Comedy Can Be Found Behind The Blue Door

Look behind The Blue Door for improvisational comedy.

As of June 23, The Blue Door Theatre, 122 S. Monroe, will be the new home of Unexpected Productions, the same people who have been performing “Cream of Wit” in Spokane for the past four years at the Masonic Temple and other venues.

Now, they have their first permanent space, and a surprisingly upscale one it is. They are using the former ArtFest stage, donated by the Cheney Cowles Museum, and 70 or 80 theater-style chairs donated by Avista after it remodeled its auditorium.

“It really looks like a theater,” said artistic director Mark Robbins. “We were thinking it would have to be folding chairs and plywood, but it’s incredible how all of this has come together.”

The space is in a loft above Art By Yourself near Monroe and First. To get there, go to the alley on the south side of the building and enter through the blue door (thus the name).

With a permanent space for rehearsals, this talented group of improv warriors will inaugurate a new kind of show. They will abandon the relatively loose form of “Cream of Wit” and will instead introduce more focused improv formats that will change monthly.

The first month’s format will be called “Read All Over,” and will consist of skits inspired by stories in each section of that day’s newspaper. (Now that’s comedy.)

Shows begin June 23 at 8 p.m. and will continue every Friday. Tickets are $5; call 747-7045 for reservations.

Power to KSFC-FM

KSFC-FM (91.9), the low-power sister station to KPBX-FM (91.1, Spokane Public Radio) has finally received FCC approval to build a new tower and boost the signal.

The present signal is a weakling at 100 watts from a transmitter way down in a pit (at Spokane Falls Community College).

The just-approved construction permit is for a 500-watt tower, more than 1,000 feet higher up on Lookout Mountain, northwest of Spokane.

Until the tower is up and running, no one really knows how far the signal will reach. However, Spokane Public Radio general manager Dick Kunkel said it will definitely cover the city and most of the greater Spokane market. It still won’t be nearly as strong as KPBX-FM’s signal, which is at 56,000 watts.

Kunkel said he hopes to have the tower finished “by the time the snow flies,” but it depends on money. He said the station will have to raise $40,000 to $50,000 for construction costs.

The station’s format will remain the same: news and public affairs.

Opera in the Council Chambers

Here’s an unusual site for a famous French opera — Spokane’s City Council Chambers.

Actually, here’s another unusual site: The Newport (Wash.) United Church of Christ.

“The Dialogues of the Carmelites” by Poulenc will be staged in both of those places this week as part of a labor of love by New York opera singer and former Spokane resident Libby Kopczynski.

She and several of her musical pals were in Spokane having a drink one day when they came up with the idea of staging this opera in Spokane and Newport just for the sheer artistic joy of it.

She recruited Scott Rednour, a former Usk-Cusick, Wash., resident who now teaches at the Manhattan School of Music, to be the pianist and musical director. She talked Doug Wunsch, a veteran of the San Francisco Opera and the New York City Opera, into being one of the singers. Then she met a lot of people in Newport who were enthusiastic about the idea of having an opera there.

And then they started wondering where to stage it in Spokane, and city Arts Director Karen Mobley said, “Why not the council chambers?”

Of course! The perfect place for high operatic drama.

The performance in the council chambers (a condensed version) will be on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., and the full performance at the Newport United Church of Christ, 430 W. Third, will be Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Both performances are free. Donations are accepted.

This opera is about a group of Carmelite nuns during the French Revolution who are given the choice of either disbanding or going to the guillotine.

Ashland inaugural

Just a note to remind all of you Oregon Shakespeare Festival fanatics: The outdoor Elizabethan Theatre opened this week in Ashland.

For tickets and info call (541) 482-4331, or check out the Web page at www.orshakes.org.