Revenge of the nerds at the Blue Door with Blue Doors and Dragons

It’s nerd night Friday evening at the Blue Door Theatre, but that’s a good thing. The Blue Doors and Dragons event, a nod to the popular game Dungeons and Dragons, is a different twist on the typical improv experience.

A roll of the dice determines the improv delivered Friday at the Blue Door. “The audience suggests what the quests will be and we roll the dice to see what will happen,” Spokane School of Improv artistic director Frank Tano said. “We have fun with the Dungeons and Dragon concept. We have a gamemaster who functions as our narrator.”

The Blue Doors and Dungeon show ran in March and was resurrected due to popular demand.

“The show goes over well,” Tano said. “The audience is definitely engaged. I think there’s something about Dungeons and Dragons. We don’t follow Dungeons and Dragons rules specifically but we do a lot of the playful tropes that are part of role playing games. The fun part about this game is that the dice dictates the action and the audience has their say.”

Some theaters opt to go dark during the summer once the great outdoors beckon, but the Blue Door has stayed open.

“Summer is always a challenge for stage productions,” Tano said. “It’s costly to stage big productions when the audience might not be there. But what we do at the Blue Door doesn’t require us to spend for a set design. It’s all imagination. We see a small drop off during the summer but we want to give Spokane an indoor option. We come up with ideas like the Blue Doors and Dragons event to stir interest. But the good news is that people here are interested in experiencing improv.”

The Alaska native knows improv since he’s been saying “Yes and” for 20 years. “I dove into the improv pool in Anchorage and never looked back,” Tano said. “I fell in love with improv when I was with a group called Scared Scriptless. But I wasn’t frightened. I enjoyed the spontaneity of it and I was always calm performing in a group. I started as a stand-up comedian, but I found that to be so nerve wracking.

“I took improv to build up my stand-up and I realized that I didn’t enjoy stand-up very much but I loved improv so I stayed with it.”

Tano enjoys instructing improv and being part of the Blue Door Theater, which opened in 1996.

“There is so much joy with improv whether you’re performing or in the audience,” Tano said. “There’s such an energy among your castmates and it’s so cool what the audience discovers. Every show is different. It’s a precious thing. Our shows are like a sunset, they happen each day but our shows, like a sunset, are different each day.”