‘Lean into the absurdity of things’: Coeur d’Alene Levity Theatre turns improv into musicals

If there’s any artform that teaches both performers and audience members about living in the moment, it’s improv comedy. Once the moment passes, or the scene ends, it’s gone for good, never to be repeated.

Yes, recordings may be made and clips may live on in perpetuity on social media, but the idea is still the same – that exact scene will never again be created out of thin air.

An improvised scene alone is impressive, but adding music and songs to the mix takes things to a new level. It’s no big deal for Levity Theatre, though, which has been hosting improvised musical shows once a week through the month of June.

The Levity troupe will perform improvised musicals twice more this month, on Saturday, June 22 and June 28.

Levity Theatre founder Noah Johnson has a slightly atypical story in that he didn’t have any theater experience before jumping into improv. He and a friend were interested in trying improv and decided “I’ll do it, if you do it.” They both joined the Whatcom Community College improv troupe, eventually becoming members of the club’s committee and steering the troupe toward hosting improv shows rather than just being an “open playground” for those looking to try improv.

Johnson also volunteered at the Upfront Theatre, an improv theater in Bellingham, eventually performing there too. In 2021, the improv scene, or rather lack thereof, in the Inland Northwest brought Johnson to Coeur d’Alene to start Levity Theatre.

Johnson was aware of the foundation Blue Door Theatre laid for improv comedy in Spokane but found it difficult to find improv opportunities in Coeur d’Alene save for those geared toward children at Christian Youth Theatre and teens at local high schools.

“After high school, there’s absolutely nothing,” Johnson said. “When I learned that I was like, ‘Well, this is especially important because it’s great for high schoolers, obviously, but it’s also really great for adults to help them break back into and embrace that childlike wonder and that fascination that we often don’t exercise in our day to day lives.’ It’s so helpful and beneficial for adults.”

As soon as he settled into the Inland Northwest, Johnson began teaching improv classes and has trained nine of the 10 other members in the Levity troupe.

Johnson said the theater’s Improv Basics course takes someone with no improv experience and, over the course of eight weeks, prepares them to do a small showcase in front of an audience. Levity Theatre also offers a Level 2 class, in which performers learn more about scene work and developing characters.

The Levity troupe meets for two hours once a week. For the last three months, they have been preparing for the improvised musical performances, working on how to improvise song lyrics and sing on time. Johnson likens these meetings to football practice rather than play rehearsals.

“At a play rehearsal, you’re practicing what your lines are and what order you say them and it’s very specific,” he said. “In a football practice, you’re practicing skills so that when you’re out there playing, you have an idea of what this feels like and what it could be like. Of course, it’s not going to go exactly like you planned, but you prepare for that.”

Over the course of the hour-and-a-half show, with a 10-minute intermission, Johnson said the troupe usually improvises around 15 songs, some longer than others. The musical is inspired by a single audience suggestion in response to the prompt, “What is the title of a musical you would like to see that doesn’t exist?”

The first improvised musical Levity performed this month was called “Call Me Grandpa,” about a group of senior citizens in a retirement home who have to take down the administration after it’s revealed the retirement home is corrupt. The second, “In Love with a Cow,” told the story of a man who worked on a dairy farm who liked talking to the cows. After his boss fired him, because he wasn’t focused on work, the cows revolted against the farmer.

“We really like to lean into the absurdity of a lot of things,” Johnson said. “Normal is not what we do.”

When they’re not performing improvised musicals, the Levity troupe also hosts Comedy Clash, which involves the audience voting on which group of improvisers did a better job with the improv games, and improvised murder mysteries, which will be performed in October and, hopefully, Johnson said, throughout the year as well.

Johnson advises anyone even remotely interested in improv to give it a try, saying it is not going to be as scary as they think it will be. All a good improviser needs, Johnson said, is a willingness and excitement to learn.

You don’t have to be quick-witted or funny or extroverted or even want to perform on stage; it’s all about embracing the chance to “be anything, do anything and think with others parts of (your) brain (you) haven’t used in a while,” Johnson said.

“If you have the ability to feel an emotion and react authentically, you can improvise,” he said. “That’s really the core of it.”