Site Update: Instructor Submissions Now Available

Having the instant submission tool for improv troupes has been great. I’ve been coding away to make that same functionality available to instructors. And it’s finally online!

Starting today, any festival that uses the instant submission tool on our site can also elect to take submissions for instructors as well.

How it works

A more detailed walkthrough will come soon, but the quick answer is this:

  • If you’re a festival producer. You are offered a checkbox when creating a new event to accept instructor submissions.
  • If you’re an instructor (and you have an instructor profile on the site), you’ll see a button like the picture below. Just click it. That’s it.
  • Capture

    How it looks

    Festival producers will already be familiar with the visual layout of the submission review page. It’s modeled after the troupe submission review page. In fact, you don’t even have to go anywhere new. It’s added as a tab to your review page.

    You will actually be presented with two lists. The first looks like this.
    Capture

    This is a list of instructors who have submitted to teach at your festival. Although instructors are not required to submit a troupe if they are submitting as an instructor, it is useful information for producers. So any troupes the instructors perform in which have submitted to the festival are listed below their names. Clicking on their names will take you directly to their teaching profile and workshop lists.

    The second list is a passive list. This is a list of instructors who have not specifically submitted to your festival, but are members of troupes who have submitted to perform. Having this information can be very helpful to producers when knowing who might be coming to the festival anyway.

    Capture

    What does it cost?

    Nothing. Producers can use this tool at their leisure and instructors can submit to any festival using the tool for free.

    What doesn’t it do?

    A few things. There aren’t as many options as the troupe submission tool, because it’s not really clear which of those features will be useful. Right now, it’s pretty much just a list. I’m very open to new features being added to this as time goes one.

    Loading quickly. It doesn’t do that. I know. More than any other page on the site right now, it’s a bit of a memory hog. It will load slowly the first time you load it. I’m working on that.

    Notify producers. Right now, producers won’t get notified every time an instructor submits. This is a relatively minor thing to be added, but I’m going to wait a few weeks to work out any potential bugs people may find. I don’t want producers to get flooded with bogus messages due to a bug somewhere. Messaging will be here before March.

    Why is it only for festivals?

    Don’t worry. There is another tool coming soon which will help facilitate getting instructors and theatre companies talking. In the mean time, I hope people keep reaching out to each other through their respective teacher and theatre profile pages.

    What should I know to use this tool responsibly?

    As a producer. If you have a general model for how instructors will be paid, it’s helpful to put that info up front. It’s not binding at this stage of course, but it helps instructors know which festivals they can submit to in a sustainable way. You can also check their booking information on their own instructor page to get a feel for their expectations. It’s best to have both parties familiar with the expectations of the other so there are no surprises down the road.

    As an instructor, look for festivals which accept instructors. But if they elected not to, they probably have a reason. You probably don’t want to email them to try to get them to change their minds.

    And that’s about it for now. There will be changes to this tool as with all tools. But it’s up now. Hopefully this will get some awesome workshops at festivals.


    Currently Bill is an instructor at The Torch Theatre and producer for the Phoenix Improv Festival.

    How to Hire an Improv Instructor: Standard of Practice

    During my travels and throughout all the improv summits I hold at Camp Improv Utopia I always get the question: How much and how do we hire an instructor? Is there a standard?

    Our improv industry doesn’t have a standard yet. But most every industry has a pretty good standard of practice when it comes to hiring outside help. Bill and I created NIN for a lot of reasons, but one of them is to help guide improvisors, theaters and festivals. In this blog I am going to try and breakdown for you a standard of practice for hiring an improv instructor.

    Transportation:

    The  standard is to purchase the instructors airfare (Coach) or if they are closer and don’t need airfare pay for their gas money. The current Govt. rate is $.58 per mile click HERE for the official govt. resource. Also, transportation from the airport. You can easily have someone pick them up or pay for a car to get them.

    Lodging: 

    The standard is to get the instructor a hotel room for the time they are there. Unless they offer something else assume this is what you should do. The accommodations should be nice. Think of it as a place you’d stay too. I have heard nightmare stories from instructors about being put in bad neighborhoods and bad hotels so do your research.

    How much do I pay them: 

    This can vary…But I’ll try to break it down:

    1. It really depends on your budget and the instructors experience – But remember this, they are not only training your students, they are usually training your instructors or future instructors. So think about this when hiring them.

    a.) For one standard workshop and show a good average rate ranges from $300 – $800 again depending on the instructor. For Master instructors, think about $1500-$3200. But usually when you have one of these type of instructors out you are getting more than just one workshop and a show. This is all negotiable just want to give you some ball park figures.

    b.) If you have them doing a couple workshops and a show that can range from $800-$1,700 for a typical instructor. Again, this is negotiable and depending on the instructor. It may be more for your top instructors this could be double as mentioned above it could range from $2,000 – $4,000. But again for most instructors the average should be around $800 – $1,700.

    c.) Usually if you’re going to spend the money, bring an instructor out for shows and workshops. They will charge you a flat fee for their services.

    d.) The 60/40, 70/30, 50/50 split scenarios. I get it, some theaters have to pay rent for their space and some instructors will do this, but you won’t get quality instructors from this scenerio. Why? You haven’t guaranteed them money to come out. Can you guarantee them the workshop will be sold out? Are you only charging $20 a head? Now if you’re charging like $80 or more a head a scenario like this may work out. But again, an instructor is leaving their community, job and family to come help your community out. They have put years of work, teaching, stagetime and money into their education.

    You have to realize you are booking them out of potential other work so it has to be worth it for them to come out to you and you have to put a value on your community. If your community gets the best training from these instructors, you all get better. Creating better shows bringing in more students and more audience and potentially more revenue for you. That’s your return on investment.

    Per Diem: 

    Now this can get tricky. Are you feeding them? Taking them out? If so you might not have to give a per diem. But if they’re on their own it’s usually $40- $75 a day in per diem. It varies from place to place….San Francisco is more expensive than Omaha for example. You don’t have to pay per diem on their travel days but just the days they are working for you. This is a standard practice in most industries. They have to feed themselves about three times a day. Now can you build this into their base fee? Yes! Just ask them about it. Can you waive it because you’ll be feeding them…Yes. Again, depends on the instructor but always ask.

    Contracts:
    I know it’s improv, but you should have them. It’s really ridiculous not to. Doesn’t have to have tons of legal speech but at least outline what you are each responsible for. It protects your theater and festival and it protects your instructor. It also protects you from that awkward moment after the workshop of “How much did we say?” You can find templates of them online. Here is a sample template.Of course you can change the wording to fit your needs and always run by a lawyer if you have access to one.

    Fundraising for this money:

    Now you’re probably screaming, “Nick, how can we afford this?” “We are just a small festival.” This is my answer: Ask yourself why are you throwing a festival and why are you bringing these teachers in. It’s most likely to bring a name or experience to help your community grow and your audience grow. To bring your community more attention. Remember they represent your theater or festival that week or weekend so you get all the press, the growth as teachers and performers the whole shabang! Yes it’s an investment and you might lose some money, but in the long run your return on investment will be seen in the quality of work you’ll be elevated to and hopefully with better shows and improvisors comes more audience.

    Fundraising has so many more outlets then ever before with social media and things like Kickstarter. Do some events during the year, get other theaters or groups involved. Have a budget so you know what your goal is. Here is a list you can consider doing to fundraise during the year:

    1. Kickstarter, Indigogo or something similar. I’ve seen these have much success.

    2. Do fundraising shows that the money goes directly to the festival. (Phoenix Improv Festival and The Torch Theater run a 48 hour marathon called GhostFest every halloween to raise money for their festival.

    3. Festival Submission fees – The average submission fee is around $25-30. Merch sales at your festival – T-shirts, buttons, stickers etc.

    5. Sponsorship Packets – Does your improv fest or theater have a Sponsorship Packet? Why not? Get local businesses, improv companies and more to put money into your programs, list their logo on your site. I’ve seen some great ones. Here is one from The Pittsburgh Comedy Festival as a great example.

    6. Auctions and Raffles: Auction off classes, get prizes from other companies that can donate to you some goods or services.

    Ultimately, you might not have the finances to do this and that’s okay. Keep working at it. Some teachers have wiggle room so just talk to them. Value them for who they are and their experience. If we are to become a greater community we have to have standards like other industries and I hope this helps guide you. Sure there are scenarios that aren’t listed here and things can change. And you can get creative…I’ve heard of a company that instead of paying the instructor they made it a vacation for them…tickets to disneyland, a vacation destination etc…So you never know. Best of luck and we are always here to help you! If you have any comments, experiences or suggestions please do!

    Nick Armstrong

    Nick is Camp Director and Founder of Improv Utopia an improv retreat for adults in California and Pennsylvania. He is also one of the founding members of the National Improv Network and performer and teacher at iO West as well as member of The Sunday Company at The Groundlings. He has also taught many workshops around the country.

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