If you run a festival, chances are you started because you’d been to a festival you enjoyed. As a young performer, it’s awesome to get to perform for a new audience and see new shows. It’s exciting to get workshops from great instructors you don’t have access to. Those are usually the take backs from anyone’s first festival – because those things are great. As performers grow, those things are still wonderful, but they have new needs as well.
When I talk to people putting on festivals, the thing they’re always excited about is recreating that experience for new players, great shows and great workshops. That’s the beginning of a great festival. But there’s so much potential to schedule more. You’re city will soon be host to dozens of performers. But it will also be host to other teachers, coaches, directors, artistic directors, marketing managers, festival organizers, and theatre owners. How often do you have all these people in one place. A festival is a great chance to cater to their needs, but also to learn something from them in return.
There are many activities and ideas that can make the festival a great productive time for everyone and make your theatre and other theatres grow from the experience. Here are a few ideas, please think even beyond them.
Non-performance workshops:
Workshops on making yourself better onstage are invaluable. You can also schedule workshops to make yourself better offstage. Have you ever considered inviting someone you consider to be a great teacher to run a workshop for other teachers? Imagine having Craig Cackowski or Miles Stroth working with your instructors helping them make the training center in your town better. Workshops on coaching or directing can make your theatre (and those of other visitors) great.
And what about the business side of running a festival. Get together a bunch of festival organizers and go to a workshop together on social media marketing or how to secure sponsors. Or just how to maintain a budget for a venue. Here’s the thing that will sound really strange. The workshops don’t have to be run by performers. If you know someone who is great a writing grants, ask them to run a workshop. Your festival and other festivals will grow from the experience.
Talkbacks
Do you have a big headliner coming to your festival? An A-List performer. If they do a workshop, great. You might also ask them to have a one hour talkback session with performers all all experience levels to ask advice on a variety of topics. These are smart people and they have ideas that might help outside the context of their workshop. A lot of people may have questions, here’s a chance to ask them.
Panels
Panels are another great way to let experiences folks talk on subjects that they are great at. This already happens at your festivals, but it happens at the bar during the afterparty. Bring it into the daylight, let people bring a pen and paper and listen to a series of teachers and organizers give presentations on ways to help theatre, ensemble and festival health.
Full blown conference
We’re professional performers. We can act like any other professionals do, except we’re probably more fun. Mix all of these above ideas in whatever fashion you choose. Create a schedule of different talks and open conversations in various rooms. Set moderators, invite visiting performers to suggest topics of conversation. Get theatre owners talking to each other. Get festival organizers sharing ideas in structured and unstructured ways. Don’t get rid of the workshops, but add something to do for the people looking to make their ensembles better.
You’ll be surprised how much you learn.
Fun fact. In 2012, people from Austin, Phoenix, Minneapolis, La Crosse, Los Angeles & Houston spent two hours during a festival talking about how to improve the festival submission process across the country. The result was The National Improv Network. Amazing ideas can come out of sharing ideas with other folks. If they’re in your town, make something amazing happen.
Currently Bill is an instructor at The Torch Theatre and producer for the Phoenix Improv Festival. He tours teaching and performing across North America.
