LA Activist Kitchen celebrates artists, Fringe Festival

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): The Los Angeles Activist Kitchen is a creative community space for all ages. Whether it’s visual, comical, theatrical, musical, or other, they’re there to support your artistic pursuits. 

Rent their space for art gallery, exhibition, film set rental, comedic showcase, or for private events. They host birthday parties, fun events, and creative production of all kinds. The wraparound green screen is perfect for music videos, podcasts, and social media influencers.

I’m here talking to Kate outside the Activist Kitchen.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Hello. Yes. So I’m an artist. I use all different mediums, honestly—I’m an actor, I’m a producer. I do a lot of performance art, but I also do a lot of film and painting and makeup art, special effects.

I’ve been a writer for my whole life as well. So I like to write projects and then watch them come to life in immersive ways that the audience can feel like they are a part of the experience.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): And that’s what you do here, right? You have the blue screen or the green screen.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Yes, absolutely. So we have a cyclorama 20×20 green screen in the back. And because it’s cyclorama, it makes it a seamless green screen.  

So we’re able to do 3D production with Unreal Engine, which is like a really great free platform. 

It’s normally for video game designers, but filmmakers can create a free profile, and it’s a really great tool for artists who want to create their own projects and build their own backgrounds and really look into some of these 3D assets that are already pre-built that you can download for free.

And you can open up a whole world and then walk right into it and record that as is and walk out at the end of the day and needing only a few tweaks postproduction.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): Right. And whereas you used to have to actually build a set and things like that. And so it’s a lot, you can really get those ideas out quick.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): And what’s really cool is if you actually build real set pieces and integrate them with the green screen, you get a really different, really cool thing. Like you see a lot of these different films that are starting to do that—like ‘Mandalorian’ was one of them.

There’s a lot of free ways of getting stuff done that you can really compete with some of the big guys now. So that’s why it’s like, we like to see artists that are on all levels who are some are just starting get up on stage or get behind the camera, get in front of the camera, figure out what they want to do, what they enjoy and, how they can learn to express themselves through their art.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): Yeah. Because a lot of the CG in the mainstream, I’m not real happy with. They go a little too far with it. There’s a, ‘less is more’ kind of thing that they’re not—

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Absolutely. And I think with a lot of the projects that I like to do too, it’s not necessarily meant to look like ultrarealistic. It’s more about: What kind of interesting ways can we collaboratively create more art on top of real stuff and kind of merge that? Because I know what you mean—

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): To tweak the medium, then? (Exactly.) We want to see what else we can do with this medium. (Bingo.) Yeah, yeah. But I noticed when I come here, it’s usually people of color, minorities that you’re helping.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): We are across the board. We have people of all ages, all walks of life, all backgrounds, all genders, all colors. We welcome everyone. 

What we ask is that everyone is kind and has a supportive attitude. And if you are not going to be in a supportive way here, I will say, ‘Hey, you might find a better place to go work on your artwork,’ you know?

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): Well, and so, so what do you think this does? What would happen if we had more of these spaces? Do we need more of these spaces?

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Absolutely. Oh my gosh, I—so, we opened the doors six years ago and there weren’t a lot of spaces like this, at that point. 

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot more pop up and it’s really exciting to see. Every time I hear of a new creative space opening, it warms my heart because I’m like, ‘Yes, go out, do things, people, create the world.’

And that’s what we want for the artists who come through here too. It’s like, we’re helping you to build your own platform, and we really want you to be able to take that and go off into the community, go to the other spaces, go to other places, talk to people, come back, bring them back, make friends, you know, connect around the world.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): And if you could be the one that started them, that’s great. But I mean, you’re not looking for that. But I mean—

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): We’re happy to help people get going. And a lot of our artists that have really started on stage here are just doing lots of really cool stuff now. And it’s so impressive.

And some of our team members that weren’t even trying to get into comedy per se, for example, are now going and touring around and doing comedy.

And one of our interns, his name is Michael and he’s on the spectrum and he was just a friend that was introduced to me through some other friends. And now he gets up and does standup and it’s really helped his social skills. And you know, his confidence level has gone up. And it’s just, I’m so proud of him.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): It’s not just a monetary thing. It’s a whole life thing. (Yeah.) Well, you know, you remind me of a nonprofit incubator, you know, that you’re kind of an incubator then of things. So, other projects that you’re working on or do you want to promote?

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Oh, we do the Hollywood Fringe Festival every year, which is a really big one, actually. 

Every June, we do a big experimental theater festival. We’re one of about 20 venues in Southern California, and it’s Los Angeles biggest performing arts festival. (Wow.)

And we were the third-highest-booked venue this year. Actually, we had 90 performances, all produced by the artists that were creating them. 

And then we actually had a variety show where we put up 60 performers from our community of open mic’ers, and we let them get involved into the Fringe Festival so that they could start to learn about what the Hollywood Fringe is.

And there’s a global community around the world, and it started in Edinburgh, and it’s really grown—there’s really big Fringe Festivals in Melbourne and other places around the world.

And so there’s a very cool community of artists that are working on new stuff, trying to get their work out there. And the more that we can connect everybody around the world together, I think the better off we’re all going to be.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): And just the Fringe Fest—it started, I thought they just started on a street corner and just took over the street corner.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Yeah. So originally in Edinburgh, it was like bigger theaters that were doing a theater festival. And there were these groups that couldn’t get in. And so they went all around the outskirts of the city and put up their shows in cafes and bars and street corners and caves, you know.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): Right. Similar to a counterprotest where they wouldn’t let you in this protest, so we started our own protest over here.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Exactly. And so now it’s turned into a huge, huge thing. And a lot of these big shows that you see on HBO and Netflix actually started at different Fringe Festivals around the world.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): Which is why it’s important to, kind of, money and art don’t really mix, at least not in the beginning, especially not in the beginning.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Well, with a fringe show, it’s like the producers self-produce. So you have to find your housing. You have to find your theater. You have to like, write your show. You have to find your crew or whoever you want. And then you go and you put it up there.

And it’s really wild. Yeah. Edinburgh is a lot more like they do a lot more stuff, like out in the street where that’s what I mean. It’s Hollywood’s a little more in the venues.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): But you’re not paying for a space.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Oh no, you are. You have to register. Certain—I think if you do it in the street, I think there’s some free spots, but most, you have to register for most of them. Like with the Hollywood Fringe, you have to pay a registration fee to the festival and then you have to rent a venue.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): Okay. But I mean, still it’s cheaper. It’s supposed to be more conducive to artists.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Yes. It’s more accessible. And it keeps the ticket prices lower for all of the shows because everybody’s doing them all at the same time. 

Everybody generally tries to keep their tickets around $20 or under. So you can see an incredible amount of theater in the month of June in L.A. for a very reasonable price.

Like we had people coming from all over the world that actually would come back and see different shows every day. And it was a wild month this last year.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): I just want to say, you’re just this beautiful spirit. Every time I come down here, you’re just so welcoming and stuff. I just really, I really, I really want to thank you.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Well, it’s always a pleasure. I always love seeing you get on stage and it’s always brightens my day to see everybody doing good and doing art.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): I can tell, you draw energy from all of us, it seems.

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Well, you guys keep me alive, is what I say. So thank you.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): Anything else you want to say or promote?

Kate (Los Angeles Activist Kitchen): Well, come on down to the Activist Kitchen. Come get on stage. You know, we would love to see you express yourselves in your art. Come join the community. It’s really supportive. It’s really fun. And we love you.

Curtis Blankinship (KEPW): All right. Katie from the Activist Kitchen, thank you. (Thank you.)

For more information on the Activist Kitchen in Los Angeles, go to the ActivistKitchen.com. For KEPW News, I’m Curtis Blankinship.