FAQs

Reaching out as early as possible increases the likelihood we will have availability to support your community. While we consider every inquiry we receive, we typically need at least 2 months notice to accept on-campus bookings that feature live performance. Longer notice is generally needed for off-campus events that require significant travel. 

Please fill out our online inquiry form. We will do our best to send an initial response to your inquiry within a week. 

Our Company Manager will contact you to set up a meeting with one of our program facilitators. During this meeting, the facilitator will explore with you whether the Players would be a good resource to support your community’s needs. You should be ready to discuss your target audience, your goals for the event, and possible dates/times for the performance. You can find questions to guide your prethinking on this page. If you are interested in booking the Players as part of a joint venture with another group or institution, it is important for a representative from all parties to participate in this initial exploratory conversation.

The CRLT Players provide sessions applicable to faculty, graduate student instructors, and university leaders. As our expertise and capacity allow, we will also offer programs for medical professionals and staff working in higher education. We do not perform for undergraduate students, community organizations, or corporations.

While The Players’ primary mission is to serve the U-M community, we also provide sessions for other universities and scholarly professional organizations as staff capacity permits. You can explore places where we have presented sessions via the map on this page.

The Players can accommodate most audience sizes, depending on the venue. We have worked with in-person audiences up to 900. We do not recommend providing sessions for fewer than 10 people, however, because it can make conversation challenging for participants.

All of the sessions in the Players repertoire have been designed to support members of the higher education community in creating professional/educational spaces in which all people can truly thrive. You can see a full list of sessions available during the upcoming/current academic year here. Clicking on any session will direct you to a page that includes the session’s description, learning goals, and audience testimonials.

All Players sessions are created to meet a need identified by the higher education community. To create accurate and specific sessions, program staff consult academic research, conduct qualitative interviews, and draw on ethnographic observation of relevant settings. In the development process, material is previewed by clients, focus groups, and/or the CRLT Faculty Advisory Board before being added to the repertoire.

New work creation is primarily driven by the needs of our key campus partners, but we do occasionally create work based on requests by other groups. Developing new sessions is a time-intensive process, however. To discuss possible new work development, email the Director of the CRLT Theatre Program at [email protected]. 

The standard length of Player’s sessions varies. Many offerings can be tailored to run 60, 90, or 120 minutes, depending on a client’s goals. The company also offers some of its programming in half- or full-day retreat formats. To explore the timing of particular sessions, you can explore our current list of offerings or submit an inquiry to start the process of scheduling a meeting with a Player’s facilitator. 

We are able to present our work in a wide variety of spaces. Many of our sessions can be hosted in a classroom with minimal tech support; some require larger venues and more complex technical set-up. Most sessions utilize slides and for the purpose of accessibility, we like to have amplification (microphones) for all sessions. Our Company Manager will consult with you to ensure that the space selected for your event meets the needs of the session you have booked and your anticipated audience. 

The relationship between event registration and attendance continues to evolve. Holding events near an audience’s primary workspace, offering a meal, and/or providing face time with high-level academic leaders can have a positive impact on event attendance.

• Videotaping: Due to our agreement with the Actor’s Equity Association (AEA), the national union for stage performers, Players sessions cannot be recorded.
• Streaming: Due to AEA regulations, the Players do not typically offer hybrid/livestreamed versions of sessions that feature live performance. If accommodations are necessary for accessibility reasons, exceptions can be made if notice sufficient to process a rider for our AEA contracts is provided. We do have fully virtual session offerings. 
• Photography: Due to AEA regulations, photographing Players performances/performers is not permitted. Clients can take photos of sessions facilitators and attendees in accordance with your organization’s policies. 
   

Costs vary based on a client’s relationship to the Players/U-M, the number of performers required, and– for external clients– travel and per-diem charges. Once we have a sense of the factors that will influence pricing for the event that you are interested in, our Company Manager will provide you with a detailed estimate of applicable costs.

When you book a Players session, we commit to offering:

• One to two planning meetings with a session facilitator (following our initial intake conversation), to support session success
• Logistical consultation with our Company Manager 
• One facilitated session 
• One debrief meeting to reflect on the session and discuss possible next steps in your organization’s changework in this area
   

The Players have been written into many grants, including ADVANCE and NSF grants. We do not offer assistance in grant writing or administration; however, we are happy to provide your organization with the information necessary to complete your grant applications and/or reports.

Our scripts are not available for purchase, nor do we offer rights of performance to external groups. Players scripts are the copyrighted property of the University of Michigan Board of Regents.

While we will not identify specific performers for your project, we are happy to circulate a casting notice to our company members. If you are interested in us circulating such a notice, please email our Casting and Directing Specialist with the information below.

• A brief description of the project for which you are seeking performers
• Any information about the identity characteristics needed for the project you are casting 
• The number of performers you are seeking
• A list of dates/times performers would need to be available for rehearsals, performances, and/or filming sessions
• An indication of the payment range performers might expect for participating in your project (As a point of reference, performers are paid $22-$25 for stage work. Performers are typically paid at a higher rate for videotaped performances. Industry standards for educational videos range from approximately $450 per performer for a half day and $670 for a full day.)
• The name and contact information of the individual with your group who will be interfacing with performers and making casting decisions.

Please note: We will not circulate a casting notice with incomplete information. Once our Casting and Directing Specialist has received all required information, they will forward this email to our company members, and they will contact you directly if they are interested and available. We will only circulate a casting notice for a project once, and cannot guarantee that performers will respond to your call.

We love to connect with people who have a commitment to creating positive change through the performing arts! Our company welcomes individuals with varying levels of experience (including those with little to no performance background) and are able to offer paid opportunities for Equity and Non-Equity performers. We are occasionally able to offer paid opportunities for composers, musicians, playwrights, and dramaturgs. If you are interested in learning more about our company and how you can be a part of our work, please fill out the form on our “Get Involved” page, and we’ll be in touch!