The 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival is bursting with incredible shows this year.  Here’s a brief recap of theatre highlights that formerly appeared on LA Theatre Review : 

This Vicious Minute @ Elephant Stages

You will not have your heart ripped out of your chest.  You will not wrench, wretch, wring your hands in ceaseless torment.  You will not cry. You will not bleed. Ben Moroski has already done that. In one of the most searing confessionals ever to make it to the stage, Moroski recounts his young life as a cutter. It is a heartbreaking and painful insight into a young man’s mental-emotional state, the torment of guilt for not being able to stop the cycle of violence, and eventually, an acceptance of himself as he is. Life, nevertheless, goes on. Very Highly Recommend.

Senses @ The Underground Theatre Annex

“Life has the ability to take you on a ride…”

Clowns, Goddesses, and Tough Guys @ Theatre Assylum Lab

Sometimes you just feel like breaking into song… spontaneously – on purpose.

Ghost Light @ The Underground Theatre

As if beer, pot, frats boys, sorority girls, and a Ouija board on a stormy Halloween wasn’t enough, that darn ghost had to show up and ruin everything!

Doomsday Cabaret @ Lounge Theatre 1

In a satyr of “apocalyptic proportions” introduced by an ominously bizarre, expressionist, overhead, pre-show video of peasants, animals, chanting, and windstorms, nine obsessive, sub-culture doomsayers gather together at the San Bernadino Community Center to wait for the end of the world, prophesy, theorize, get laid and sell books. Master of Ceremonies and doomsday prophet, Michael Shaw Fisher leads this hilarious ensemble comedy, down a rabbit hole of defiant cataclysmic optimism. Recommended.

Confessions of the World’s Worst Missionary @ Studio A

Faith is no match for the heartbreaking reality of poverty, racism, HIV/AIDS, and the myriad of crises of post-apartheid life in South Africa.

I Get Knocked Down @ Studio C Artists

Seven archetypal characters (magical elf, martyr, damsel in distress, scholar, angel, lover, clown) that make up the fragmented parts of actor Evan McNamara’s personality, teach him a profound and hilarious understanding of unconditional love after the ruthless dissolution of his marriage.

In Dream @ The Blackbox at Note

In Dream is the surreal world between two dreams that may or may not be remembered by the visitors once the night is over.  In the first, a young man sits in a room with a total stranger who claims to be the most evil man in the world. In the second, a young woman has a conversation with her fully grown daughter, who has not yet been born.