HFF26 Town Hall #4: Make The Most Of Your Fringe Experience

Listen as your Festival Directors, Lois & Ellen, discuss how to make the most of your Fringe experience. What do you want to do next? Fringe has many avenues that will help you make that post-festival leap. They walk you through getting and utilizing reviews, applying for awards, and engaging with the Industry program. HFF26 is just the start of your show’s journey! 

PRE ROLL Artlist Musical Logos - Positive Persistent Pluck Sequence 2

OPENING MUSIC IS BY MILANO - 'On the Move'

WEBSITE: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/hollywoodfringe/

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@HollywoodFringe

Transcript

SPEAKER_16 0:00

Everybody's getting down in here just about one minute and then we'll go live. Hi, everybody. We're ready to get started.

SPEAKER_13 0:35

Hello, Hollywood Fringe!

SPEAKER_16 0:44

All right. Um hello, wonderful people here in person, also on the live stream. Thank you so much for joining us. Um, before we jump in, Hollywood Fringe acknowledges that we are on the unceded lands of the Gabrielinos, Tongfa, and Shumash peoples. Our statement serves as a practice as we commit to furthering our connection to Indigenous communities, past, present, and emerging. And I also want to start this off with just like a very deep breath from everybody in this room and everybody on the live stream. We're just gonna take in a forecount. And we're gonna let it out. We're gonna take in another breath. And another one out. I wanna kind of like have a little grounding as well about what we're about to do here in June. Um we are not a huge company. We are a very big festival. Um this year we have over 50 shows more than we had last year, and we do not have a significant funding difference when it comes to making up the gaps. Um, I do want to like like pat like everybody on the back because like everybody from our venues to our artists have made it feel so easy because everybody has been so on it. And um I also am excited to say that like we are like good enough, like we have enough people to do the things that we have to do. We're not in crisis. But it's a great reminder going in that we're not Netflix is a joke. We don't have that budget. We do not have the same marketing schemes, we do not have these, we do not get bus ads because we are not doing a hundred thousand dollar campaign to market the amount of shows we have because that would mean that that all of our registration would go towards that. And instead, it really goes into things like our ticketing site, running events like these, making sure that we have community partnerships so that we sell tickets for reels, because we're doing it through grassroots marketing, through having really, really great partnership here in Hollywood with all of our local institutions, but also our neighbors. And so if this is your first fringe, welcome. It's a lot. You're gonna be really stressed, you're gonna be really tired, and the one thing you can't be is a jerk. We are all tired, we are all strapped thin, and there are people among us who are more strapped thin than we are, and we wouldn't even know it. We have to give each other grace right now as we are going through unprecedented times again, all every day, always every day for our entire existence. And also remember that this is an unprecedented festival every year because it's really truly built by you all. Yeah, and that we are in service to you here at Hollywood Fringe. And so thank you for being like a part of this and like believing in this festival and believing that LA is a theater town. And I can't wait to like prove to you guys how much we care about this community, but also like provide some perspective about how and where we can care, um, and how we can really make sure that you have the best experience possible.

SPEAKER_13 3:51

Was you 100% right? And I think I want to hone in on that. It's the the festival is what you make it. We've been doing this 16 years, and we have not seen one festival look like another. And so it's kind of we want to encourage and inspire you today, moving into June, make the festival that you want to see and what you deserve. Be the community member that you want in your fellow artist, be the uh the the brilliant brainstormer, the problem solver. And so, no, going in, it's what you make it, because there's a whole lot more of you than us than the venues. And so that's an exciting thing, too, right? Like, how often in this world do we get to make choices that really do change the trajectory of an entire community? And so, like, take this moment to like carry the torch with us and make sure that we're creating a fucking banger festival because it's really how you show up, right?

SPEAKER_16 4:37

Um, so how a town hall works, um, if you've never been to one before, as Lois and I spew a lot of information at you. Apologies. And you're gonna be like, wow, I really wish that was written down. It is. Um, and that's called the um artist hub. Has any who's been in the artist hub on our website and read through those articles?

SPEAKER_13 4:55

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_16 4:55

So we're literally re-iterating what's in there, and we're here to like explain them in better wording that is more in person. Um, we're gonna go through different topics and we're gonna have QA's at the end of each of those topics. So if your question doesn't relate to that topic, hold it. Because at the end, we'll have a general question saying, hi, Toussick, come on in. Um and so uh yeah, we're gonna keep, we're gonna jump in. Um, so some announcements. Thank you to the Broadwater for hosting us today. Um, it is so amazing to be here. We are live streaming and recording. So if you are overwhelmed again, you can always just go back to the recording a different day. If you're like, I need to hear that again, you totally can. Lois and I talk pretty fast. And so if there's any moment that you're like, shh, I give one more time, you can just like always kind of like give us a wave that like really like you're talking too fast or going through topics too quickly. Um, and anybody on the chat at home, guess what? Roddy's on that chat, and Roddy is also live streaming, and Roddy is also the best because if you have been um in on that artist support from the beginning, you've had talked to Roddy and it's such a test for this festival. Yay! And we also have other staff that are not here that we love. And thank you so much for doing what you do. Okay, so uh key festival dates. We already had tickets go on sale. It's great.

SPEAKER_13 6:21

Um a great reminder if you're like, I have a really small number of tickets on sale, you're not alone. LA is a slow-burned city, and so like keep the hustle, keep the momentum going, but know that it's not the end of the world.

SPEAKER_16 6:34

We're not worried, you're not worried. You know what I mean? Like there's not like any trend that we're like, oh my God, you guys should be panicking. Yeah. Um and the other reminder is that uh if you are having trouble, that's why you're here. You're talking to your fellow artists because there's somebody that might have an idea that you haven't thought about. And so it's really important in the next couple of weeks that you lock in and you make your buddies at the festival who have similar intentions behind their work to you, who might be maybe producing the same genres, or maybe you just really get along with them because they're gonna be the people that help bring you along. Come on in, come on in. Um, and they're gonna help you think of all of these crazy things. So May 1st, tickets went on sale. We're doing all these events, we have weekly office hours going on. There's nothing really huge until we have preview week, which just starts Thursday, and people are like, what's the difference between a preview show and a regular show? There is none. Um, except for we judge you less because it's called a preview. Um, and so when the things inevitably go wrong on your opening night, you go, whoops, it's just previews, you know. Um and if you nail that preview, then you nailed that preview, and that's so exciting as a mode for your show. Um, we have our opening night party on June 10th. No shows happen on that day. We all get into community together at the Los Angeles LGBT center. It is gorgeous, it's in a mute, their beautiful courtyard, it's outdoors. Um, please come. And then the 11th through the 20th is the official Hollywood Fringe Festival. Um, and on that Monday following, we have our awards and closing night party.

SPEAKER_13 7:58

And we will finally talk about awards today when you're done withholding that information.

SPEAKER_16 8:02

Yes. Um, so office hours, if you don't know about them, they're they're they're great. Um, every single Wednesday we meet up with in different bars around Hollywood to have fringers connect with each other. Last night, 300 people showed up, and that was the biggest we've ever had. And so when you think about it, it's a great way for you to meet somebody at this festival that has a similar show to you. Because if there are 300 people in there that all have shows at the festival, they are the people that will you're gonna be cross-promoting with and you are going to be talking to. You are going to be sharing each other's audiences, and the best way to do that is by making your connections.

SPEAKER_13 8:39

And right, 300 people, that could fill a main stage three times. Like that's a lot of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_16 8:45

And we'll talk, well, yes. Um, all of these events are listed at hollywoodfringe.org forward slash events. That's where all the information is. Please come to those runway, which is also our final office hours of the season, is on uh Wednesday, June 3rd. Yes, um, from 6 to 11 p.m. at St. Felix. Um, if you have a costume forward show, uh, we highly encourage you to apply to Rock Walk the Runway. Um, if you don't, don't take that away from other people. Like it's not like a I'm putting it on a t-shirt to promote my show. It's like I built a costume for my show and it's amazing. Um, and then you get thrown into this little competition. We have an award for like best costume, and it is such a fabulous time. And it's also that last night for us all to kind of be in community together before we start with previews. So please, please, please come to this. St. Felix is great. It has a front area, a back area, and a little outdoor area. So there's many places to hang out with in there. Um, participant resources. We talked about the artist hub. We have marketing opportunities, we have cabaret on the road, there's poster and postcard drop-off, which is actually at the next couple of office hours. You can bring your poster or your postcard to us, and we will bring it along with us to our Central Bodies box office that opens on the first night of previews. And it will be put up and it'll be displayed. And when people are coming in and choosing a show, they will see your image on the wall. You just bring us a poster. Um, there is a size limit, guys. Uh, we like 11 by 17 or smaller. Um, because if you think about it, if there's more than 50 shows from last year, how many are you gonna be able to fit on the walls if they are bigger than 11 by 17? Not enough. Oh, please come in. Uh keep up to date by checking out our blog, which is where we're posting things that go out in our newsletter because we know that the newsletter is gonna be overwhelming. So we break it out into like, you just need to know this section. That's hollywoodfringe.org slash news. You also know about it because we link it in the participant newsletter. Who's reading my participant newsletters? Okay, more hands should be raised. Because if you are not reading them, you are literally not going to be able to have the experience you want. Um, because you are producing this experience, which means you should probably know the information that we have so that you can have the best experience possible. Yes?

unknown 10:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_16 10:54

Because then you can say, screw your information, I have a better idea. But if you don't know my information, you can't do that. Um, please come in, please come in. Um screw your information. Uh hot tip save support at hollywoodfringe.org to your um address book so that our emails don't go to spam. Because you know what else is coming from that? Other emails from fringe, like comp requests and things that it'll go through during the festival. So make sure you're saving our uh email into your thing.

SPEAKER_13 11:21

Info at hollywoodfringe.org is another one because that will often get used for like press links. All of it that's coming from Hollywood Fringe, it's actually coming from press through the Hollywood Fringe website. So if you save support at HollywoodFringe.org and info at HollywoodFringe.org, you are covered.

SPEAKER_16 11:35

Please follow our social at Hollywood Fringe. And we all use the hashtag HFF26. Does the hashtag work anymore? I don't know. But I like it because when I look at that hashtag, because I do, I I did, I looked at it a couple days ago. And I was like, oh, it still works, it's still a thing. And what it does is it makes us be able to see all of the Hollywood fringe marketing in one when we are able to put it in there. We're able to see really the scope of the festival. It's a great way for us to be able to be at the end, be like, look at how many, how much information went out there about fringe. Please use it. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

HFF 26.

SPEAKER_16 12:07

Yep, HFF 26. So every year it's the year, it's the HFF and then 25, 24, 23 since I've been around since 2016.

SPEAKER_13 12:16

Since HFF 2010. Yeah. Okay. I guess it'd be HF 10.

SPEAKER_16 12:20

I wasn't around, but she was. Um email supporter Hollywood French with any questions you have. This is your best new fringe pal. This is the time of year where you can get a quick response because we are also dealing with ticketing. So if you need to ask a question, that's where you email. And you're gonna look through your through your resources first, right? You're gonna be like, I'm gonna look through the website. And then you spend a couple of minutes and you can't find it, you go, Hey guys, I know that this exists. Where is it? And we would be happy to email you a link and make sure that you have the information rather than you sitting alone stressing, feeling like you don't know what's going on at Fringe. We will email, we will answer thousands of emails this summer.

SPEAKER_13 12:56

Yeah, I think my favorite emails that I get though, I think you're right, or it's like, I tried to find this, it, you know, I couldn't find it. God bless. Like, thank you for taking that time. And then Google, and this is your favorite, this is your tip, but I'm stealing because it's so good. But Google, Hollywood Fringe has such an like a huge web presence. Oftentimes you can find what you're looking for by Googling. Just use the date, 2026, because the website has years of information. But using the date and what you're looking for, Hollywood Fringe, you can probably find it on Google.

SPEAKER_16 13:19

That's how I look through our website. I also, it's how I look through my Google Drive. I'm like really terrible at organization. Thank God there's other people at our festival that are better than that. Uh, but it does help in a pitch. Um, so uh if you uh okay, see, this is where I went ahead of myself. If you are not reading your participant newsletters, again, please, please, please do. We can't help you if you do not uh uh work with us here. So that is your your thing from now on. They come out once a week. Once a week, you take literally 30 minutes. And I know that it's 30 minutes. It's a lot of information. And we're not saying they're short, but you take that 30 minutes, you make sure that you understand what's going on, because then if you don't at office hours, you go, what did that mean? And we go, we got you. Or you watch one of these videos where we explain it verbally to everyone, or you listen to our podcasts, or you you email us, and we're always here for you. Okay, our community ethos and code of conduct. This is one of the most important things we're gonna go over today, especially if you have not been at a Hollywood fringe event before. Now, more than ever, it's so important to us that we create the festival we want to see in the world, not the festival that we are given here in a very fucked up environment. Um when we're on edge, it's easy to forget kindness and our respect for our fellow human needs to be number one. Every single person in this festival does matter. And also, we need to support each other through, as some of the people in this festival have um have their stress levels go up. They're like, oh, I'm gonna become a different person. You can't do that. You have to take the time off then. If you're becoming a different person, you're becoming a stressed out person, you're becoming a cruel person, that's your your your time to step away. Even if it means that something doesn't happen, it is just not okay. We're gonna start it off with that. After that, I want to talk about our community ethos and what we want to mean to each other. Um, this festival is built on a freedom of expression and lack of censorship, which means we must maintain the unmost respect for one another to create a safe place for people to take risks in their work. We do not censor your words unless they are actively harmful or hateful towards a protected group. Um, for example, women, people of color, queer and trans folks, disabled folks, de-deaf folks, fat folks, and religious folks. There are limits to this uncensored nature that is uh set by our access advisory board and enforced by our staff and code of conduct committee. Um we have a very diverse community, one that often has more women and non-binary people producing than men, and we attempt to foster a community where these folks don't face the gendered harms that they face in everyday life. We are on a path to making this a more accessible space. It's not 100% there, but we are on that pathway. And that means that we might use disability terms that you're not aware of, or we might have little switch-ups as we're changing our ability to provide accessibility within a black box theater environment. Um and we're we encourage you to take that journey with us and make sure that we can make this the most accessible space that we can within our budget limitations and make sure that we are um that we are we're we're moving seats if we need to move seats to make room for somebody, that we are being that that open welcome arm. Um we're a space that is committed to anti-racism, not only through our words, but through our actions. In many environments, people face microaggressions and racism on a daily basis. At Fringe, we are actively working to keep those behaviors out of our spaces. It is very important that we are radically aware of the these infractions that happen upon our friends every day, and that we do not add upon that stress when they are coming here to share their art with us. Um, we are fiercely protective of our community ethos, and we reserve the right at any time to say bye. We just do. Um, this isn't to scare you. It's actually to invite every single person in this room to take this journey with us and to make sure that we are presenting a festival that we can all be proud of at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_13 17:10

Um, and with that, uh, we have a pretty strong code of conduct that I'm going to read to you because it is what's really just not allowed at our festival. And the average person can understand that is don't be a jerk. I think everyone in this room, we're grown-ups. We know what it is to be in a professional environment. So this is our very detailed reminder of what it is to be in that environment. Uh the following are not allowed within our community: microaggressions, verbal intimidation, um, or verbal and physical intimidation, hate speech and harassment, sexual harassment and assault, excessive consumption of alcohol and other legal substances, aggressive behavior and disrespectful behavior. We all agree, I think, that this is a pretty easy line to follow. Yeah. And I think it's just that reminder again when the stress hits, when you're in these environments that sometimes can feel more personal than professional as you get to know each other. This is that reminder that when you walk into fringe, you're walking into a professional environment. And that will not only help us create an environment that you all deserve here, but it will help you in your greater careers and whatever is next, because your reputation is always six feet ahead of you. You're gonna meet people at fringe that are going to be in your careers at some point in your future. It's just inevitable. The pure size of the festival will have people showing up again in your life. And so make sure that you're thinking about that long-term reputation in these spaces. And then it'll just make for a better career, a better LA industry, a better fucking theater industry worldwide. Because it's not the best, right? We all know there's some toxic shit out there. And so the ripple effect is so real with this many artists in one space. So let's build the larger theater community that we all want and deserve. Um, okay, let's talk about the less obvious things. So at the festival, be mindful of uh intention versus impact. At the festival, when we are handling conflict, we look at the impact. The intention we recognize is not always what the impact is, but if the impact was harm, then we still address that because harm was caused. And so be very mindful of that at the festival. Additionally, public versus private interaction. And I think that one is specifically very important, especially in these more these office hour spaces. They're at bars, we're having beers, they're it the blind gets blurred at times. And so be mindful, even in those settings where you might have a best friend sitting next to you, that it is a public setting. And so you might say something. I might say something to my buddy Ellen, who knows me well beyond the festival scope. And just because we have an inside joke doesn't mean that inside joke is gonna read to someone who doesn't know us and doesn't know our relationship. So be very mindful of public versus private. And when you're at fringe, it is always public. Um, okay, if you make if you make a mistake, we ask that you bravely take responsibility for it. We really, like Ellen said, we're not so few people. We will ask you to leave it if it is necessary to the safety of the community, but it's not something that happens often. Um, more often than not, it it's about having a conversation. And as long as you take responsibility for an action that caused harm, we can 99% of the time find a way through that so that everyone grows and we can move forward a new chapter. No judgment. We're moving forward as better people. Um so just be aware if somebody, if the staff does come to you because of an issue, hold that and try not to like lean into the discomfort that often um leads to pride and ego. And that's where the actions can sometimes lead us to a place we can't come back from in such an easy way. Um, reminder that participating in the festival is a privilege. It is not a right. Um and I have every trust that we're gonna walk through this journey, never needing to have a conversation, uh, because we're all gonna be awesome fringers and put all of the work and the angst into the work and not into uh the bad shit. Uh okay. Um if you have any issues at the festival, we have conduct at hollywoodfringe.org. That is an email that goes directly to myself and Ellen. Um that is a private email. So please email us. We work um in victim-centered mediation. Uh, so we do ask that if it it's uh the person who harm was caused to reaches out. Um but if you experience anything that we should be aware of, please use that email, conduct at hollywoodfringe.org, and we will make sure to get back to people as soon as or really 24 hours. Uh we have a quick response time on that.

SPEAKER_16 21:02

Um Especially this time of year.

SPEAKER_13 21:04

Yeah, definitely. So now you have that outlet um that is a private space to come to us if something is happening. Okay, I think we all got that. We all got it. Yes, we're gonna, yes, we got it. Okay, let's we still have some less fun stuff. We're almost to the fun stuff. Uh let's talk about keeping it legal. So, okay, we're gonna keep our conduct, we're gonna keep transition, right? Um, we're gonna we're gonna keep our conduct in order. We got that. We are awesome humans and are gonna be awesome humans in the community. We're also going to keep all of our producer shit legal. Uh, because uh, yes, this is an indie arts festival. Yes, this is oftentimes people's first time producing. You are still responsible for following the laws that we all have to follow in this world. That means music, scripts, images, everything used in your show, you have to either own, have permission to use by the owner, or have rights and licensing too. Yes? Yes. And now that is important. We live in a world where. Um, it is even easier to find that information out. Um, AI and the internet, it's easy to search. Um, and people will come after you. And now there's still time, right? We don't open until the fourth. We have time. So if you're like, okay, I'm using that Beatles song and my show, and now I have some homework to do. And I'm not even kidding, and every song, and it's there's no such thing as parody law, is not a law, it is an argument in court. Um, and I don't know about you, but I can't afford to go to court over a thing that I can't fight, even if I get there. So let's all make sure we love a copyright-free music, we love um talking to friends. The amount of people in this room, you're in the community, like 300 people at office hours, you know, at least 100 of those people write music, play guitar. Like there's so many options. And it will only help your career moving forward. If you own or have like shared ownership of all of the materials in your show, that is so much easier to co-pro for a larger space. That is so much easier to tour around the world, or you can get the licensing that is all available. And Google is the best resource here. And we have an article on the artist hub called Keeping It Legal, um, that will also help point you into like those pathways because you can get the rights for music or the licensing to use songs. It is available and it's not as scary as it sounds, um, nor is it as expensive. It's based on ticket sales and it's a small, small percentage because you're not doing a you know 700-seat theater. So it's going to be at the scale of the indie work you are doing. Uh, so please, um, uh, because that is a that is a hard line. This is not like a if we don't catch you, it's fine. No, but don't do it because it does matter. Um, and I thank you for uh being smart producers and taking care of your business. And what are those that they we need? Music. Music, sound, script, visuals.

SPEAKER_16 23:46

That was fun, images in printed and digital marketing. Yes. Also, where did you get the images in your printed and digital marketing? Did you pull it from the internet and then edit it in Canva? Not legal! Not legal. You have to follow the law. You are liable because you signed a contract where we said you're liable because we're telling you about it. Sorry.

SPEAKER_13 24:06

Okay. Read your contract. Contract. And it and this is a great and naming too. Like this is, we know that this is a learning opportunity. And that's where like you're allowed to still learn. It doesn't mean you get out of doing it, right? And no, so now's the time to learn it and you have support it. We can help point you toward like keywords when you're looking for certain things, or you know, what catalogs that music might be in. We're here to support, like, help guide you through that journey. We're not like your lawyers, we can't do it for you. Um, but we're here to help guide you. So now's the time anyway, as opposed to in six months when you're doing the show totally by yourself and you don't have the resources of fringe staff, but also your fellow artists. The amount of knowledge in this room alone is crazy. And so talk to each other, learn from each other, um, and figure that out. That way, for the rest of your career, you're like, I'm not, I'm not afraid of music licensing anymore. I fully understand what steps are needed.

SPEAKER_16 24:50

Um, and there's two types of licenses. There's a license for that pre-show music, and then there's a license for the shows with this the sounds within your show. Grand rights is for within your show. Everything else is like a cabaret license. And I don't know if your venue has that. It is on you. You are the producer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 25:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_16 25:08

But we got- It's also free music, and there's so much free music out there too. There's a lot of artists that share their music for free and just for the promotion of it.

SPEAKER_13 25:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_16 25:15

So find out what you can do for free. If you need to do it for free, do it for free. But you gotta figure that out now. And you have to figure it out.

SPEAKER_13 25:22

And remember, the good news is it's we're an indie theater festival, which means not that you can get out of this legal stuff, but it does mean there's less expected. You're not, we're not walking into the Pantages expecting all of the things that come with a $70 ticket, right? Your audience, the amount of fringe shows I walk into, and because it's a quick 15-minute load-in, load out, there's no time for a whole pre-show situation. There's no time. Everyone is expecting story and heart. That's what they're expecting. They're not expecting bells and whistles and a full live band doing produced work. Um, so understand that. Hey, come on in. Um, okay, let's talk about fringe HQ. Come on. You're open. Uh, this is fringe workshop.

unknown 26:02

Oh no.

SPEAKER_13 26:04

Check us out in June. Always be marketing. Okay, fringe HQ. Um, fringe HQ on June 4th. It's, I don't know about y'all, these evening workshops are always just a different energy for me.

SPEAKER_16 26:21

You're you're getting us after a long workday. We're like, this is our vacation. We get to just tell you things.

SPEAKER_13 26:27

Yeah. So June 4th is when Fringe HQ opens. This year we are on the east side, which we are super excited about. Um, in past years, we were at a large mall at Hollywood and Highland, and that served for a minute, but tourism is down, and so we're going into the heart of the city. Um, also close to venues where there's not kind of a place to hang out in between shows. So know that on the east side, now that fringe central is going to kind of fill that gap. But that'll be your home during the festival. We have hours. We will only be there certain hours because there's like so many of us, and we will not be open until June 4th. That is important. Please do not send your postcards there. Please do not, you know, next week, oh, I have questions. I'm gonna go to fringe central to get or fringe HQ to get them asked. We won't be there. We don't own the space year-round. We rent it out for a small period of time in June. Uh, but in June, June 4th through the 28th, that space will be yours. It'll be ours. It'll be a space for audience and artists to come together. We'll have a bunch of events and we've started to list those at hollywoodfringe.org forward slash HQ. At the bottom of that page, there's a link that says artist events, and we're starting to add events to that now. So you can start to save those in your calendar. Um, it'll be open Wednesday through Sunday. Uh uh from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, it'll be 5 to 12 a.m. And then Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 12 a.m. Uh, so lots of hours, and that's where your postcards and your posters will be. Um, and it'll be really great, a really great time. Additionally, something we are announcing today that more information will go out in your newsletter next week. Uh, Lightning Round is back for any returners. So at Fringe Central, we have four days set aside to film your uh elevator pitch. Like we'll do quick films uh to get your shows on our social media so that you can promote is another free opportunity to promote your work um through the fringe platform. So check out the artist hub. It is currently in the marketing blog, which if you haven't checked that out, now is the time because cabaret signups are there, uh, runway signups are there, now lightning round. There's a ton of free chances for you to get your show out there. So please take advantage of those.

SPEAKER_16 28:21

Before we move on to the button, I just want to go back to what Fringe HQ is gonna be this year because it's in a brand new space. So we are gonna have a little front area that is um an open box office where people can come in and get tickets. And then at certain, there's going to be a partition that leads you into the artists and audience bar, which you all need to show a ticket that you came to see a fringe show, or you will need to show your button. So it's gonna be important that you bring your button around this year. Um, but you can also always show us, like, I'm an artist. You know, it's not too, we're not so strict on it. Uh, and but it will be also a bar space. And so for that, it will be 21 plus in that area. So people are who are not 21 can come to the box office area, but they cannot go past and go into the bar area. There will be like seating, hangout space, little photo op. Um, it's really quite it's quite nice, and it'll be a great place to hang out in between shows on the east side because after 5 p.m. everything closes.

SPEAKER_13 29:15

Yeah, absolutely. Um, and a great place just to know you have a body, like the staff is going to be there, which means when things are panicked, you can come and you know have a have a chat about what you're worried about on your show, or if you just need time with the community, because that that is a real thing, right? We're gonna be there. Okay, let's talk fringe button. That is your community badge. How many people picked up their button yesterday? Okay, yes. I wish I should have worn men, it was so silly. Um, but we have buttons. So if you're the primary producer, you got one or you get one for free. It's already been attached to your account. And then anyone, any member of your team has a $3 option, and then audience has them for $6. And what that button is, it's it's basically attached to your account so that you get $1 off all tickets. It's an automatic uh discount that you see on your page. And so, like when we started talking about those $1 off, that's what that button is. It also gives you discounts to local bars and restaurants throughout June. So June 4th through the 28th, we have neighboring businesses that take part. That way, artists and audiences can fringe all around town because people aren't just seeing one show and going home, right? They're seeing five. You gotta eat, you gotta drink, you gotta get that coffee. Uh, so we have, I think, 18 businesses on the list this year uh that'll give anywhere from, I know Formosa does like a free appetizer with any purchase. So you can go in, you know, buy a soda, and get a free um side order of egg rolls. So, like a great little pick-me-up, the plunge is doing a dollar off drinks, um, Jesse Boy does 10% off. So there's a lot of different options to make your fringing a little cheaper. Um, additionally, that button, and we'll talk more about it at the box office, but reminder for box office, it the button gets the dollar off on in-person sales as well. So remember that button, dollar off tickets, and you'll be good to go. Um, we've started having those available at office hours as of yesterday. So please come to office hours to pick up your button, or of course they'll be available at Fringe HQ the fourth through the 28th. And that will be your ticket into opening night. Um, so our opening night party is an artist event, which means you need a button to come in. So um if you want to buy them for your team, you can do that at office hours, or your team can buy their own. Um, but you're gonna need that button for opening night. Okay, I think that's about it.

SPEAKER_16 31:18

I'm gonna talk about what these heathens want. They want to know about awards. And I know because every uh every time everybody's like, how do I get awards? How do I get awards? And the truth is, I don't know.

SPEAKER_13 31:30

It changes every year.

SPEAKER_16 31:31

It changes every year. Sometimes a show wins something, and I'm like, really? And that programmer saw something in it that I didn't, and then I see that show a year later and I go, Well shit, I didn't see that, you know. It is awards are subjective, awards are competitive, awards don't matter. Some of the most successful shows will not get an award this year, and that does not mean that that show will not go on to another festival and win top of a festival. They are not everything. What is everything is looking at the list of awards and seeing what opportunities are available to you, picking a couple that seem really in your wheelhouse. You research their programming, you decide that that is the place for you, and you don't pursue them for an award, you pursue them because you want them to book you within five years. You develop a relationship by inviting them to your show. You're not super pushy. If you email me a lot of times, I do not have time for you because the arts are underfunded and everybody is exhausted. And you have to remember that every single one of our awards presenters is too, because remember, we're not Netflix. So it's not, it's not NBC who is coming out, it is small agencies that then might get picked up. And then we've seen huge things happen because of like people taking risks together, and that's what this environment is. This is an indie art festival, it's a premier indie arts festival, uh, it's uh really cool. There's some good opportunities. So you use this list to decide I'm interested in this. You do not do your show for an award. If you do your show for an award, you will not win an award. It is it comes off in the energy. It is not good. Yes, you have to believe in your show because you believe in your show, not because you want somebody else to believe in it. I'm never gonna believe in it if you don't already just go, I know that in five years I want to travel to Denver, and then I want to travel to, you know, right down uh the lane to Ventura, and then I want to do this in Los Angeles, and you find those things, and you don't do, you don't say I want to do all the international awards. You pick one international award that seems really fitting for your show. And you pick one local opportunity, two local opportunities, and then others might come to you. You would you have no idea how many of our awards presenters are actually also just here to book out seasons, to just see what's out there. You might not win the award, you might not even be nominated, but a year later they might go, Hey, that fits in my programming. Yes, they were super cool, and I'm and they they said they had a recording. Maybe I'll reach back out for the recording. Maybe that's a reason to do a recording. I don't know.

SPEAKER_13 34:13

Well, and and I think there's examples in this room. I'm looking around, people who maybe didn't win an award, but got an opportunity through an award presenter later because they saw the work, they got to know the artist. Like it happens. And so the awards, look at it as like a I'm gonna learn about what like last year I had so many people go, Oh my god, I didn't even realize there were festivals in Australia. Like that didn't even occur to me that I could go. And now there's this award that's letting me know, like, oh my god, I can go. And now people are going with or without the award. It's about kind of gaining understanding of what could be next for you and then applying to the ones that you're super interested in, and then maybe that becomes a little easier than you'd planned on, right?

SPEAKER_16 34:48

Should you be able to go and produce your show and be picked up immediately? Yes. And I want to also validate that it sucks. It sucks how much artists have to put money into this career over and over and over again. And our industry is in an especially weird place here in Los Angeles. And we should just also recognize that and make sure that we are keeping strong through that and that we're going to be the new version of what it is that we don't know what that is, you know. Um but what's cool is that there are awards, there are people who come and look at work and they are building this with us too because they are coming to see these shows and they're blown away by the talent that is here in Los Angeles. Like, literally, I I've been working at Fringe for 10 years, and like people used to be like, what's Fridge? French festival. Like, they did not understand what the word fringe was. Like, because and and if they did, they only have understood the context of Edinburgh. Like, so this is like a really special time where there actually are people who do understand what fringe is, and so let's take advantage of that, but then also realize that that doesn't completely change the game of our industry, and that it's still, it's just not, it's just not. I don't want to promise you things that I can't promise you.

SPEAKER_13 35:59

Don't let it mess with your vibes, let it be a bonus. But like go in there just trying to do good work, be professional while you're doing it, and make relationships. The relationships are going to be the real reward here because you never know what the person next to you can actually make happen for you.

SPEAKER_16 36:11

And that means your artists too. So many of our artists work together after this festival. They bring each other up. It is it is lateral, and there are also these other opportunities that I'm gonna talk about now. So community awards, these are your people. These are voted on by the community and presented at the awards ceremony with a cute little trophy. And it's not a freak this year, it's different. Um, and because we we retired the freaks last year, but it's super cute. Um, and it will now stay the same again for years to come. Um, they are these are developed divided out by your category. So what you selected as your category, that's what you're competing in. Solo shows, you got a lot of heat. That's a that's a big category. Um, you know, um, some of ours are really rinky dinky. Uh, but these awards are uh these they're they're they're all those the categories. And then we also have uh best international, world premiere, and then top of fridge. Um so how this is voted on. Everybody in this room, every artist receives a ballot at the end of the festival to vote for the community awards uh for these reasons. If you are a participant or of any manager or you're added to a project, you get to vote. If you reserve tickets for three or more shows on the Hollywood Fringe website, you get to vote. If you've written three or more reviews, aka you are always the plus one, but you've written three reviews, you've seen three shows, and we can qualify it, you get to vote. Um, we do this, and this all gets emails, and that last weekend of the festival, it's a quick email turnaround. The nominees are the top of that list, and then there's no like second round of voting, and just those are the nominees, and then the top one is who got the most votes. Um, so uh with this, um, it is a trust exercise with our community. And we say this every year. We are so small. This is how we run our voting system, and in it, we're like, please make sure that you don't vote for a category that you haven't seen at least two chosen. Please do not vote in categories that you have no no um no uh no reason to. And we know that people don't do that all the time, but we're asking you to. I'm asking you to. There's there's no other way for us to do this in in our structure. Um, the productions with the most votes in a sweet given category are announced as nominees hours prior to the ceremony. So that morning we send you guys an email being like, these are the nominees. Uh, and then the ultimate winners are revealed at the ceremony on that Monday. Um, and so voting closes at 10 a.m.

SPEAKER_13 38:35

We figure it out closer too, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_16 38:37

Yeah, for the voting closes after the last show is done. Like we try to make sure that the last show is done now that we have it on Monday, and then we figured out. Um, you will get an email about all of this. It will be in your email, there will be deadlines. You take that, you put that in your calendar when we email it to you. Uh, so that is like the popularity contest. Woo!

SPEAKER_13 38:54

Can I really quick just to put it into context of like what can you do, right? Because it's like so much of this is out of your control. I think the only thing to know now, like we talk about goals, having two goals for the festival. If like it shouldn't be, but if your goal is awards, the the focus has to be on papering the house or bringing people in who are seeing other shows. So I think that's a real takeaway. If that is super, super important to you, inviting outside people who are not seeing more than your show, that is not going to help your vote at all. So just clocking that that's just math. Um, and otherwise, again, but awards don't matter.

SPEAKER_16 39:24

Those awards go to people who show up to everything and who I see being like, oh, I want to go to your show. They see like 40 shows. They are, these are the people who are who are festival people. And that might not be you, which is why we also have a totally different category. This is the Discover Fringe Awards. These are awards sponsored by outside organizations. Um, these awards tend to be more specific than community awards and might include monetary gifts, an extension of the show's run. Um, and it depends on what the presenter is is interested in. Um, these awards are officially public. We put them out. If you didn't put them, see them in this week's newsletter. Read the newsletter because people have already applied. You know, you're behind. Um, but you don't, but you're not behind if you didn't apply. You're behind if you didn't know that this existed. Um your goal is to apply for this before the festival starts. Yeah. And just put in an application. Your goal is not to hound people before the festival starts, being like, hey, it's June 3rd and you haven't said that you're going to go see my show. Um, most of our presenters come the last week of the festival. So you're gonna have like a different-tiered approach to this. I will tell you in five seconds how you're gonna approach this, but first I want to give you some more rules. Um, these awards are at hollywoodfringe.org slash news. If you're like, oh my god, I need the link. That's there. Um, it is up to you to apply for a discover fringe awards. You are not automatically considered uh based on the category you're in. You have to opt into these awards. Um, each has different criteria, some have applications, some just go, hey, hit me up. It depends on the type of presenter that they are and what they are looking for. Some have a Google form, some you have to reach out to the presenter directly. It's all in that in that little news article. Pay attention to the award requirements. Know how excited everyone I know that you're getting, I'm reading our um press director's words here, and I'm gonna read them exactly because they're perfect. Pay attention to award requirements. I know how excited everyone gets about awards, and you want to be considered for as many as possible. But so many of these have specific requirements, and I encourage you to not copy and paste the same message to each award presenter. Really read the requirements and make sure you qualify before reaching out. So, what your email is gonna be is hi blank, I saw you program blank Elmo.

SPEAKER_13 41:40

Oh boy, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_16 41:42

Yeah, I went full Muppet. So hi blank, I saw you program at blank theater blank type of work. You're already showing them that you did your research. Then you give me three sentences about why they should see your show with a link to maybe a larger press release, maybe to your project page if you don't have that in there. Just sending your link to your project page. I think you might be interested. I would love to arrange comps for you. Thank you. And then if they put something else that they want in that requ that awards requirement, you make sure that you add that in. I'm saying this is like if they don't tell you what to do, that's how you email them. If they tell you what to do, email them how they tell you to do it. Because people are all different. But if I were you, that would be my basic template. It would be, hey, blank, I did research and I understand that you do blank. Because if you do not understand what they do, they don't have time.

SPEAKER_13 42:34

They don't want to know what you do. I mean, like if they they don't know that you're actually interested in taking the opportunity, why are they going to go to see your show instead of the five people who did say, Hey, you your program from New York, I have family in New York, I can sell this house, I would be a perfect show for this. Why? Why is such an important question?

SPEAKER_16 42:49

I saw that you did another cabaret. I'm a cabaret performer that I've actually worked with that person before. They're fabulous. Like, you know what I mean? Like you can be, you can name drop if you want to. I guess you don't shouldn't name drop all the time. It's kind of with gauche. But like, but like it's I think the most important thing is like your fucking email comes across as like kind and competent. Yeah. Like if you can come across as kind and competent, you're making great connection. And then you just have to have a killer show because that's the first step. The real important thing is having a great show with great energy that has an audience. If you're wanting these curated awards, you also have to think about having full houses and not papering them all the way. Have showing off that you can actually have people come to see your work because you matter. And you do. You just have to tell us why because we don't know you yet. Does that make sense? Uh okay, uh Discover Fringe Industry Program. There's a lot of opportunity that doesn't fit into our awards program. So we also run the Discover Fringe Industry Program. Thank God I got sponsored this year, which means we've been able to expand it a little bit. And really, what that is, is it's um thank you, dropout. Sorry, didn't even say that. Thank you. out for sponsoring that. Um so I'm gonna read exactly what Carly said here because again, she writes really good language. A focus of artwork is your success in the post-Fringe world. We want Fringe to be both a safe space to grow your artistry and a launching pad for future endeavors. This program really speaks to that launch pad mission of helping you take your show to the next level. The industry program doesn't have as many tangible guarantees as our awards um but so many opportunities for you to learn, get your name out there and think about what's next. We're trying to involve as many people as possible from the arts and entertainment industries so that fringe artists can meet arts leaders and potentially take their shows beyond fringe. That this year that includes potential to get industry folks to your show, which works like our press program. So just like you would comp in a press person, you might get a Discover Fringe hey nod that is not on our awards list. They just might be coming to scout for like maybe they're doing a festival in a different area and they're coming to see work um that is specific to their festival. So they are not going to be people you reach out to they are going to reach out to you and we're gonna help them get through the program because basically what we do is we send them like here's how you search our categories and then yes. The other thing that you can uh get from that is the Discovery Fringe Awards. We already talked about that. And the last thing that is really really important which is our special education and networking events with industry folks. So we have these special events with people from different opportunities where they'll come in. Some of them will be your awards presenters a lot of them won't be and there will be time for you to like directly ask questions, network, make connections and get to know your fellow industry folks um I'll go through these one by one. Potential to get industry folks are your shows the you there are there are arts industry folks that are active are interested in fringe and are scouting work but aren't presenting an award. Some of these folks have industry access in our system and request a comp ticket. Remember these folks are not offering something tangible but are definitely connected in the arts and interested in fringe in general many of them might have like a I want to program them gram this on my season but I have to see the right show before I know if I'm gonna take a risk. That would be the majority of these places they are usually higher level it's usually something where you would get like a fee rather than you know those types of things. It's it's less of a yeah and then some of them are smaller and they but they are still worthwhile opportunities and they scout in different categories. So remember industry is not always looking for that biggest brightest show. Sometimes you also will find the industry at your level where maybe you're not ready for a big big institution to come and swoop you in but you might be ready for like a small playhouse in Arcata or in or in these other areas to take some some of your work in um that being said you do not have to say yes to everyone you look at what they do they pitch in why they want to see your show and you might be like you know what I'm actually so close to selling out and I don't think I can at this time but I really appreciate you having an interest in my show and I'd love to keep in contact and I actually have like this like little press kit if you'd like to learn more about the show and how you can catch it. You can also just say no but I I wouldn't I would I would be nice better. The Discover of fringe awards we already talked about networking opportunities. We'll have three years three events um four events four events we will have one we are having one on May 26th uh which is coming up on a Tuesday night we announced soon publicly but on Monday we're announcing it from 5 to 7 p.m and that's with Edinburgh Fringe Society they're coming and doing if you're going to Edinburgh they're coming and being like this is how you do it. If so if you want to do Edinburgh in the next um this year or in like future years the programs uh the artist services director artist services yeah so um curse we love her is coming out for for world fringe and so she's coming and giving a whole panel it's like pretty much one of your only opportunities to meet somebody from Edinburgh out here in the next couple of years so if you are interested in doing that please come to that panel. We will also be live streaming it and recording it so that you can have access to that as well. That is on Tuesday the 26th from 5 p.m to 7 p.m at the activist kitchen um we will have three events then at HQ. One is meet the award presenters which is where we have all of most of the awards presenters every year. They come they talk they they they they are merry it's very lovely. And then two uh two like panels that are more less awards focused but more like other opportunities focused one panel what's next after fringe that'll uh be institutions that are local but also national who will be talking about other ways like what you should be doing with your show next is going to be a super helpful panel. And then the next one is building your show beyond the fringe with uh dropout and that will be dropouts team coming and being like this is the state of the industry these are the things that you need to have in your toolbox if you want to be working in this like very new like indie streaming world that is building. And so it's very specific to that. And so uh these panels are education they're literally just like come learn about what's going on and then also just say hey I'm this person. I went and I saw you at this like you know two years from now you might see that person and be like I saw you speak at that Hollywood French thing and now I'm ready to pitch to you.

SPEAKER_13 49:12

So please come um we at this point are not having full limit tickets so please uh please sign up for them they are on the website yeah all right let's go into press and like naming press and industry work very much the same so I think if you understand kind of the methodology behind either one you're gonna understand the other at the end of the day think about Hollywood fringe is working behind the scenes to get as many press and industry people to know about fringe to know how to navigate fringe to know we're kind of matchmaking okay this you know red cat you do experimental like clown crazy work we're gonna make sure you know how to search for the you know the clown the uh the um out of the box this avant-garde tag like so the tags are important you guys you know what is up there they say how we search for them yeah but we're trying so we're looking big picture right we're never we're not gonna be like this is that one show but it's like here's some shows based on what you're telling me you like that you should look into. We're doing that work. So we're pulling in as many press and industry people into the the community as possible. And then you're getting access to them by way of coming to these events like Alan talked about but also by way of them having access to request comps. And again like we really do like and every festival every fringe is going to work differently but we truly believe in the autonomy of the artist. And so you do have that full control to to accept or deny any of these asks and so I think this is a great chance for you as an artist to also kind of learn like your advocacy and your like boundaries and as an artist and there's nothing wrong with and especially I'm gonna name with press press is going to be different. There's going to be publications from you know we're gonna have the the higher level press and then we're going to have blogs because all of it is important depending on what your goals are. So no like we're we're auditing press and industry before we give them comp request access you still have access to say no but before we even give them access to our site to request the comps we've done a basic audit there people they they are in fact publiciz uh they're they're putting out reviews they are in fact like booking for something or have an like a they're a casting director here like we're doing that audit but it's up to you to decide where where they are in the level of importance for you and your work at this time. And so with press we're marketing it as a whole and we have press already signing up so you might have received some emails that said so and so from so and so so and such is interested in coming to your show. So what happens there just like the nuts and bolts of it all is you get an email directly the primary producer, right? This is one of those like five we talk about it earlier like those five things that the primary producer, this is it's time to put that hat on, friends like now is your time uh you're gonna get an email that's going to say so and so wants to come and see your show at next date, whatever. And you're gonna click on that link directly and by clicking on that link it's gonna show up like your project page is going to magically appear directly from that email and then you're gonna hit accept or deny. Like that is all it is and then it's done and they're automatically entered in the site. You do not have to do anything more. Now the alternative is maybe you're doing your own press reach out because you should be right it works just like a manager like if you're if you're an actor and you have an agent and a manager are you not actively hustling on your own too same game, right? We're hustling for you but you got to hustle for yourself because there's 500 of you like whether you've got to hustle for yourself. So you should be reaching out to press and hell you might have relationships we don't have like don't shut sell yourself short in that way too you're reaching out to press that's gonna be a different setup for you. You're not gonna get an email from Hollywood fringe if you've made a relationship outside of Hollywood fringe right and so that's when you're gonna go reach out to them directly you're gonna have a conversation you're going to comp them in through the website you're gonna use that comp ticket button on your performances right has everyone kind of investigated the performance edits now at this point now that tickets are on sale we've kind of all seen that and if not you're gonna go to our web session where you can see all of it online. Yes. So it is up to you remember like it it really is going to be what you make it what what you put in is going to be what you get out of it. And so like if you're actively reaching out to press and creating a press kit and giving them a reason to write it's not just it's not copy or paste like Ellen was saying same with industry. It's not saying hey here's my press release come see my show all right why like why am I gonna see that it's why does this publication what have they reviewed that is similar to your show oh you reviewed X show and gave it a like a really great review I can tell you really enjoyed that show. You are going to love my show because X. And so really it's personal it's creative. You're all artists use that artistry use that creativity in every aspect of the producing because it does shine and it does matter. Okay you're gonna post your press release on the website. How many people have done that already okay not enough but not bad. So not bad though. So we're doing all right uh but we're gonna go to that press uh release it's called press release tab and you're gonna add your press release there y'all and it doesn't have to be anything crazy like Google press releases we have articles on the website that will help guide you into how to make that um but I all I can say like I mean it's pretty cut and dry you're gonna put the basic information in there that Google tells you that we tell you in the article it's not rocket science. But I if I can encourage you to have fun with it like what is it about your show that is going to have people go, oh like what what? Like use whatever you have like know your show the using these materials will help you know your show well enough to sell it to the press, to industry, to market it on social media. Just the more you know about your show and what makes it special will help you in all of these areas. Okay so when we leave today we're gonna go put our press release up on the tab because again press is already signing up I think we have already like 17, 18 people that have logged into the website that are registered. So they're looking for those press releases. And like I said you're gonna do your research you're gonna find out who has covered fringe before who has covered similar shows who has covered shows in LA who is still an active press person that changes every year. The LA theater press game is not great. I'm not gonna pretend it is so also like understand your expectations press for you could be a food blog it could be an influencer. Press has changed I mean yeah at this point I think influencers have more influence than the average press person. So there's no rule here it's about like press and marketing can be very hand in hand um depending on what your goal is with that. And reviews are just as important at press as press. So many people will use certified review which comes from an audience member it comes from your mom for all I know. And certified review if it's a good review about your show that's gonna put a button a seat in the same way like a press article is in a lot of ways. Like the way audiences are taking in press is changing and adapting. And so any marketing is marketing.

SPEAKER_16 55:32

I want to reiterate there are no staff writers that are doing theater in a real way here in Los Angeles. It's just not like you're not gonna get the Herald who has like three arts people who are coming down and they're reviewing French shows all month long. Like unfortunately we're also not Edinburgh where we're like this institution since 1947 where their press is reliant on it. We don't have that. So it is a different market and again getting views on your page is like the most important thing which is why social media marketing can sometimes be stronger and some of the best investigative journalism is being done by some of these small press publications that might have, you know, not as many followers but they have enough where you're making an influence.

SPEAKER_13 56:15

Yeah absolutely so but I think the takeaway here is remember to sell yourself in in the press world too do your research and then check your emails I think in general after today let's be checking our emails every day like maybe take one day off because mental health matters but like be checking your emails to make sure that if you did get that maybe because you probably worked your ass off to get whatever this publication is and they finally email and then you miss like letting them get that comp and they don't come what a bummer don't do that to yourself. So check your emails okay I think I mean that's that's the just in press and obviously email at uh support at hollywoodfringe.org with any questions if you're having trouble providing that comp, let us know. We got you. Um and that's I think we do questions.

SPEAKER_16 56:53

Well and press was already a town hall. So if you're like that wasn't enough go go listen to our other ones we have so much advice but that they're old you know you gotta listen to them there.

SPEAKER_13 57:04

Yeah so okay for questions like we already said always be marketing your show so we're gonna bring the live stream mic around. If you have a question raise your hand when I hand you the square mic uh give us your name and the name of your show so that you're starting to market.

SPEAKER_16 57:18

And the things you can ask about so that we don't get off topic are everything we've talked about already. No our our participant resources like what resources we have for people are our ethos and code of conduct um our press and industry programs and that's it.

SPEAKER_12 57:33

Yeah the rest will come strict okay yes hello I'm Jessica Glassberg I am producing my husband's one man show I Suck a vampire comedy not autobiographical it is about a vampire who sucks at being a vampire has been around a thousand years and is just damn bad at it. I have two questions one is for the awards um it seems like a lot of the awards have the same questions are those the same questions every year is my first question because then it would be great to know like oh well if I do this again I can prepare for that ahead of time. And my other question is for comps for anyone or for industry or for press do they still pay the fringe fee or is it comped outright? Thank you.

SPEAKER_13 58:35

Yeah um I'm gonna answer the second one first because it's quicker. Um comp anything that's zero dollars or comped, there's no service fee. So the service fee is directly attached to a processing fee where a credit card is swiped and so yeah anything free none of that um and then I'm guessing the exchange awards uh is kind of probably where a lot of that question came in. Yeah. So specifically those uh the exchange awards are kind of done as a bundle because there's one person on this end, me, um, organizing all of the different questions from the partnering festivals and from like because they're they're not all coming in as much as we would love to have Sydney French here they can't always make it. So they do change year to year, but we keep probably for the most part the same structure unless they're looking for something entirely different. I know Atalia Off recently changed they found the interactive work didn't do super well at their festival. So we changed you know some of the questions to make sure that like we were getting the right information for them to be able to build a shortlist and build a winner based on those questions. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 59:31

Oh my burst yeah I got you low that's not question maybe it's a lot of uh I'm shine say um my show is called uh Ritual Music to cure a lover gonna be at Mad Nani um the the forms for the uh for the awards so there's there's a form and there's also some of them have another link that you can write freely like there there's no structure to it.

SPEAKER_13 1:00:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:06

So I wasn't sure what to do with it.

SPEAKER_13 1:00:08

So yeah it's it's the two there's always gonna be an option to the email is going to be there if you have a question about the award. But if there's a form, trust the form is enough. Um and the form is gonna give the person making the decision all the information they need.

SPEAKER_16 1:00:21

And some people do not have a form and then you're gonna send that lovely email remember saying I see that you have this award with this requirement this is how I fit it uh this is why you should care about my show. Thank you. I saw that you programmed X. It was really cool and we're just like it. Bye you know or whatever. You know but it that's where those emails come in.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:41

And should I feel free to just write as much as I want like just from the or or stay within the structure that you suggested in the forms. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_13 1:00:51

So I'll I'll specify for the exchange awards the email goes to me to please just use that for questions as much I love y'all but the the the the partnering festivals are using the form. So the extras is not really gonna help. I think with outside organizations if it's not like a fringe partnering festival award um there's no harm in saying like hey like a little extra of like if it's not in the forum but remember in the same way that you have no time neither do the presenters and so I think just making sure you find that balance of if they need to know if this is important that they know this to be to consider your show, great.

SPEAKER_16 1:01:22

If it's not learn how to shorten that email so they can read it in one sitting otherwise they might I think you should use I think you should use the template of like hey do this like and then link to something bigger because the truth is is that until you get their interest, they don't care. You just have to give them five sentences about why they care and then link to the press release or to your page where there's much more information for them to investigate about you because then you have more to reveal about yourself as you develop your relationship. But what you're really trying to prove to them is that you understand the opportunity they are giving out that you're actually interested in that opportunity and that you would fit in that program for X reason. Those are the three things you have to bring across and it should not be longer than that. I I would really say edit, edit, edit.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:11

Tom Waldman uh my play is Things We said tonight about the chance encounter between a Republican congresswoman and a liberal gay playwright at an abandoned restaurant in Los Angeles and what happens as a consequence. So the the media doing reviews reviews reviews and I get that do they ever do feature stories on a show? Do they ever do a story on a show about some angle about that's not necessarily a review but something interesting that catches their attention I saw you had one today right wasn't there something some article that you got today John Schnitzer My Show is something spooky.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:55

My grandmother had an imaginary friend that turned out to be not so imaginary it's a a paranormal comedy show that that'll give you goosebumps.

SPEAKER_13 1:03:03

Yeah we got the AP I've been I put together a press kit uh we just with my wife we spent like three days really thinking about why this why me why now type of stuff you know that's like the real and then putting it getting some images together that can grab somebody and getting out there here's and I do have a question it's there's a spot to put press releases on the website is there a spot when we get press to add that on there too so what most shows do is they put it in their long description remember the long description can be as long as you want it to but that's where you start to triage you prioritize you still need the information about your show at the top and then you trickle down you can add in those reviews to like as additional selling points later. But yeah I love that it speaks to the creativity. I think the the biggest or most celebrated article last year um was the Hollywood reporter that focused in on TV and film actors doing Hollywood fringe shows, doing theater and so yes there were reviews about the shows in there but the point of the article was to TV and film actors doing theater. And so I think oftentimes that is the more exciting article right I think so too.

SPEAKER_16 1:04:09

And I think that you need to figure out what your pitch is about your show. Like do not pitch it as it's part of Hollywood fringe boring like okay we're pitching biggest festival ever there's all of these amazing shows but you're telling them why you stand out within the program and why you deserve promotion for your show within this like rather large program. So just make sure that you have your press releases about that.

SPEAKER_13 1:04:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_15 1:04:35

Questions I think we see one oh hi um my name is Christina Tinda Jasenski my show is called Glossolalia it's an American gothic two-hander about a preacher's daughter and her father's protege and they have sex outside the man in church and things go wrong. I uh my question is regarding press kits and formatting is there anything to be a aware of like should it be on like a document or in like a sort of like a a PowerPoint what would you suggest? I don't want to overwhelm with like images and videos if your show is not a visual show you don't sell it through visuals.

SPEAKER_16 1:05:14

If your show is a visual show you sell it through visuals. So it's so dependent on you your branding like what you want to come across as some of the most successful people I met send me a fucking Word document and I'm like what the fuck is this? It looks but it works because they're selling their brand and their brand is a little bit I'm off kilter and I'm just a little crazy but I sell out my shows you know like that is their brand like and then some people are like I have the most beautiful press kit and I slowly methodically go through and I make intentional connections with people and I build audiences slowly through this method. And then some people fit in between those. So I would say that there's not like a right or wrong press kit. I think what it is is about making sure that it's not long. So if you're doing a PowerPoint it's not eight PowerPoints, it's four. Like our sponsorship deck, for instance, is four, four slides. Like you just have to be so quick. So what you're trying to make sure, no matter if it's in a Word document, if it's in a Google Doc, if it's in Canva, or it's bespoke made by a designer, it's efficient and it gets the point across. So that might be a full two spread of imagery that you're trying to evoke and then some wording and something that like really brings something in. Or it might be uh, you know, something just a little bit more of like, here's a Word document that has my press release and a link to my social because you can learn more just by opening my social page than you can learn through me providing you a PowerPoint, you know? So it I think it's gonna be just like you, you are building your brand through you doing your French show. And so lean into whatever that brand is. Is it creating bespoke little trailers? Is it having like a really stellar like little press release that c uh and press kit that has things, the things you want in your press kit that are eat that are just non-negotiables, your press release, and easy to pull images. So you want to make sure within that Google folder, they don't have to go back and ask you for imagery for your show to include in the article. You have a vertical option, you have a horizontal option, you have a square option because for some reason people didn't update what Instagram did. They're still doing squares. And you have every version there so you don't have to work worry about it later because now you have a branding kit for your show. So it's about having those things in as much as the PowerPoints, they work. And I've seen people who have like beautiful things, and I look at it, I'm like, I'm sold on the show because this is like this is the format I needed to know the show in. And then I've seen like this didn't need to be, this could have been an email, you know, like kind of format. So I think like just like think about like the intentionality about why you're putting your information out there and what it is, and look for like an aesthetically similar show that's successful and follow them because they did it successfully. So maybe you should just like don't steal their ideas, don't like copy their imagery, but you can be like, oh, they presented it this way. Ooh, interesting. I'm now gonna make my own bespoke fonts, my own colors, my own interpretation of this.

SPEAKER_15 1:08:07

Yeah. Quick clarifying. Uh sorry. So just to clarify, um, like if we do have something in a PowerPoint, but then we also want them to be able to access the images for their own use, should that be a separate folder that we share in addition to the PowerPoint? Is it okay to send more than one like thing in an email? I don't know.

SPEAKER_16 1:08:26

What I would do is I would do what you call an EPK, which is usually like for me, like the most common that I get is a Google folder. And it has a press release in it. It might have an attachment to a four-page PowerPoint to explain visually what's going on because it's not enough. And then they'll have the images that that we can pull. And even as industry, we get that when we go on tour because people are like, this is the easiest way to get to my know my show because this is how I would be marketing it. So you're basically just telling future presenters that this is how I'm planning to market my show, but then you're also telling press and industry, like, this is how I'm marketing my show.

unknown 1:09:02

Cool.

SPEAKER_16 1:09:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:09:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's at hollywoodfridge.org forward slash news. It was the last article we posted on our blog.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:35

Okay, good god, thank you. And then now the key question as uh puts our sci-fi horror anthology. I were were was curious.

SPEAKER_13 1:09:54

Yeah, I think our Facebook group is always a great way to connect or coming to office hours. And like I think at office hours, my favorite tip is always to kind of come in with a goal, come in with a mission, because it also makes networking a little easier. When I don't know, I'm someone I need to have a reason to do something as opposed to I'm gonna come and talk at people. That's so uncomfortable for me. So I would say come to office hours and just go, like, I'm gonna find five people with similar shows and start to ask about like the more people you introduce yourself to, the more show titles you're gonna hear. And then you're gonna start to build those relationships. And then the Facebook group as well. It's just Hollywood Fringe, it's an official Facebook group. Like, pop it in there and say, hey, I'm looking for fellow shows in the sci-fi uh genre mix, and I would love to like cross-promote. I would love like always, I think stating intentionality is also really helpful. People want to know why you're asking a question. And so it can be like, I'm looking forward to you know, cross-promoting, sharing marketing, or just like hanging out with like my fellow like genre peeps, like whatever it is. But I think the Facebook group and office hours. Yeah.

SPEAKER_16 1:10:50

I think we're gonna keep going that way. We can cover everything, and then we're gonna have another round of questions um be at the end. And we don't have that much more to cover, so we'll have plenty of time for people's questions.

SPEAKER_13 1:10:59

Okay, so we're gonna jump into pre-show speeches. Um, hopefully you've already read your emails. And oh, do you have questions on the chat?

SPEAKER_10 1:11:07

No, I was excited to read your speech. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_16 1:11:11

Roddy's really thrilled.

SPEAKER_13 1:11:14

We need to have one more time for me, Roddy. That's all the answer is my hand. You're doing great. I think it was this. Okay. Sorry, back to back to one. Okay, pre-show. Roddy's so excited for. Do you want to take this one away? Um, pre-show speeches. So hopefully you read your artist emails and you already know about pre-show speeches, and you're all good. Um, so Hollywood Fringe um requires that you have a land acknowledgement in your pre-show speech. Um, we said it here and we we say it at every event, Hollywood Fringe, or you can be your show or your venue acknowledges we are in the unceded lands of the Gabrielino Tongva and Chumash peoples. Our statement serves as a practice as we commit to furthering our connection to Indigenous communities, past, present, and emerging. You can use ours. You, if you have your own that you want to specify to the specific location in which your venue is in, it is up to you as long as one exists and it is done thoughtfully and with respect, obviously. Uh, we also have the option if your show maybe starts out really intensely and you don't want to have any sound, any announcement at all playing, like uh something on the screen is totally fine. Like we're super open to how it is done as long as it is done and it's done respectfully and with care. Um, your venue might require that you have a you all have the same pre-show speech. I know Broadwater does, I know several venues do. They're already on that. They have the same information you do. So you don't have to worry about it if that's the case. Um, but additionally, if you are at the in a venue and you're in a show where you are worried about it, you are doing your own pre-show speech. You again have to have that land acknowledgement. We beg you, please talk about being in a festival. Um, that is a really big thing. A shared audience is so important. It's a shared ecosystem. The more people understand that they are seeing a show in a festival, the better chance your fellow artist is going to have to get that butt into their seat as well. This is not stealing audience, this is sharing audience. So the more as a whole we can remember we're a part of a festival, the more audience will go to all of your shows. Um, and we have that available on the artist hub. We have the recordings. Ellen and I recorded, I think, three or four different versions. Um, when we were both sick, fun fact. So we have really low and growly voices. We sound really cool this time.

SPEAKER_16 1:13:18

We're usually we sound like, hey, kind of salesman. Like this time, we're like, hey, we're gonna we sell cars. It's still really hokey.

SPEAKER_13 1:13:26

So just to get you to go to that article. Um, they we have recordings, we also have scripts. If you did want to record your own, there's nothing wrong with doing that. Uh again, we just require that you use the land acknowledgement or a land acknowledgement, and we ask you to talk about the festival as a whole. Uh, so make sure you're doing that. And if you haven't already talked to your venue, make sure you do. That way you know whether you're responsible for that or they are. Okay. That's it for me.

SPEAKER_16 1:13:48

I get I get this read Lois' language. It's so funny. This is always funny. Your admin tab has everything you need to be a boss producer. The view button on each individual performance will give you all of the day of tools where you can send and reserve comps. So, like, the really important thing is that you are using the admin tab of your website and you are familiarizing yourself with the tools under it. I'm gonna talk about what those tools are.

SPEAKER_13 1:14:13

Because who's a boss producer?

SPEAKER_16 1:14:16

Okay, we're not who is um so uh the view button on each individual performance important will give you all of the day of tools. So there, there is uh a place where you can send an email, uh, a pre and post-show email to your ticket buyers. It says send message and you go click and then it shows all of them. And you're gonna be like, uh, not that person. Unclick. Like it's so easy, it's so user-friendly, it is such a great way. I highly, highly, highly encourage you to send two emails for each show. Your pre-show and your post-show. Your pre-show, here's where you park. We don't let people in late. If you're late, I'm so sorry my venue might not let you in. Like, really hit that across the head because your audiences that are your friends do not understand that there might be a hundred shows in a building, but you do. So you really impress that upon people via email. Some people like to send like a week ahead of time, and then they send the day of, being like, remember, parking is here. What's really cool is that we have this program called the Hotspot program. And this year we expanded it to be parked dine and fringe. So we will have this email language. We will literally give you some language that you can send people to bars, restaurants, and parking around your venue. You don't have to worry about it. We have that mapped out for each of the venues. That will be in your participant newsletter soon. You don't have to worry about it today. Okay. Um, but it's really important that you send that pre-email with like parking, food, bathroom information, remind uh it's it's really important. Then the debut, so you're doing this day before your show. You're also gonna double check that you have your accessibility request a week before the show, you're gonna check the accessibility requests. Okay, I don't have any. You go in the day of the show, you're like, ah, I need to make sure that I have an armless chair because I have somebody who needs to sit in an armless chair. Most of our venues have that. Most of them are used to making these accommodations, but it's really important that when you come in, you don't come in at your 15-minute load on time, you go, I need a chair. You go, you come in and you come in maybe a little bit early. You like remember that there might be a chair around. You set everybody up, you're all calm, and then you you calmly to your stage manager go, I can move this chair, right? And they go, You got it, pal. And if they they're they're the type in your friends, you don't have to ask them to move it, that's fine. But like also, like if you're not, then you ask. Um so accessibility requests. There's uh we're gonna talk a little bit more about that in a second. Your post-show message, that's when you're gonna send them like, go see more friend shows. Here are five shows I recommend. Because if you do that to your shows, your friends will do that for you. And that's how you get ticket sales. That's how word of mouth happens, is that you have your five buddies, like we keep saying, there are going to be five like-minded, amazing producers that you guys can share audience, build those people now because you're gonna, in your post show, be like, these are the five shows I recommend, and you're gonna have like an exchange with those five shows where they might send it out for you, and you can make that up however you want. Um, but it is an important way. You're also gonna ask them to leave you a review because you know, the next time you do a show, your mom leaving a review on your review page, they don't know. Maybe you have a different last name, maybe you leave off the last name. But Sarah said that it was an amazing show and you have a great poll quote and you are starting your career. And then there's gonna be people who, you know, you might get an audience member that has a notable name. You are going to use a review. It's gonna be so important to you that some big LA theater person said that it was an incredible show for your for them. So you're gonna really want to make sure that every audience member gets a reminder via email to review. We also send them automated, but that personal touch is what gets them to actually do it.

SPEAKER_13 1:17:49

And then um again with that why, why does it matter? It would really help me in my career and then what's next for the show if you reviewed this, like giving them the why.

SPEAKER_16 1:17:59

And then also, uh, yeah, that's it. You're just gonna want to make sure that you have that. Also, at the end of fringe, everybody who opted in to give artists their email, you get their emails for life. They become your patrons. Yay! And you can take them into your future endeavors. So make sure that you are utilizing that part of this of the site. Um, this is also where you're where you're gonna see your will call again, which has your accessibility requests, but it also just like shows you where you're at and make sure that like you can see that, oh, look at this person's marked press. Okay, we have three press people coming. Oh, good to know. You know, like the familiar side, familiarize yourself. Um, refunds and exchanges through the website. Anything you sell through us, I don't know what it's like if you sold some tickets on Eventbrite, which you're allowed to do. You have to sell 50% through us, but if you sell it out somewhere else, I uh I don't know how they work, so you guys have to work that out on your own.

SPEAKER_13 1:18:45

We don't work there, and we have to uh every year have to remind people, but I don't I don't know what that means.

SPEAKER_16 1:18:49

I don't work around to pay for tickets that went out of business. I don't know. We run our own ticketing site, which you can use free of charge because you are registered. Um, and refunds and exchanges for tickets sold through our website are handed by the fringe team, which means you don't have to worry when your you know sister's babysitter gets sick or whatever, and they need to do a quick exchange um 72 hours before the performance. We're like, cool, we're we're exchanging performances really easy. 48 hours, we're exchanging it very easy. 24 hours is our cutoff. That's when we have to reach out to you to provide an extra uh a refund or put them into another uh or to give permission. To get permission to so that we can give them a refund. Usually we we try and you know be nice. The thing that they do not get back though is that ticketing fee because unfortunately we we already processed the transaction and we can't afford to just be refunding all of the things. Uh it is a ticket sale, but they will get the ticket money back. Um and uh yes, uh the primary ticket buyer, if they need something and somebody reaches out to you, just be like, don't worry about it. Email support at hollywoodfringe.org. We monitor that Monday through Sunday um when shows are happening. When shows are happening, there are eyes on that. When shows are not happening, not as many eyes because we're resting and we have a small team. But everybody will get a response within 24 hours, and we work really hard to make sure that we're able to do this automatic refunding process. Basically, you don't have to worry about it, you send them to us. Um 100% of ticket sales outside of the service fee. Uh, we'll go back to at the end, um, and we will talk about how to request that at the very end of this. Um, our fees on tickets are over at $0. So if it's 10 cents, unfortunately, it has a fee. So maybe think about that. 10 cents is not as like a cute promotional idea, but it's actually $3.10 because it costs money. Um, so um uh for the $3 for any ticket under $25, once it goes it's over $25, it's a 10 um cent fee per dollar. So it raises quite a bit. Um if a refund comes in less than 24 hours that is related to an extreme circumstance, like somebody's like coming in with us with like a sob story, we're not gonna be like, no. We will we will take uh like extenuating circumstances into account as well.

SPEAKER_13 1:21:08

Yeah, we're a human-run festival in the same way, like we're we're and this is a rare thing, but it's understand that we're humans behind it. We're not such a strict bot run organization.

SPEAKER_16 1:21:17

Like somebody's like, I'm I'm like very low income and I can't make it. So this we're like, okay, we're gonna figure this out with you. Um, accessibility requests. And each will call this, there may be an accessibility request in line with the ticket buyer's name. So how it looks is you have the ticket buyer and then you have the accessibility request, which is in plain text. The ticket buyer is clickable because you can go on to their little guy. New this year, you're also going to on each performance have a little thing where you can just click it and you can see all accessibility requests for that performance. It is on the performance that you will be able to see anything that's coming up so that you can make yourself aware. So remember, a couple of days before each performance, you're making sure that you're checking these accessibility requests and that your team has the capacity to manage it. Even if you're not managing your box office, you are then going into the person who at your venue is running your box office with a list saying, hey, these are the ones that came through. These ones I know are accommodating. This person asked for an interpreter. We already emailed them and let them know that it's not available for night and night. You're you're handling all that because you are the producer. Um, it is your responsibility to check these requests. They're super important. They're from community members who want to come experience your art. People are also not monsters. If something is inaccessible to them, they are not going to cancel you. You do not have to be afraid of talking to a disabled person about the limitations that they already experience. What you do need to be afraid of is making them feel bad that you can't accommodate them. You know, it is a bummer that we can't accommodate every single accessibility request. We should be. That is a just world. It's just not right now. And so what you have to be able to do is be transparent and honest. If a person comes to your show and you don't have a wheelchair seat, that sucks because it is so difficult for somebody who has a wheelchair to get into their car, to then have to drive to the site, to then find accessible parking, to then get wheeled to somewhere that they're not able to go into. So this is why we are checking our accessibility requests. We are being transparent with people about what we can offer. And we are being kind, amazing humans. Like even when we can't accommodate it, we are still being in connection with this person and saying, I'd love to keep you in contact with you because I plan to have accessible shows in the future. And I'd love to know, let you know when there is that opportunity. These are the ways that we build community, not by being like, whoa, I didn't know. Like you are a producer right now. You have to know.

SPEAKER_13 1:23:38

So start asking your venue the questions now. And our website has all these flags. So you can go to your venue and find out what accessibility features they do or do not have. And then any questions you have now, ask your venue. That way you don't have to have the panic on the morning of your show. Now is the time to start to ask the questions, do the research. That way you know exactly what's what you can accommodate in your show.

SPEAKER_16 1:24:00

Door sales. It's up to you and your venue how you do your door sales. I don't know what your policy is at your venue. I don't know if they're running your box office or not. They might have a different policy. What we're gonna talk about right now is if your box office is not covered by your venue, these are the things. If your box office is covered by your venue, I'm sure you've been in contact with them about what that means. It's it looks a little different. Um, so you can find your will call by pressing view on the individual performance tab, and you'll know how many tickets you've sold and how many you have left to sell at the door. You might have six. It's exciting. You might be sold out, and there's something that you can do called a standby line, which means that you have let people know I'm gonna have a limited amount of tickets, possibly, because people don't show up. So please come stand by if you would like to. It's a festival setting. People are hanging out and they actually might do that. So if you are sold out, that's a great thing to offer, especially if people are hot to see your show. Um, so no matter uh you your ticket shut off. You choose when you want tickets to stop. This function is no, that's that's old note. That was an old note, that's from two years ago. Ticket shut off. You do it. Um, once uh you uh if you are doing a QR code to the website, like if you want to sell tickets, write it up till the moment your show starts. You could set it at zero minutes, which it automatically is. And you could then sell tickets just through the website right there. You could have a QR code on your will call thing and be like, just buy it through the website, use your phone. Um, you should have cash. You should have changed because old people. Um, and then you should have Gen Z like Venmo, like you know what I mean? Like, it behooves you to take multiple forms. And what I would say is that I as a producer would be like, I will take it through Venmo, I will take it through the fringe website, and I will take it through cash. Limit how many. So don't have like, here's my Zell, here's my thing. You don't have to be a like a maniac about it, but you need to have those things printed out. And I would highly recommend QR codes for these options, and then I would recommend having change. And I would recommend being smart about what your door price might be. And I would recommend being like round numbers, like not doing an $18 ticket at the door. Like, that's actually like a lot of change you have to make. And like your box office person's gonna be so stressed out because they have 10 minutes. But if you're like it's 20 bucks, you don't even have to make change most of the time, and then they're gonna give you the change for your next run when it's 30. It's great. I would recommend round numbers. Um, you have to honor a dollar off, though. That's true.

SPEAKER_13 1:26:32

So $21.

SPEAKER_16 1:26:34

Uh, you do have to honor anybody who has a button across the fringe gets a dollar off tickets. Um, and then obviously you might want to set an artist price as well, which is always able to be different because we know that so many of our artists like to do comp swaps, but some people can't. And they'll often be like, I can't do that, but here's a five-dollar code or or whatever they're able to offer. Oh, I just lost my notes. Oh uh Participant Payout, we'll send it to you. Um, you just gotta do some things. So, Lois, the morning of awards when Carly and I are like freaking our heads off, being like putting all of the awards like stuff together. Uh, Lois is on that with us. And then she's also getting, we're like switching back and forth read links. So she's like preparing the email for you to request your check. So she sends that email, the festival's over, you request your check, and we're not UPS or USPS. So I'm so sorry. The the time from there is out of our hands.

SPEAKER_13 1:27:26

We use it on average takes eight to 14 days, is kind of where USPS is at today. That could change tomorrow. They love to, you know, throw hoops. Uh, but you get basically uh a quick survey so that we know how many tickets you sold at the door. So please keep track of that because that is how we allow for producers next year to know really how many tickets were sold at the festival. So those stats are so important. We don't take a cut of that, obviously. It's just know how much you got in. That way we can add that to our annual report. So we know how many tickets were sold at the entirety of the festival. You will also answer. Where you currently should have a check delivered to. So don't panic if you're moving or you don't know what address you entered when you registered. None of that matters. We will ask you in the moment that way that next day. I literally send checks every day based on like as people are requesting them. So request them early so you'll get it early, but I check it every day for the first four months. And then honestly, I start to lose track. So if you request a check six months later, shoot an email. And it happens every year. I think that's questions. Yeah, quest questions. Ha ha. We're gonna start here first. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, we're doing it.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:36

Hi, since I'm still sitting on my question from a while ago, because it's going back to a topic from early in the evening. Um, my name is Tim Christian. I am producing two shows this year. Last year was one. The first year I'm at LA City College Theater Department. Last year was our first year. This is our second year, so to make my life miserable, I'm producing two shows instead of one. Although we're gonna have nine shows in our venue. Uh okay, one of them is called Travelers. I have to remember it because the title's changed up. Travelers, a two-hander in disconnected parts, and uh mythologia. So one is an ensemble, traditional play, uh, the other is uh two solo shows. At any rate, we're almost always a free ticket venue which has blessings and curses. So I'm not expecting any kind of a run on comp requests, but does anyone have any experience giving somebody some sense of value when they tell you they want to see your show and the ticket is free anyhow? Like, I'm not sending Uber Black to their house, I'm not buying them dinner after, but you know, I can't save them 20 bucks because we're not charging $20 for tickets. And thank you. And I'm listening. Go.

SPEAKER_13 1:30:01

Like, who's these are our questions? Okay, all right. Uh it was with Mike. I'm gonna I'm gonna wait, we're gonna do this once, otherwise we could get into a mass amount of no, you're so good, Tim. Um, I will say, and and while I'm walking up, um it's all about narrative. At the end of the day, it's about how you're marketing. And so using is these are accessible tickets. Hey, I'm excited about the work. I want to make the show accessible. Come see the work for free because I want to make sure you get your ass here. So it's about the narrative.

unknown 1:30:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:27

Thank you. I'm Leopold Nunan. I'm Leo from Rio. You can take Leo from Rio, not the Rio from Leo. So I'm I'm doing a Leo from Rio Latin Icons, it's a live show with the band. And please come see my show. It's gonna be wild. And uh, we all well, I'm Brazilian, so my band is also Brazilian. We're gonna do Bolsa Nova, jazz. We have a whole performance doing the uh an homage to Tonghua. Yeah, so please come. And uh, I am telling everyone that I am this is invitation only, so I'm making very, very, very VIP, very VIP. You can have to text me because there's only uh with the VIP lists only. So you have to text the gaslighting all of your audience. Because really, it's really invitation only. I'm gonna put a list on the door. If you're in the list, you come in. If you're not in the list, you're not gonna come in.

SPEAKER_13 1:31:21

See, it's about the narrative. Like I think you proved the point. I love it. Oh my gosh. We've lost control. Okay, next question. Tim, what have you started? All right, next question. Yes. Hi, hi.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:36

Hi, I'm Tanya Dixon.

SPEAKER_13 1:31:39

Oh, wait, next question, real quick, guys.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:41

Um, my show is Roast Your Chestnuts. Mrs. Claus has left, San is fat ass, and she's come here to be an influencer in Hollywood. So, um kind of pivoting back to the comp thing, could you guys explain a little bit more on the balance of the comp swap? I noticed a lot of people, there's a lot of different discounts given with fellow fringers. So I just didn't know if say you have a 50-seat theater, like what is an average? You want to accommodate your fellow fringers, but do you just get to a point you go, or is it better to charge a couple bucks? I I just kind of didn't know the comp what we did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_16 1:32:22

I think that it bet again goes back to your goals. Are your goal is your goal to get like uh and and like what you are trying to do? Like some people would rather have paper their whole house and have it be sold out than they would than um worry about it. And what I would also say is that people are so sweet, but they're so flaky. And so what I would do is I would do a really strong way that you're tracking your comps, and I wouldn't worry too much about giving too many of them out. But what I would do is make sure that you're not giving them out and they're not going to see the show because that's therein is what the problem lies. And so also, my fellow artists, don't fucking do that to each other. Uh I think it's really smart to do comp swaps with each other. I also think you don't have to see everyone's show just because they told you they want a comp swap. And I think that you could be really strategic and do it with the people that you know you would work with in the future because you guys have similar narratives and you could make that your line. Like right now, I my goal is to sell out my show with enough money to be able to do X. So I can't accommodate everyone. So I am doing comp swaps with this many shows and I have a $5 code here, totally acceptable. But if your goal is to pay for your house because you want to like you want to have as many people, then then why limit it? Because also artists can sometimes be your best supporter in getting the word out for those paid opportunities because you never know based on uh talking to a person what their outreach is. You just don't know. Uh, and it's a great way to get to know each other. But if you're in a limited house, so people in 20 seat houses, I know often will say I'm only comp swapping with people that I'm doing marketing with because we we I have limited seats, and that is totally valid. And if anybody gives you shit for that, that's on them.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:13

Yeah. And I think there's also there's nothing wrong with not doing that. I want to name that too. Like everyone's gonna have a different goal. There's almost 500 shows. Each of you is coming into this with a different goal. The key is to keep your goal, remember your goal and use that goal, and it's all gonna play into it. If your goal, again, is just to get it seen, to get awards, then yeah, you're gonna wanna prompt that house. But if your goal is to make money, you're certainly not going to want to do that. And so I think the key is just knowing what your goal is, sticking to that, and not taking more than you're giving. So I think that's key too, right? If you're like, nope, I can't give away comps, that is totally fine. That is allowed, that doesn't make you a bad person or a bad artist. That means you have a budget that you have to hit and that is okay. But it also means maybe make sure people know that when they're offering you comps so that it's not going only in one direction, right? That's yeah. That helps. Thank you. Yeah. Yes. Okay, I'm gonna start there and then we'll pass it down. Could you pass it down for me?

SPEAKER_08 1:35:03

Hey, thank you. Hey, my name is uh Ali Khan. Uh, I have a show called Alberta Alberta. It's uh pretty much um a human and an AI having a real human experience. And the question is uh can AI replace that human connection? So if you want to know about that, come see the show at the Hudson Theater. You gotta come see it. It gets yeah, it gets crazy. Um so two questions I had. One question was uh about the uh the reviews. Uh uh, I sent out like some press stuff and some people uh replied saying that they have uh ad packages. Is that common? And also, is it common to pay for reviews? Uh and then my second question was um for for comps, uh I what I've been doing is just like subtracting the number of seats. And I know I can only do 50, so uh I need to go back and and and actually click the comp, right? And then I would have to like put their information in. Is that how that works?

SPEAKER_13 1:36:08

So comps, you have two ways of doing it. You can add comps, right? So if you subtract it to make sure you have a full house member, you can always take shows down or house down. You can't put it back be up beyond what the venue actually has. So you have two ways of doing it. For like when you're adding specific comps, you're gonna want to put their name and email into uh comped tickets, is the button. Add their name, and if you add their email, you can add just their name, they're just not gonna know they have it. Whereas if you add their email, they're gonna get a hey, you have a ticket to show, and then they have that track record. Additionally, if it's more of a chill, like, hey, here's a comp code, like if you just want to give give a bunch of free codes out to your fellow artists, I find the easiest thing to do is just create a zero-dollar discount code. That way it'll save you a lot of trouble. But then again, you're not tracking that point, you're trusting. Like you're trusting that everyone who's taking advantage of that is gonna give that to you. So those are the two things. And then with paid advertising, yeah, you want to join.

SPEAKER_16 1:36:56

Yeah, I mean, is it common? Yes. Unfortunately. Is it something that you have to do to be successful? Fuck no. Like, uh, but some people like I would say some people really find it helpful to be in these models that work. And so some people find those things helpful. I don't think that it works for everyone. And I think what you should look at is your budget. And if you have a marketing budget and you're gonna get uh looks from a certain number of people that make sense to you for a good ROI return on investment, you do it. If that ROI is not there for you, you see what other shows they promote. What are their audiences like? Do they promote to the type of people that are going to go see your show, or is it a different type of audience? And then you decide from there whether it is good to put in that advertisement. I will also say some of our best marketing is grassroots weird little publications because they have our audience. It is more worth our money than the LA Times because the LA Times is competitive and there is a vast number of people, and we just do fray, like we just work to get in their calendar and work to get all of these free opportunities because we can't afford, even at the festival level, to be like, yeah, we're gonna do a $5,000 ad campaign with them this year. Like it just that's just like the ROI is not there for us. And so it's about figuring out what your return on investment is. And also remember, it is Los Angeles. We don't control the fact that this is a predatory, like the arts are predatory, and that people are going to see you're gonna have exposure because of fringe, and they're going to then message 80 artists, the same thing. And it is up to you whether that return on investment works for you in all of these forms from something super institutional all the way down, you have to know what your needs are. And if that works for you, and that is like, oh shit, that's exactly my audience. Of course I'm gonna do it, versus like, you know what, those shows don't seem super close to my shows, I'm not gonna do it. That's what I would say is you find your places, and sometimes they reach out to us and I go, Well, shit, they're right. That is actually for me.

SPEAKER_13 1:39:07

Yeah, you know. Yeah. It's your business people now, right? That's that's producing. At the end of the day, you're advocating not just for yourself, your work, and the people you're working with, and you're gonna have good opportunities and bad opportunities. And it's sometimes it's a shit show to figure out which one it is. And sometimes it takes a meeting.

SPEAKER_16 1:39:24

Like, you know what I mean? Like Lois and I have had so many like conversations with people where I've been like, this email's freaking weird, but I guess I'll email back. And like it turns out to be a great connection, you know? Like, so you just don't know. The thing you do is be kind and you can always say, you know what, it's not within my marketing budget. Thank you. Or you can return and you know, it's really I would say that it's common though that people pay for reviews because unfortunately, like we're in a model where there's not like a great arts industry, like people are making money where they can make money. And whether or not that service is beneficial for the community is depends on their ROI and how our artists are feeling about it. And so until we're like, this there's no return on investment with this thing, we'll allow them to do their thing, but you do not have to say yes. Yeah. And please don't, unless it's right for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_14 1:40:10

Anyone had a question? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Uh hi, I'm Sarah Grahalla. Um, my show is called S27. It's about a woman who takes photographs of people in a concentration camp before they're executed. So full of laughs. Um, and it asks the question that if your survival depends on complicity with a brutal regime, what would you risk for love? Um so my question, it's a really practical one. If you're using, say, comp code, is there a way on the website of limiting how many times that code can be used for a particular performance?

SPEAKER_13 1:40:51

I genuinely don't remember to I can I think yes. I think yes. I think yes, you just can't. I think so, yeah, right. It's sometimes there's so much.

SPEAKER_16 1:40:59

You can at least like make it not working.

SPEAKER_13 1:41:01

Yeah, and you can disable and enable it. But I think, yeah, I think you can. What you can't do is decide it can only last until this date. Like it's not date specific, but there is if you go into edit any comp code, you can make you can decide performances, you can decide, I think, yeah, how many. But and actually it's either that or ticketing levels. But either way, you're gonna be able to very easily find out when you go into the edit button of the comp code.

SPEAKER_14 1:41:21

Yeah, I think that's just a little confused when I look at it. Yeah, I'll keep searching.

SPEAKER_16 1:41:25

Yeah, I don't think you can be like, turn off, but you can definitely disable codes.

SPEAKER_14 1:41:29

So that's just make sure that's clear to your audience, like that like this is a one-time only before you disable, or like yeah, my actors, I want to give them a certain number, and it's just whether I I do that or whether I I can just code and galacate this this code of slides once you've got this many.

SPEAKER_13 1:41:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I genuinely, I was like, I think you might want to see the letter ticketing levels, but worst case email support at HollywoodFringe.org, and we will get that answer to you for sure. And then here, and then we're gonna hear hi.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:54

Hi, I'm Ari. Uh, my show is called Banana Man Live. It it is a solo show about a banana who uh grew up believing that there were only two kinds of fruits apples and bananas, and then oh no. Uh so that's my so my question is this is my first time producing anything like this, and it's my first like fringe thing, and I'm also doing thanks, and I'm also doing, and I'm also the the main actor and writer, and so I'm a little bit overwhelmed with all of the things to do, and I was wondering, yeah, right. Me more, but yeah, I guess um I'm wondering, like, I would like to do fringe again, and I know that this will not be, and I would like to do this show for fringe again. So I know this isn't the best perfect version of what I'm gonna do. What would you all like, of all the things you've been giving us advice on, what would you prioritize? And what would be more like could be could be let go if I run out of time?

SPEAKER_13 1:42:52

Yeah, I love it. It's the triage moment. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I we're having that because we all have that conversation because the festival model is a chaos tornado. And so you get to a point and you're never gonna get it all done. None of you. I'm looking around. I'm so sorry. You won't. You won't get everything that you want done, done. I know, I know. Um, not if you want to not get sick all of June. That is true. Um so now's the triage time. I think, I mean, I'll give mine, which is um the people, like focus on the people. And we see people coming back over and over again. And the second time is easier because you have people around you. You're not the only banana anymore. You know, there's other people. And so I think that is going to be the best thing you can get out of the first time. If you have to let everything go, focus on the other people in the room.

unknown 1:43:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_16 1:43:33

I would say a hundred percent that, and like seeing people's work and seeing how they go into the opportunities you're the most interested in, and like seeing how some of our like more seasoned, like, because fringe is all levels, right? So some people have been doing fringe, like some people I've have done fringe longer than I have. You know what I mean? And then there's some people who've done fringe and they're coming back from a really long time. And there's some people who've never done fringe, but they're fucking amazing producers and they're just gonna blow this fessel out of the water because they just have that in them. And then there's some like surprise people that every year you go, well, look at you, you know, like they just like pop up and they start doing these things. And you and then there's so many of us, the vast majority of us, that are just like, I want to work in that like I I guess Alice is not true because I'm not an artist, but uh uh I mean I am an artist, but not a fringe. Um I'm always an artist, just not a fringe. Um, but uh where there's this the sense of like trying to build your people is so important. And that actually means seeing their work and making sure that you can make your show the best because you're seeing so much work and then you're seeing what audiences are responding to and how to make sure that you are making yourself marketable. Because unfortunately, art for art's sake doesn't make money, art for art's sake doesn't make a career. Art for art's sake is what you get to do when you are like really like doing that muscle so that you're not just always working for someone, you know what I mean? But that being said, um there's great examples here. Like you just like you can see pathways because people are literally forging them. And like I know that people in this room will forge a pathway that we didn't know was possible. Yeah. And that like you're gonna have to forge it because you are the indie artist believing in yourself, but I believe in you to do that. And like it will be that that will be the next person that we'll have on a panel or we'll have on our podcast, and we'll be like, oh my god, how did you do it? Because the truth is that it is you doing it. Um, and you know, fleabag, you know, was not a one-hit wonder, went to the Edinburgh French once and had a great time. That's how went through like six, like like went to the multiple, multiple festivals, won multiple, multiple awards, went through so much development before it was even seen by executives. And there's so many, there's so many pathways that aren't fleabaged that come because of fringe. And I think that it's a great idea to just like dive into the community if you're just trying to get your bearings of being an artist here. Diving into the community is the number one way. And and then secondary, I would say get asking for real feedback in your reviews. So I would say in your email, I actually am looking for feedback. I want to make this better. Please feel free to give me feedback because this won't be there. Now remember, your reviews will last forever. So if you don't want people to be mean to you on main, um, you know, maybe be selective with who you're asking for that. But but asking for real feedback, you can ask for that in real time rather than like via reviews. You can also be like, I'm not seeing reviews on the site for this run because I don't want that. But here's like a little way for you to tell me what you thought. You know, like there are different ways of engaging that can be more private and sometimes a little bit better for somebody. Somebody sent me a Google form once, and I actually filled it out because I was like, I actually don't have to give you feedback that is public. And I can, as a festival producer, be like, this is what I saw. And it was actually a it was a fantastic show, but I had two notes, and it was so cool. I got to give those two notes, being like, this is how it would translate into America because they weren't from America. And somebody might have that for you for their opportunities.

SPEAKER_13 1:47:06

So yeah, absolutely. I uh follow-up. Uh, the you can limit how many tickets. Tuesday was run. So you can limit how many tickets. Okay. Uh huh.

SPEAKER_10 1:47:19

This is my actually my second time coming to Fringe, and I was shocked at how many friends I made, and that I'm in contact with. I did my show in New York. A bunch of them were in New York too. We all got together, we all marketed together. We actually helped get audiences together. I'm like, hey, let's throw a party. And we did, and we got a lot of people at our shows, and it's been incredible. And it's true, when you go to other people's shows, you're gonna see all these brilliant ideas that people have that are like don't cost anything, especially engaging with people when while they're leaving. When they're leaving, you can just give them one little thing. Doesn't have to be anything. It could be like a little sticker you got, it could be like whatever, it doesn't have to be do with your show. It could be really just a way to just engage with that person. And when you get a lot of reviews, it actually ups your link juice on Google through Hollywood Fringe. When you look up your name, Link juice. Let me tell you, it it flows, it flows. There's nothing thank you. That algorithm sounds evil. I like I like some link juice. I'm trying to hydrate, and I tell you what, I need it, and uh, it's great. And I don't know why you're laughing. You this is public, right? But but it is um, no, it really is crazy because you'll look up stuff and you think that you put everything on your own personal website, and Hollywood Fringe will always come up first, and it's great. And it's great because then they'll see l pages and pages of reviews of people talking about it, which is awesome. My question, I'm I forget how to um limit the number of tickets to sell at a show so I can hold them off for like, you know, if you want to hold three tickets just in case of press or something. How do you do that? I forget.

SPEAKER_13 1:48:57

Yeah, house capacity.

SPEAKER_10 1:48:58

House capacity.

SPEAKER_13 1:48:58

Yeah, so it's in each individual performance. So now that tickets are on sale, remember you're no longer looking at the whole like you were pre-booking your venue, pre-ticket on sale. Now you're looking at each individual performance. So anything you want to do to one that you would like seeing across the board, you have to do at each individual performance level, but it's house capacity. Remember, you can always lower it. You cannot make it higher than the house capacity, uh, because that would be a mess. All right, more questions. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:20

Um people that we comp on on the site, um, can they go and write a review? Yeah. So but how does it happen like I just put their name in and that's email.

SPEAKER_13 1:49:37

They have to have there has to be if you say I'm I'm I'll no no. So I mean, but I mean they you have to write their email in. So it's like if it's just their name, they're not gonna have their email in. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_16 1:49:47

But yeah, anybody can review your show, even if they didn't buy a ticket, and then the way that you get it to be certified, which is means that we can verify that they have a ticket, is you say, you email support, you say, Hey, actually, this person did see my show. Can you certify your review? And then we go boop certify. Or no, you can self-certify now.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:04

So people can go either. Can you self-certify now? If they haven't bought it, they can go and write. Yep. But it's not certified.

SPEAKER_13 1:50:10

But it's not certified. Your reviews?

SPEAKER_06 1:50:12

But those that I put in for comp, as long as I put in their email, they become an audience member, essentially.

SPEAKER_13 1:50:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and I think the key, I know I think you can self-certify. I we have checking. We question our thank you, Roddy, for being our checker. Again, sorry, our change a lot. So no, you cannot write a review for a show until the show has actually happened. Like there are some like you know, fail-safes here, but the reviews tab is like that's where the reviews go. And then if an audience is logged in, oh um, or they can do it anonymous, but you know, whatever. Um, they can review a show and then it's certified for your we've can confirm they bought a ticket, uncertified if not. And then let us know, y'all. The bots are going crazy. Let us know if you get like a casino 101 or whatever. Like it happens. Uh just let us know when we will review or uh remove those.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:54

That's really good.

SPEAKER_13 1:50:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_15 1:50:59

Uh hi, Christina again. My show is called Glossolalia Bananas. Uh, it's also my very first French show, so I totally feel exactly everything that you're feeling right now. Um, relate. Um, regarding ticket prices and at-the-do prices, uh, I just have basically this is one messy question about like how like how prices are tiered. I know there's a dollar off for anyone with a fringe button. I also saw an email about commissioners getting five dollars off some shows. How do I add that or make that happen if possible? And then if it is it ethical to at the door have a higher number than what's on the fringe site, is that okay?

SPEAKER_13 1:51:30

Uh yeah, it's and autonomy. It's up to y'all what is gonna be right. The $1 off buttons, that's the thing you have to do because it's in your artist contract. Uh, the commissioners club and volunteer discount list is an opt-in. Nobody is forced to. But if you're looking, it's a great way if you're looking to build that audience from people who are voting, who are seeing other shows and talking about shows, and then the artist hub uh marketing blog. Uh you can sign up for that to give a discount code for $5 off of your tickets.

SPEAKER_16 1:51:54

Also, a um really good type ticket. I just want to hype that up really quick. If you're like, I really wish that I could see my poster on the Hollywood friend Instagram. The only way that we do that outside of um our partnerships is that you sign up for those discount lists, and we literally market those throughout the festival. So it's also a great way for you to just be able to be like, you're offering $5 off to our members. There's a hundred of them. You're not gonna sell out, you're you're not gonna create, you're not gonna create a craze. Um, but you might get some people in to see your show that are like big time Fringers. These are members are people who see like dozens of shows per year, and they're really wonderful. And you can go through all of those opportunities. They're in the marketing opportunities blog, which is in the news section.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:35

Yeah. Uh it's in the artist hub. Yes.

SPEAKER_16 1:52:37

Sorry, I moved.

SPEAKER_13 1:52:38

Yeah, I moved.

unknown 1:52:40

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_11 1:52:42

Hello, everybody. My name is Raja, and I'm bringing the show called The Veil. It's gonna be monologue. Behind behind every exile, there's a veil. And behind that veil, there's a mask. Not a mask you put for others to see, but a mask you wear so you can breathe. A mask that hides the cracks in your soul, the scars, the scars that the world refuses to see. A mask, a mask that protects you not from the world. But if you wanna know, you have to come to the performance. I just arrived to LA five days ago. I drove all the way from Indiana to here, so that's my first performance. It's gonna be for free. I'm gonna be local, Californian officially. My grandparents are from Palestine. I was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and I'm Lebanese American. So I have one question. Do we have in the opening ceremony night an opportunity for two minutes to perform to grab the attention of people or no? Because I was an indie French before, and we had this, and I didn't get the time to read any newsletter or anything. For the last three weeks, I was all over the place just to move to here. Thank you so very much.

SPEAKER_13 1:53:57

I love it. The podcast, especially. Now you've been on your first podcast in LA, right? Like that's um that's amazing. Um but so the opening night is not a performance opportunity because it's really it's y'all. It's it's all celebrating the fact that when yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, but we have cabaret, right? All right. So we have we have cabaret, though. That's our program, which is going to be more similar to like those teaser programs that other fringes do. And we take those outside of Hollywood. So we just did one in San Pedro, we'll have one at Moa's Trading Post, we'll have one in Ventura, nope, Venice. Um, but we'll have other like so we have opportunities for you to sign up for that and the marketing blog, same one as the Commissioner's Club, and then the opening night party is a celebration. That's a moment for you to take the artist hat off for a second and go, fuck yeah, I did this thing.

SPEAKER_16 1:54:41

One of our cabarets is even at a blood drive.

SPEAKER_13 1:54:43

Yeah. So for vampires, so it's so fun this year.

SPEAKER_16 1:54:47

People are gonna, and then you can donate blood too.

SPEAKER_11 1:54:52

So I'm sorry, the veil is just the story between uh the veil between that okay, the veil is between the story, it's monologue adapted about the line or the veil that we can see between life and death and in the exile. So that's in general. Thank you.

SPEAKER_13 1:55:10

Welcome. All right, who's next?

SPEAKER_16 1:55:15

And then I think that's our last question. Claudia, is there anything in the chat?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:20

Thank you. My name is Tuze, and it's more of a comment. This is my second French festival, and I was very scared, very, very, very scared because it was my first production that I ever like mounted, and I did not even know what French Festival was two days before I signed up with French Festival. But these three people right here, they made everything smooth and easy, and they email you back, they will call you back if they got any problems. So if y'all got any worries or if you were scared, like I was real scared, don't, don't, don't be. They got you, I promise they do. And I was so busy, you know I love y'all. I was so busy with mounting my first show. Oh, my show is called Gil Scott Harron Blu''sology. Um, if you don't know Gil, um he was a civil rights activist and he told about the the world status as it is today. He was he didn't hold back any bars at all whatsoever. Um, the other thing is, is it's a personal question. Are we a drama?

SPEAKER_13 1:56:40

Because I always over here in tears, Tuesday. Yeah, because I'm using it drama.

SPEAKER_16 1:56:56

You can even find fit in some variety with poetry. The poetry is so gorgeous.

SPEAKER_12 1:57:00

Yeah, no question. Mine is less emotional. Um Jessica, again, I suck a vampire comedy. Uh yeah, we all suck. It's fine. Um, my question was if like someone buys a group of tickets, can everyone in that group write a review? And then you have to just certify like And guess what we just found out?

SPEAKER_16 1:57:24

Producers can self-certify. So you if you can verify that they have a ticket, you can certify them. We trust you. Great. We mostly trust you, we trust you with this one. Um, so you would just then verify, oh, they all were there. They were all under my buddy Ross, bought four tickets, but these were all people there. Yeah, I want a buddy Rolf, but then it's just an easy like click thing, or okay. It just says certify review, and you go, okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:57:48

I love literally every year we do this. This is a fun game, and then next year we're gonna go, what was that answer?

SPEAKER_16 1:57:52

Okay, so we do have to go because tonight is actually also the actors' company's uh party, and we gotta go to it. And it's nine o'clock, and so we gotta get out of here. Any okay, I feel like it's nine o'clock, yeah. What is it?

SPEAKER_13 1:58:04

Oh, there's a venue I went. It's one of the venues. A lot of venues.

SPEAKER_16 1:58:07

Your venue is the actors' company, the their venue party for their venue is tonight. So if you are at the actor's company, that is tonight. And I know other venues are doing other similar gatherings. Don't forget to come to office hours. Do not forget to come to our community walk this Saturday. If you're like, I am uh office hours are a bit loud. Come walk with us around the Hollywood Reservoir Saturday at 10 a.m. Um and otherwise we'll see you at the fridge. Let's do this, girl! So sweet.