Blue Door Theatre’s HoopProv show puts Spokane’s 3-on-3 tournament on center stage

In the weeks leading up to this year’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament, Spokane’s Blue Door Theatre has added a Hoopfest-themed improvisational show to their weekend lineup, which has resulted in a humorous and entertaining collaborative performance called “HoopProv.”

The idea for “HoopProv” was created by Blue Door Theatre’s business director, Jim Mohr. Rather than one of the regular directors taking charge of “HoopProv,” one of the theater’s improv class teachers took the reins.

Jake Foerg, 32, who has been volunteering and participating in productions at Blue Door Theatre since he was 17, is the director of HoopProv.

Foerg and the cast members began conceptualizing the format for the show about a month in advance. However, 100% of the content is made up on the spot. As a result, each show evolves into something drastically different from the last.

“My initial gut impulse was to make it a classic underdog story, but we thought that was a little too cliche,” Foerg said. “Since it’s a 3-on-3 format, we ended up going more toward an ‘assembling the team’ storyline. It’s almost like ‘The Avengers’ meets ‘The Mighty Ducks’ in a weird way.”

There are auditions open to the public for parts in the main cast once or twice each year.

“There are a few avenues for getting involved,” Foerg said. “Anyone who wants to volunteer is able to. They can also participate in classes.

“If people are interested in getting on stage, classes are a good way to prepare.”

Leading up to the live debut of “HoopProv,” Foerg was apprehensive about whether the show would be successful. However, given the consistent positive feedback from audience members, the first year of “HoopProv” appears to be going quite well.

“All things considered, the planning aspect has been smooth sailing. I was pretty nervous leading up to opening,” Foerg said. “My biggest difficulty was just second guessing myself along the way but fortunately those fears were pretty much unfounded.”

Foerg didn’t know what to anticipate prior to the first live performance.

“Anyone can create a format and have an idea of how it will go in their head, but it’s really hard to know if it’s going to work or not until you see it being performed on stage in front of a large audience.”

Foerg says he was a shy kid and credits his participation in improv at Blue Door with helping to bring him out of his shell.

“The primary value of doing improv is because there’s no script, you really have to learn how to be OK with the present moment and also be OK with collaborating with others,” Foerg said. “There’s a lot of learning how to accept the current reality and enthusiastically support other peoples’ ideas.”

Though Hoopfest is a beloved annual tradition in the community, Blue Door Theatre rarely incorporates sports into their show topics. The family-friendly series at is likely to attract more audience members into Blue Door’s 49-seat space.

Blue Door Theatre presented “HoopProv” every Friday in June and will host its final iteration at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 28. Tickets are $9.

This is the first time that the Blue Door Theatre has created a show that is distinctly set in Spokane.

“I really think that theaters should reflect the places where they come from,” Foerg said. “Audiences tend to gravitate toward things they are familiar with. The familiarity that Spokane has with Hoopfest and just the opportunity to present something new to our Spokane audience stood out to me with this show.”