Festival Talk: the Good and the Ugly

Topic du jour: What do I expect to get out of the upcoming Kansas City Improv Festival?

Complex question, which must be split into three parts for me:

1. What will I personally get out of it?

2. What will my improv troupe get out of it?

3. What will my theater get out of it?

1. Personally, I’ll get an extra chance to perform, which I am always glad for. I’ll also get to see some of my favorite local troupes all performing in the same weekend. I don’t get a chance to see shows too often, and I’m going to love to be able to see so many shows at one time. Also, because the festival is in town, I’m going to be able to have a workshop with the lovely and talented Jill Bernard with Improv-Abilities on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to that.

2. The troupe will get exposure to an audience they wouldn’t normally have access to. We usually perform in a different area, and I’m fairly confident that 98% of the audience will be seeing the Roving Imps for the first time. It’s possible that the troupe might get a mention in the press, which would be nice, as we’ve never gotten any kind of critical statements (positive or negative) in any press of any kind. There’s been show announcement information, but never an actual review-type statement. It’s also nice that some members of my troupe are going to be able to take part in the classes offered by the nationally known improvisers. I can’t wait to see what they bring back.

3. I am not expecting the Roving Imp Theater to get anything much out of the festival. In fact, I expect that on the whole, my theater will be hurt by the festival. *Warning… pessimism ahead*

Though a bunch of people will be seeing the Imps for the first time, with so many other groups happening at the same time, I don’t expect any of those audience members to be converted into Imp regulars. It would make me super happy to be wrong, but I just have to be realistic. I’ve upped my chances a bit by having an ad in the program, but I’d consider it to be a great coup if even one or two new folks stumble in because of the festival.

While the festival is happening, I will still be having separate shows… I still have the space, bills to pay, and a “show every Saturday” reputation to maintain. Such a huge improv festival will certainly impact my audience (as well as performers), and since the festival is all happening at Union Station, I have no choice but to remain open and present great quality shows. How do you compete with Jason Sudeikis, after all? We’ve got folks just as good, but nowhere near as famous. Time will tell, but with two Saturdays in a row pulling away improv audiences, I’m not expecting September’s numbers to be good.

Of course, it’s possible that the festival shows will be so good that it will create an immediate demand for great improvisation, and as the only improv theater in the area, the festival audience will flood toward the Imp, causing more performance opportunities to open up, and making this the highest-grossing September for years to come. Probably not, but there’s a tiny part of me that actually believes this will happen.

So to all the troupes out there… blow some folks away. It’ll do us all some good.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3, 2008 at 16:20 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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