Back to ‘Life’

The last time audiences saw “Life 101,” it was August 2004 at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, one of the world’s premier theater festivals. The Edinburgh Guide reviewer said: “Inspirational, uplifting and one of the best shows I’ve seen … exceptionally well-written, the music is first-class.”

So how did the Spokane Civic Theatre snag it for a Northwest premiere at the Firth Chew Studio Theatre?

It’s easy when your top staff people wrote the show.

It was written by Yvonne A.K. Johnson and Donovan Stohlberg, with music composed by Stohlberg. Johnson is the Civic’s artistic director, and Stohlberg is the marketing and development director.

Back when “Life 101” was first conceived in 1997, both were graduate drama students at Minnesota State University. Stohlberg had been working on a musical idea about a group of students on a study-abroad trip to London. He asked Johnson to take a look at it.

“I loved it and wanted to get on board with it,” she says. “We talked about our study-abroad experiences and how these experiences can shape your life.”

So they developed it as a small-scale musical (eight characters, a small band, minimal set). They hired LB Hamilton to write lyrics. Then they produced their own version of it in early 2004 at the Mounds Theater in St. Paul, and then in Milwaukee, Wis.

At the end of that year they had been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the show was selected as one of the top five musicals.

“We were reviewed by London reviewers, Scottish reviewers, American reviewers,” says Johnson. “We were very fortunate.

“Of course, there are still things to work on; it continues to be a work in progress.”

So when Johnson was hired at the Civic in early 2005, with Stohlberg arriving shortly afterward, a new production of “Life 101” seemed natural. Johnson says it was conceived as a small-scale, low-budget musical – in other words, just right for the intimate Studio Theatre.

She calls it a “musical dramedy.” It follows seven American students and their eccentric professor on an overseas study trip to London.

The scenes are episodic in nature, and each character represents a “type”: the jock, the nerd, the sorority girl, the intellectual and the hippie.

“It’s very much an ensemble production,” says Johnson. “Every character has a leading role. In each song, somebody is the focus.”

There is also a love interest between two of the characters, which explains in part why it has been billed as “Friends” meets “American Pie.”

The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh called it “all great fun, if you can keep your cynicism locked down.”

Johnson says that she and Stohlberg hope to publish the musical someday. Meanwhile, she says, this cast has helped them to refine and focus the show.

She directs a cast that includes Kendra Kimball, Douglas Vinson, Tony Caprile, Charles Ivan Gift, Maureen Krels, Jimmy James Pendleton, David Hardie and Kelly Carnahan.

Music director Gary Laing presides over a trio of keyboard, bass and percussion.