adaptation, #processional, #adventure, #dystopia, #violence, #sexualcontent
Contact: moderate
“Experience a time that could come to be if the direction of the state of the world continues as it is now without change. Unreal City is a fully immersive and interactive journey based on The Wasteland and other works of TS Eliot.
“The Queen has announced a lottery and the thriving, protected Unreal City will be accepting new residents for the very first time! Even YOU have a chance to get out of this Wasteland, our world. Visit our government-approved, immigrant friendly website and register today for your chance at CHANGE!”
THE PLAYGROUND
Audience participation, old school spook shows, and a cocktail party with Shakespeare’s favorite king.
Easy Targets: Artists and Heroes
Where: The Broadwater (Black Box)
Price: $12
Run Time: One Hour
Tags: #interactive, #satire, #soloshows
Contact: light
The Fringe Favorite returns.
“EASY TARGETS is for every audience member who has sat in the dark at a bad play thinking they now know what prison must be like. It allows the audience to act out the fantasy of punishing their jailers. A satire of one-person-shows, EASY TARGETS presents 4 short solo shows and then invites the audience to show their ‘appreciation’ by pummeling the performers with rolled-up socks any time they feel bored, annoyed, patronized, manipulated, etc. Each audience of EASY TARGETS forms a pack working to remind the performers, writers and designers that if they fail to respect the audience, they will suffer the sock.”
Doctor Zomba’s Ghost Show of Terror
Where: The Flight Theatre at The Complex
Price: $0–15
Run Time: 40 minutes
Tags: #playful, #magic, #horror, #comedy
Contact: moderate
Get ready to kick it old school.
“We’re doing a revival of the classic 1950’s Ghost Shows, a spooky, funny magic show that featured hypnotism, mind reading, seance, monsters and a blackout sequence at the end where we contact the dead and creatures from beyond the grave!”
Henry V (and Cocktail Party)
Where: Thymele Arts
Price: $20
Run Time: 2 hours
Tags: #drinks, #shakespeare
Contact: Light
You got your Henry V in my cocktail party.
You got YOUR cocktail party in my Henry V.
“Theatre is just a bunch of actors and actresses pretending to be kings and queens. But when paired with honesty and a willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, it constitutes poetic faith.”
God: The Apologies Tour
Where: Studio/Stage
Price: $20
Run Time: One Hour
Tags: #comicdrama, #death, #religion, #improv
Contact: none to moderate
They Played Productions (Captivated: Justine, Nothing Bad: A Werewolf Rock Musical) wants you to meet your maker.
“We are The Creator. We made the heavens and the earth. We gave you free will.
“That was clearly a mistake. We have returned to apologize, but not as you expect.
“The Creator of the Universe has returned to Earth to have a few choice discussions with audiences at Studio/Stage in Hollywood. Using multiple reflections of Itself, The Creator wants to interact with anyone who wishes to explore aspects of religion, creation and Free Will on a personal level.”
THE LAB
When Skies Are Gray
Where: Thymele Arts
Price: PWYC
Run Time: 70 minutes
Tags: #optional-participation, #loss, #grief
Contact: Light
“The last time the daughter saw her mother, she was in a bed in the nursing facility, clearly declining but still able to talk, eat and move around. She’s come to visit and is shocked to find that the room has been emptied, in the middle lies her mother on a mattress on the floor. This is it. It’s time and all she can do is wait.
“This is a deeply intimate and experiential piece about death and the unbreakable bond between a daughter and mother. Select audience members will be able to volunteer as Nurses (and will be given instructions of what to say and do). Signing up for Nurse roles is on a first come first served basis.”
Ghosts: A Whole New Immersive Theatre
Where: Thymele Arts
Price:
$25
Run Time: 90 minutes
Tags: #adaptation, #Ibsen, #sexualviolence (reference), #systemicoppression (reference)
International theatre company Dream Walker brings this original adaptation of Ibsen’s Ghosts, deeply controversial in its day and now occupying a core place in the Western dramatic canon.
BEYOND THE FRINGE
Adventure awaits at the borders.
Saved By The Max
What: A pop-up diner modeled after the iconic Saved By The Bell set
Where: Just at the western edge of the Fringe Zone in the WeHo Gateway Shopping Center (aka WeHo Target)
WAIT, WHAT?
Okay, file this one in the “things to do in LA if you’re a 90’s kid.”
This pop-up restaurant, steps away from the WeHo Target and conveniently located next to a BevMo, features a Michelin Star Chef (Brian Fisher of Entente) — WAIT WHAT???
This is insane. Prix fixe. By reservation only. May is sold out. June is booking. $40 a head, minimum two a table.
Tell ’em Zack Morris sent you.
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