What are we going to do about theatre and the performing arts?

Devoted & Disgruntled (D&D) is an opportunity for everyone passionate about the arts — from audiences to artists, CEOs to FOH staff, grassroots groups to seasoned professionals — to get together and focus on the question: "What are we going to do about theatre and the performing arts?" Anyone and everyone is invited to take part, no matter how experienced you are or where you're based.

D&D is a two-and-a-half-day event in which you get to set the agenda and decide what conversations you want to be part of. Once you've booked your ticket, you can take part in as much or as little as you want.

Pay-What-You-Choose ticket pricing

We believe that anyone should be able to take part in Devoted & Disgruntled, regardless of finances — D&D thrives when there's a wide range of voices in the room. We know that a lot of people continue to be under serious financial pressures as a result of the pandemic. So we're continuing our commitment to run D&D as a Pay-What-You-Choose event. Each Pay-What-You-Choose ticket gives you access to all 2.5 days of D&D 2022 (although you can come and go as you choose!)

We hope that between everyone who comes, we can cover the costs of the event together. Whether you're paying for it out of your own pocket, or using your organisation's training budget, you choose what you think is a reasonable price.

Here are some facts that might help with that:

• Devoted & Disgruntled 2022 runs for 2.5 days and has capacity online for up to ~500 people.
• D&D 2022 will cost at least £17,500 (not including Improbable staff time). Whilst we don't have any venue-related costs for this event, this amount covers our online platform costs and helps us to maintain the same level of access support (including BSL interpretation and live captioning) that we have provided at previous annual D&D events.
• Improbable receives annual funding from Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation. In addition to supporting for our free online Open Space events this year, our grant funding also covers £8,000 of our costs for this event. That means D&D 2022 needs to make ~£5,500 in ticket sales to break even - an average of £12 per participant.
• We know that money is tighter than it has ever been, but we hope that those who would normally pay much higher prices for events, conferences or professional development will chuck a bit more into the pot.

You will know best what is affordable for you at the moment - this might be £0, £100, or anything in between. If it helps you to make your decision, we've put together the following list as an indication of what different contributions will support:

• £3 helps to cover our online platform costs for one person.
• £12 is the average price per ticket we need to break even.
• £25 fully covers your place and someone else's place too.
• £50 - £75 helps us to keep our event accessible and goes towards a wide range of access support for the event.*

*Recommended if your place is funded by your company or organisation.

Note: VAT at 20% applies to all bookings, but this is inclusive in the price you have chosen to pay. In other words, we will automatically deduct 20% of VAT on our end and you won't be additionally charged. However, the VAT amount will not be reflected in your booking confirmation email due to limitations in the box office system. Please get in touch with johanna@improbable.co.uk if you would like a VAT receipt for your Pay-What-You-Choose booking.

Optional tech orientation sessions

We will be hosting two 30-minute orientation sessions on Friday 19th March 2022 (10:30am and 5:30pm) - these are optional sessions, but if you would like a chance to familiarise yourself with the online tools we'll be using, we will explain how they work and answer any questions. We will send out more information about these orientation sessions closer to the time - no need to reserve a place in advance, unless you have specific access needs (see below).

Access information:

If you have any access needs, please make sure to include details in the booking form or get in touch with us in advance by emailing johanna@improbable.co.uk.

We aim to make D&D as accessible as possible and you can find more information on our Access Information page.

We will be working with an an Access and Wellbeing Officer who will be available throughout the event, with a particular focus on supporting those with access needs.

We can provide either BSL interpreters or live captioners for d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants - please indicate your preference in the booking form. If you need captioning or any other reasons, please do let us know.

In addition, this event is a relaxed environment - so feel free to log off, turn off your video or mute yourself whenever you want; children are also very welcome.