FAQs

How does NZIF work… for participants?

NZIF welcomes any and all improvisors who find themselves in Wellington 6–14 October 2023. There are workshops you can sign up for, shows you can watch (and maybe even perform in!), networking/forum sessions covering various industry topics, and plenty of opportunities for chill/fun/epic social times. Many participants come as individuals (but often bring along company mates) and everyone seems to have a pretty great time! This is our 14th festival and we make changes and tweaks as needed each year to make sure we’re best serving the improv community.

How does NZIF work… for the public?

They can attend any of our shows, they get to watch us do amazing improv and admire us from afar. All tickets are sold through BATS Theatre, and will be available from late August. If someone asks about the Festival from an audience perspective, send them to bats.co.nz.

I want to see shows!

All ticket booking this year will go through BATS Theatre. This is to make things easier for you, for us, and for BATS themselves. Being a participant entitles you to purchase $10 tickets to any of our NZIF showcase performances, and upon registering you’ll get an email with the special participant code.

Please remember:

• This code must not be shared outside of registered NZIF 2023 participants.

• This code must not be used to buy other people’s tickets. It’s just for you.

• There is no limit to the number of shows you book a ticket for.

To use the code:

1. Visit bats.co.nz

2. Select the show/s you want to book a ticket to, and choose Full Price. You can book more than one show at once by selecting ‘Add New Booking’.

3. Enter the discount code (ooo watch that discount get applied!) and buy your tickets

4. Pick them up at BATS during the Festival or print your own

If you get stuck, email us on hello@improvfest.nz

If you are on a tighter budget, do not fear — your festival pass gives you access to standby complimentary tickets! You’ll need to show your pass and to put your name down with the BATS Box Office on the night.

Note that standby tickets will only be available if the show hasn’t sold out, so your best bet is always to get a ticket in advance. Our advice is to get in early and book for the shows you can’t bear to miss.

How do I sign up?

Visit our very beautiful registration website: my.improvfest.nz and hit the link that says ‘Register now!’

Currently we have opened Early Bird Registrations with a preferential booking system. This means that for each time slot, you mark the available workshops as your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice. You don’t have to rank all the workshops in each slot, and you don’t have to select something in every slot. You don’t pay any money at this point.

Early Bird Registration closes on 1 September. We’ll close preferential bookings and our system will allocate workshop spots, aiming to give everyone as many of their first choices as possible. This is when we will ask you to pay for the workshops you’ve successfully registered for.

From early September, all workshop registration becomes first-come-first-served to fill any remaining spots. These are paid at time of booking.

What does it cost?

For 2023, individual workshops start at $70. The more workshops you attend, the less you pay per workshop. For example, a package of 2 workshops costs $135 but is worth $140, a package of 5 workshops is worth costs $300, but is worth $350, and so on. The most one person can attend is 11 workshops (but that’s a LOT of workshops, so take it easy!).

When you go to sign up, the total price you’ve booked for will display, so you can quickly see what you are getting yourself into.

Why do workshops cost this amount? What am I paying for?

In one sense, what you’re paying for is very simple. You’re paying for a workshop led by a rad teacher, and you get all participant privileges (standby comp tickets, drink specials when available, trinkets, social events, networking, a really fun time).

In another sense though, you’re helping us keep this festival going. We have set costs we need to cover — venue fees, room hire, tech equipment, festival team, production crew, special events, marketing… boy howdy the list goes on. Some of that cost is covered by the box office and by any funding we may receive, but we do need to make sure we keep this thing ticking along and don’t get stuck in an empty money hole.

We don’t differentiate in price between the different workshops. This is to ensure accessibility of all workshops, encouraging participants to register based on their interest/needs rather than their budget.

I get that, but I can’t afford to participate. What can I do?

Talk to us! There are ways of participating that don’t cost the earth. You can apply for our Financial Assistance programme, volunteer in the festival team, arrange to pay in installments, or we can try to find something else that is mutually beneficial. Email us at hello@improvfest.nz.

How do I know if a workshop is right for me?

We know it can be tricky to evaluate your own improv ability. Terms and techniques differ between schools, cities, and countries, and different people develop at different speeds.

This year, we’ve asked our workshop tutors to recommend the skills that participants should have before attending, rather than a number of years’ experience. These are a guideline only; we recognise that no two improvisors’ journeys are the same.

We ask that participants be honest and practical with their self-evaluation — if you’ve never done musical improv, say, we probably wouldn’t recommend signing up to an advanced musical improv class. Likewise, if you’ve been improvising for 15 years, we wouldn’t recommend signing up to an introductory class on a topic to see how the teacher frames the subject — get a coffee with them instead.

Apart from checking the recommended experience level, things you should ask yourself: does this content excite me? Have I taken a workshop with this teacher before? Is this workshop covering something missing in my current improv? Will it stretch me? Will it bring me joy? Follow your heart, friends!

If in doubt, drop us a line at hello@improvfest.nz and we’ll be happy to make some recommendations.

My registration says I’m on the waitlist. What does that mean?

We have a waitlisting system in place for workshops registrations. Early Bird registrations are all those that come in before the September 1st cutoff, where participants tell us their preferences per workshop slot. Regular registrations are those between Early Bird cutoff and the end of the festival, which are on a first-come-first-serve basis. Things work a little different depending on when you registered, so read closely!

Getting on a waitlist:

• [EARLY BIRD ONLY] If you are allocated to a workshop that is not your first choice, you will be added to a waitlist for your first choice in that slot, and for any other workshops you added during registration as a higher priority. For example, if you gave four preferences and you get your third choice, you’ll be added to waitlists for your first and second choice, but not your fourth.

• [REGULAR REGISTRATIONS] You may add yourself to any number of waitlists during registration. These are considered to have equal priority.

• If you want to be taken off a waitlist you can go in and edit your registration, otherwise we will assume you want to be switched if the opportunity arises.

• The Festival Team reserves the right to add to or edit waitlists at their discretion to improve the overall participant experience.

When a space becomes available in a workshop with a waitlist:

• The person at the top of that waitlist is immediately and automatically given that spot, and receives a notification by email.

• Any other waitlist spots that person had for workshops in that slot with THE SAME OR LOWER PRIORITY are automatically removed.

• [EARLYBIRD] If you’re in your third choice workshop and a spot opens up for you in your first choice, you will no longer be on the waitlist for your second choice

• [REGULAR] Since there’s no priority for your waitlists, you’ll be removed from all other waitlists in the same slot. You can go back into your registration and add yourself to the waitlists again, but you’ll be at the back of the queue. This is to give everyone a fair chance.

• If accepting this new place increases your total number of workshops, you will have some money to pay. The exact amount depends on your total number of workshops: you still get the bulk discount, so going from 5 to 6 selections is cheaper than going from 1 to 2. You can do this through the registration site. We won’t be total hard-asses about when we need this money, but we might chase you up if you haven’t paid by the time you leave town :)

• If moving you out of your current choice opens up a gap for someone else, the process is repeated until all open spaces have been filled.

• Please note: once you get moved into a workshop, the only way back into the one you were moved out of is via the back of the queue.

If you can’t make it to a workshop:

• Please indicate this AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, either by telling a Festival Team member, or by removing yourself using the registration software, AT LEAST one hour before the workshop is due to start. This is to ensure whoever gets your spot has adequate notice.

• WARNING: We cannot refund you for a workshop you did not attend if you didn’t tell us you weren’t coming! If this seems harsh, consider that most years pretty much all our workshops are full, and if that happens again your withdrawal means someone could have attended in your place, so we really need you to be diligent about this and appreciate that a place in a workshop is a pretty valuable commodity.

If you are confused about where to go:

• There will be someone in the foyer at BATS before the start of each workshop session who will have access to up-to-date attendee lists, so BE EARLY TO WORKSHOPS.

• The best thing is to have the registration site bookmarked on your phone and check before each session. You’ll be able to see which workshop you’re attending and which space you’re supposed to be in.

• Please be sure to check your email regularly during the Festival.

If you don’t get into a workshop you were waitlisted for:

• We’re real sorry.

• You’ll only pay for workshops you got into (whether or not you made it to the workshop is on you).

• Stay on the waitlist just in case — things may change!

Show waitlists:

• These are entirely managed by BATS. Talk to their delightful Box Office team on the night.

I got carried away at karaoke and slept through a workshop. Can I go to a different one instead?

Yikes! Once your place in a workshop is booked and the workshop’s started, that’s it. It wouldn’t be fair to other participants who missed out on that slot if we gave it away to you for nothing. If you miss a workshop due to something less self-inflicted (illness, emergency etc) talk to Jim and Matt (directors@improvfest.nz) and they’ll see what they can do.

What does being a participant mean?

You’re part of the whānau (family). You’ve signed up for a workshop, you’re teaching or directing, you’re performing in a show, you’re one of our crew, you’re a volunteer. We think you’re rad. You get a festival pass which gives you access to any and all social, conference and networking events during the week (see below). You get a discount code to book tickets to shows, and access to standby complimentary tickets to any shows that haven’t sold out.

What’s the deal with the Code of Conduct?

There’s heaps to read on this and you can do so here: Code of Conduct

What’s the deal with festival passes?

A festival pass is a literal pass — it’s something you carry/wear throughout the week to signal your involvement in the festival. Everyone in the festival will get one, whether you’re a programmed teacher or director, performing in a show, attending a workshop, or volunteering for the festival. As well as access to standby tickets, and cool discounts around town, this sweet lanyard means you will be invited to any and all social and networking events during the week.

Please wear the pass (or have it on you) at all festival events and at BATS Theatre. You must present it in order to go on the standby list at BATS for tickets — they will put your name on a list and when they know how many empty seats are available, they’ll call your name if you can get in. First in first served, and you can only put your name down on the night.

Your pass also gets you the Whānau discount at Lumen, the BATS bar (20% discount on any beverage). Again, the staff will refuse you if you do not have your pass.

Note: The Festival team will have a different colour pass to general participants. Not sure what colour yet. Maybe gold? Or glittery!

My company/troupe/collection of people wants to participate! Is there space for us?

Sort of! Applications to present shows at the Festival have now closed, so we can’t programme your group to perform a stand-alone show, but we would absolutely love to have you in and around the Festival regardless. Sign up for workshops, jump into the jam, hear some cool conference sessions!

Troupes who have attended the Festival in the past have told us they've found it invaluable as a way to expand their improv horizons, explore new perspectives, and learn new skills, which they can then incorporate into their work back home.

How do I get more stage time at NZIF?

This is a really common question asked both in person and raised on the feedback form. We always aim for lots of opportunities. Some shows will have been pre-cast before the Festival, others are cast from workshops during the festival. There are also All-In opportunities for people to play (The Jam on Monday night, the Made-Up Smackdown on Tuesday–Friday, and Grab Bag on Thursday night).

It’s possible that you will be disappointed by missing out on a particular casting opportunity. Know that there are many elements that go into the casting of a show, and directors must balance the needs of the show format with the desire to create opportunities for participants, while often having limited or negligible rehearsal time. Being cast in a show or not is very rarely a reflection on your value as an improvisor.

The best we can offer: come along to the jam and get up and play, so that you can interact with lots of players, sign up for the Made-Up Smackdown, be available for call times; and just bring your happy, healthy self to workshops and social times. If you have concerns during the week you’re more than welcome to raise them with Jim and Matt.

Further notes on workshops with casting opportunities

As the teacher of a casting workshop, we ask that you ensure you are teaching more than just training for the show. We hope that those not cast in the performance will take away just as much as those who are.

As a participant of said workshop, we hope that your engagement is on the level of skills development, not ‘how do I get noticed?’ Please don’t sign up for workshops purely because of the performance opportunity to the detriment of the learning opportunity, nor use the time during the workshop to showboat or distract from the lessons offered by the teacher. In any case, even if you don’t get to perform you should walk away an improved improvisor with new insights into your work.

Notes on workshop quality

This will always be somewhat subjective — we’ve all taken workshops that have changed our lives while leaving others completely cold. But we do ask that all tutors pitch their workshops accurately, that they balance class size with opportunity to play, and that they have clear learning objectives for participants. We also offer feedback on workshop plans to all facilitators and welcome feedback from participants.

What if I book a ticket for a show and then I get cast in that show?

If you’ve booked it through the BATS Box Office, they will either a) swap your ticket for a different show or b) refund you if you paid in advance. The refund part is at their discretion but they’re not jerks. If you’re feeling generous, give your ticket to someone you like who wants to come and hasn’t got a ticket already!

When should I be in Wellington?

Firstly: please note that booking travel to Wellington is at your own risk, but we will refund people who can’t make it due to circumstances out of their control - we just can’t control how your travel or accommodation bookings will go!

The first shows will start on Friday 6 October and run to Saturday 14 October. The first workshops will start Saturday 7 October in the morning, and we will have a bit of a welcome party on the evening of Sunday 8 October. We wrap things up late on Saturday 14 October, with a lunchtime closing party on Sunday 15 October. So leaving in the afternoon/evening of the 15th is probably best.

Where do we sleep?

Our official accommodation partner is The Cambridge Hotel, a breezy 3-minute walk from BATS Theatre (although to be fair, most walks in Wellington are breezy).

They have everything from backpacker-style dorms to private rooms, and are offering our participants a 10% for any bookings in 6–15 October! Simply use the code IMPROV when booking.

Participants also get discount meal deals (yes, including breakfast) at The Cambridge Hotel.

What’s the deal with merch?

Get your beautiful apparel here: improvfest.printmighty.co.nz

Delivery options:

• Get it delivered to you! How fun!

• Pool your delivery funds and buy in a group, that is also fun!

• Have your merch posted to BATS Theatre and pick it up when you arrive! (Address: Your Name c/o NZIF & BATS Theatre, 1 Kent Terrace, Wellington 6011)

• Select ‘Pick Up’ and go for a mission out to Kapiti! (45 minute drive from BATS Theatre, you may want to car pool)

How can I help spread the word?

• Direct people to BATS Theatre to book their tickets!

• Direct people to improvfest.nz for general information!

• Invite your friends to our social media — mainly Facebook and Instagram

• Hand out fliers! Put up a poster at your office! Ask us how!

• Do you have media contacts and can help us get a story out there? Tell us!

Is the festival interested in what I think about all this?

Absolutely. Every year we run a participant survey after the festival to find out what we did right, and what we can improve on. If you have constructive thoughts during the week, you’re welcome to get in touch.

Who’s running this thing? Who should I ask about the stuff?

The Artistic Co-Directors of the Festival are Jim Fishwick and Matt Powell (directors@improvfest.nz)

Our Community Manager and Participant Liaison is Austin Harrison (austin@improvfest.nz)

If you have questions in the lead-up to the festival, start by contacting one of them.

During the Festival: you can email hello@improvfest.nz, or call 022 526 1519. At least one of the team will be staffing this phone and email during the festival and you should get a response promptly.

Something is broken on this flippin’ website!

Oh man, we’re sorry! Please email matt@improvfest.nz, and let him know:

• What you were trying to do

• What you expected to happen

• What actually happened instead.

Screenshots and web addresses (copy and paste what’s in the address bar at the top of your browser) are definitely helpful! There’s chocolate in it for you if your bug report helps us find and fix something for the next person.

Please, I have more questions that haven't been frequently asked!

Make sure you’re a member of our facebook group, NZIF Green Room and regularly check the announcements. Check through both our websites (improvfest.nz), ask in the group, check your emails. And if you still have questions, just ask us :)