My Experience with the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2023
Or Systemic Racism Alive and Well in Hollywood
By Levy Lee Simon
January 2023, I was working with an actress/writer and friend of mine who will remain nameless for now, as she worked on developing her one woman show. In conversation, the Hollywood Fringe Festival came up. This actress is a celebrity and you’d think she was past being in a Fringe Festival which for the most part is for up and coming artists. The actress felt, since it was her first authored play and first solo performance the fringe might be a good and safe place to perform it. I agreed. She suggested that I do my show as well. I wrote and performed my first solo show during the 2020 pandemic, live streamed from the White Fire Theater in Sherman Oaks, CA. It was an experience performing on stage alone with no one in the audience, talking about weird. Anyway, the response was extremely positive and many people suggested that I do the show live when I had the opportunity. I thought it might be a good idea to perform, Odyssey, Race & Racism at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2023. So, I called my director and friend, Juliette Jeffers and told her of my plan. She agreed as she had some other solo performers that she would be directing in the Fringe as well.
My reasons were simple. I wanted to perform before a live audience. Since I’d never done a solo show before it would be a good way to test it out, so to speak. I wasn’t looking for exposure or, any of that stuff. connections. I have been around for a long time and did not need the Fringe to catapult my career, far from it. What I did want, was to share my solo show with people who had not seen it, film/video it, and see what it felt like before a live audience. If I got a review or two that would be good too. . Maybe I could promote the show afterwards for a run, a tour, or other festivals of note. I hired Phil Sokolof as my publicist. He’s one of the best in LA for this kind og thing.
The Fringe promotes itself as an inexpensive way for artists to self-produce their shows. I found it reasonable but there was always fine print that requested more and more money, but I was already committed when I paid my initial fees and have no regrets about that. My actress friend signed up too.
My play is Odyssey, Race & Racism is an evening of storytelling and spoken word monologues centering on racism as it occurred in my family’s lives and my own. I chose the Broadwater Theater because I always liked the main stage space when it was the old Lillian Theatre on Lillian Way. Honestly, I wanted a smaller theatre but none were available at a reasonable theatre time. I wasn’t going to ask my people to come to Hollywood to see a show at 10PM, and 8AM. I was left with the Broadwater mainstage, 99 seats. It meant however that I would have to promote the hell out of the show to get people there.
Playwright Levy Lee Simon is a warrior. Half storytelling and half an awesome spoken word piece, Odyssey, Race and Racism, also directed by Juliette Jeffers, memorializes a long and difficult, but ultimately triumphant journey—an odyssey, indeed.
-LAURA FOTI COHEN, Larchmont Buzz, June 23, 2023
Creatively everything went well. I connected with Juliette Jeffers who I like working with and I had my video/film camera person, Nefertiti Negron ready to go. Opening night was a blast. The cast from my other play, A Heated Discussion Revisited, which was running downtown at Los Angeles Theatre Center came up for the 8PM performance since they had a Sunday matinee at 3PM. They were a lively bunch. I couldn’t have asked for a better audience that night because they energized everyone else in the theatre, even myself. The play received a rousing standing ovation. You can always tell when you have a good show because people don’t want to leave. They stick around and hang out, talking about the play, lots of laughter, questions, picture taking, congratulations, all that. I was pleased that my first show went so well. I did notice that no one from the Hollywood Fringe Festival or the Broadwater came to see it though. Hmmm.
The following Saturday and Sunday my shows were well attended but again no one from the HWFF was there. I heard there was one person from the Broadwater. I think it was Padriac Duffy, but no one else. I need to mention that the head stage manager at the Broadwater was a rude woman who spoke to people, (I should say me) in a short dismissive manner as if she was annoyed that I had questions. She never looked me in my eyes when she did speak. Now, no big deal, her problem, not mine, but clearly she had issues. What always cracks me up about people like her, is they never stop to think about who they might be dealing with. That woman didn’t know me from Adam. There was a time in my life I wouldn’t have brushed it off because as Rakim said, “You could get a smack for that.” But I digress, and I am far past that anyway, on my spiritual journey. Just saying, people need to think.
By the end to the last performances not one person from the HWFF attended my play. And still only one person from the Broadwater. HWFF give out these awards; Best Play, Best Solo Show, etc… about twenty of them in all, but artists are required to get people to vote for their play. I could and would not participate in anything like that. The awards become a popularity contest not based on any kind of artistic or creative merit. It’s amateur in my opinion, and I don’t do amateur.
The Broadwater Theatre however gave out awards called, “Best of the Broadwater,” that were to be determined, so I thought by the Broadwater staff. Funny I only met four people from the Broadwater, so I really don’t know who was making decisions. Anyway, if my play was chosen, they’d give it an encore performance. That was appealing to me because so many people I know still wanted to see the play.
The award ceremonies were given out on the last night of the festival which was Sunday June 25th. I decided to attend on the outside chance that the Broadwater would select my play. The place was packed and the energy was, alive and festive. The music was pumping and good. People were dressed and taking tons of pictures. It was a Hollywood scene for sure. Finally, when the ceremonies began, Lois Neville and Ellen Den Herder stepped on the stage. They began by telling everyone how many shows they had seen. I think it was Ellen who proclaimed to have seen over fifty shows. They also made a point to announce that they devoted the year to multiculturalism and diversity. Well that’s all well and good but she didn’t see my show, neither one did. Of the 300+ shows there were approximately ten to twelve Black shows. So, why is it that the head of the Fringe chose not to see any Black show, but brags about seeing over fifty shows? Hmm. While this question was taking space in my head they had the nerve to say that their primary concern is diversity. What? Please. They even had people read off statistics proving that it has gotten better with women. LBGTQ, but Black and Brown needed to improve. Then they asked the audience, everyone in attendance to chant, “We can do better!!!!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and experiencing. As a person of color, I felt it was condescending and demeaning, as I stood there being one of those Black people who was slighted. They didn’t even know my name. I am not expecting special treatment but equal treatment. It seems to me that if you only have ten Black plays and you are promoting diversity you would see it necessary to see those ten Black plays, if it’s important but obviously it wasn’t. But this chanting thing was beyond comprehension. It was hypocritical so prevalent among those people who think they are not racist when they are. What happened to the so called BIPOC Movement? Well, in this case it was left in the hands of some very shameful, insensitive and privileged people.
The spoken word poetry is something to marvel. Levy Lee has a gravity in his words that linger after every sentence. The show is an absolute celebration. An unapologetic and powerful story about experienced racism and positive self-affirmation.
-BRANDON RAMAN, certified reviewer, June 12, 2023
It continues.
The Fringe gives out an award called the Ella Terenne Award. Ella was a playwright/actor who performed at the Fringe Festival in 2018, in her play Love, Locks and Liberation. In 2019 Ella had a massive heart attack and died. She was only in her forties. I knew Ella since 2001 when she was a journalist for the Haitian Times. She was Haitian, and reviewed my play on the Haitian Revolution, “For the Love of Freedom.” I was impressed with her review and contacted her. We became good friends. She told me back then that she wanted to write plays. I encouraged her to do so. When she finished her first draft of, Love, Lock and Liberation, she sent it to me to read. We discussed it and she asked me to direct her. I directed a reading of her play at the Complex Theatre in 2017 before her Fringe Festival debut. I didn’t direct her in the Fringe, I was out of town. I got back in time to see her production and it was wonderful. I contacted the Fringe by email, to let them know of my history with Ella but got nothing back. Nothing. I found it difficult to hear them say once again how they were about diversity and used Ella’s name to promote what they were clearly not doing. They ignored the elephant in the room the big Black Cis man.
Yes, I take it personally when I see systemic racism raging right in front of my face. I am not the one to take it lightly. For most Black people, we have to choose our battles because there is always something to rage against on a daily basis. I cannot fight all those battles but this is one I choose to fight. When privileged white people take it for granted that just getting an all-white captive audience to chant, “We have to do better,” is making it better is quite frankly a HUGE problem.
And no, the Broadwater did not select my play for “Best of the Broadwater.” How could they when they chose not to see it. People, I am not fretting not being chosen, if it’s has any resemblance of being fair. But it’s clear to a blind man that it is not. My play received rave reviews from critics and audience members. So why wasn’t it chosen? Hmm.
All this being said, I did achieve my personal objectives. As I mentioned I received some stellar reviews. I had it filmed and many of my followers came out to see the play. I attached links to some of the reviews and some audience responses.
Levy Lee Simon’s artistry and storytelling prowess have delivered an unforgettable masterpiece. ….. Through his eyes, we glimpsed the power of resilience, the transformative potential of storytelling…… Odyssey, Race & Racism exemplified the very essence of theatrical brilliance. It is a production that demands to be seen ….. Levy Lee’s unforgettable performance serves as a resounding call to action…
-KAYLENE PEOPLES, Editor Agenda Magazine
Recently the Ovation Awards in Los Angeles Theatre was cancelled when participants insulted an Asian actress who’d won the best actress award in her category. Apparently, the presenter mispronounced her name, and then posted a picture of another Asian actress that was supposed to be her. Hmm. Many of the major theatres in LA pulled out from the Ovation Awards, an institution in LA theatre was lost for the foreseeable future. In my mind this is no different.
I am not looking to disband the Fringe. That is not my intention, and I don’t believe I have that kind of power … maybe. However, this type of racism has got to be called out. As I say in my play, “this type of racism is just as dangerous, just as stifling, just as oppressive, just as insidious and potentially just as deadly.”
I’m sending this writing to everyone who will read it but one of the biggest problems is that most white people won’t read it because they don’t even care. We live in a world where they don’t have to care. Their lives will not be changed one way or another, so they think. Again, as I say in my play, the one they chose not to see, “apathy and hypocrisy are deadly foes.” Yes, it runs rampant in Hollywood too where artists are supposed to be at the vanguard of thought, so I was taught.
One thing I know for sure, I will never do another Fringe Festival, and never step into another theatre that was part of the festival. It may not mean anything to them, but that’s my protest, against systemic racism in Hollywood. And I will be passing the word.
Levy Lee Simon
