2: Attend a Workshop or Two
Workshops are a great way to build your skill base and connect with other members of the improv community. A great thing about festivals is that they often will feature workshop leaders who travel from around the world or different areas of the country who come to teach a class. This is a brilliant way to learn methods and approaches that you may not have come across yet to add to your tool kit.
Attending workshops is also a brilliant way to support the improv community and especially some of the workshop leaders who often will run their own improv groups and shows. A reality is that improv groups don’t always make a huge amount of money, and it’s probable that the performers and groups at the festival aren’t getting ticket sale money for doing the shows. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t and that is the nature of the industry as improv is still growing to establish itself more and more. Instead many times the groups will perform for the opportunity to gain exposure and network whilst getting the stage time without having to hire the venue or take on the publicity costs of a stand alone show.
So if you want to help support some of your favourite companies and directors one of the best things you can do is attend their workshops, which can vary in price points, but will have been curated by the organisers to make sure there is a great line up of workshops available to meet different experience levels and performance styles.
Another great thing about attending the workshops is that you’ll meet others who are taking the class and this can be an opportunity to meet new people who you may wish to perform with or even start an improv troupe with. There are no doubt countless improv teams who could trace their origin to some random class that two or more people took together and decided to form a company out of enjoying working together.
