Hollywood Fringe Actors on set: Tory Devon Smith, Rainbow Underhill, Nishi Munshi
Actress RAINBOW UNDERHILL plays Chakra, a Silver Lake performance artist, bike messenger, and activist, in the independent film Hollywood Fringe, premiering at the Dances With Films Festival this week and live-streaming on Sat. Sept. 5, 2020. Directed and produced by the critically acclaimed team Megan Huber and Wyatt McDill, whose past films have debuted with SXSW, SlamDance, E1, and IFP channel.
HOLLYWOOD FRINGE is touted as: ‘fresh and original, … beautifully cryptic and emotionally drawing…’ – Kyle Bain, Film Threat/DWF. The film deals with two married, down-on-their-luck actors (Jennifer Prediger, Justin Kirk) who decide to put on a site-specific play about their unsuccessful life in Hollywood.
Rainbow Underhill’s character Chakra gets involved in their play-within-a-film. Chakra is an idealist and a performance artist, hoping to bring about a utopian society through her acting, while working on the fringes of Hollywood where everyone is trying to find their role in life.
Rainbow found her role quickly as an actor. With classical training in theater as her foundation before working in Hollywood film and TV, she reveals, “I was a shy child, but once on stage, acting was the easiest thing in the world.”
When Rainbow was cast as Chakra it was a great fit; the character’s desire to bring about change through her art and performance is similar to Rainbow’s own experience. Like Chakra, when Rainbow decided to become an actor she realized: ‘This wide world is turning, and I have something to contribute before I leave it!”
Rainbow made her professional debut on stage in the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco as Fanchette in the A.C.T. production of The Marriage of Figaro (dir. Richard E.T. White), and since then, she has been on an upward journey of influence and change through her acting. Having performed at LACMA, MOCA, UCLA Royce Hall, Art Warehouse, LA Shakespeare, and Toy Factory Art Loft in Downtown Los Angeles, she also was lucky enough to work with Broadway stage veterans, and many notable actors including Ewan McGregor, James Marsters, Director Tom O’Horgan, Kay Cole, and Leelee Sobieski. Rainbow is set to appear as Marilyn Black in the soon to be released film, Beyond the American Dream, a biopic about Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller.
Rainbow and her ex-husband ran the Black Cat Art Gallery for 13 years in Venice; recording music, hosting multi-art events, and headlining them as the final band as well. “We had a creative engine going, but eventually the wheels fell off,” Rainbow notes. Hollywood Fringe focuses on the challenges reality presents in our everyday lives and how to handle life’s disappointments. “I am excited at this time in history to be a part of the film ‘Hollywood Fringe’ that speaks to what so many creatives are facing in life – especially at this time.”
The power of performance has the potential to change lives. For Rainbow, it has shaped her in many ways that are sometimes beyond her own understanding, “The therapeutic effect that an excellent story and character have on an audience can heal, guide to change, transform, catalyze … I think it is the power of ‘NOW’ when experiencing the story that transports a whole audience to also experience a thrilling, in-the-moment presence, or state of being. The most mysterious and awe-inspiring thing is to see a person transformed by the effect of the story.”
Hollywood Fringe does exactly this by transporting the audience and asking them to question their own lives. The film mirrors the real world and captures the essence of ordinary life and its challenges. As mundane as life may be for the film’s characters, they do everything in their power to find success. The open-ended nature of the film allows viewers to apply the character’s situations to their own lives and personal experiences.
Rainbow’s performance in the film reflects the honest and realistic portrayal of what it means to be a struggling actor on the fringes of Hollywood. For Rainbow, she strongly believes that “there is a responsibility there, for me, the performer and storyteller, to stay true to the kernel of what it is to be simply: a conflicted, buffeted, confused, heart-full and heartbreaking, well-rounded person.” Fans agree, as early screenings showed her character Chakra to be a ‘fan favorite.’
Rainbow and the rest of the cast can be seen this week in ‘Hollywood Fringe’, a powerful and humorous film that reflects the world today and can resonate with the lives of many during these trying times.
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