This Bellingham theater teaches improv to people with memory loss

If you've ever taken an improv class, you know they make you do some goofy stuff, like communicate with sounds, not words, and play out all kinds of unique situations.

At The Upfront Theatre in Bellingham, an improv class was created especially for students who have early stage memory loss.

This article comes from a story originally broadcast on Soundside. Listen to the full episode below.

For these students, improv is a rare chance to be creative and playful, and not be defined by their memory issues.

Instructor Sammy Jolly said many students may be new to improv and nervous about what they’re walking into, so she starts by giving an improv 101.

"I tell people that we are going to be silly. We're going to have fun. We're going to connect," Jolly said. "And most importantly, we're going to say 'yes' to whatever ideas people have, whatever they have to contribute."

Saying "yes" to whatever idea someone throws out there is the classic rule of improv. In Jolly's class, everyone circles up to practice "yes" statements, real or made up.

"It takes all the anxiety away. Whatever you say today, we're going to enthusiastically accept it," she said.

Ryan Albachten-DeGolier is a class regular. She said class is all about being silly for her, and that gives her a sense of freedom, because nothing she says or does here is wrong.

Albachten-DeGolier stumbled upon this class when she was looking for gentle activities she could do to stay active. She has a brain injury that causes neurological issues.

The ongoing journey of her brain injury has been heavy. It's impacted her entire life, including her memory, speech, and movement. So, the silliness of this improv class offers her lightness.

"Humor has been a huge part of finding my way out of the grief of what I've lost and the changes that have occurred in my identity," she said.

If her symptoms flare up or if she slurs her speech or completely forgets what she was saying in the middle of an improv game, Albachten-DeGolier said there is zero judgment from anyone.

"Sometimes people start to say something, and then they're just blank," she said. "And we just incorporate it or move on."

Another student, Rosh Doan, is a retired pediatrician who has early Alzheimer's. He said he appreciates how the class is all about the present moment.

"Improv class is a time to let go of expectations and to enjoy ourselves as we are and accept who we are in the here and now," he said.

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Doan takes improv with his wife at the Greenwood Senior Center in Seattle, where the idea of this class started.

Fifteen years ago, someone who worked at the Senior Center approached Pam Nolte, an actor and co-founder of Taproot Theater Company, to lead an improv class. Nolte didn’t have an improv background, but she started researching improv and memory loss and where those two things overlapped. She also pulled from personal experience.

"My mother, who died in 2003 with Alzheimer's, was a preschool teacher," Nolte said. "She could play like no one else I knew. She was Peter Pan, and all the kids in the neighborhood were leaping across the sofas in our living room, following her."

Inspired by her mom, Nolte tailored an improv class that focused on play and playfulness. The class uses improv games that tap into long-term memories as well as memories based on sounds and smells;people with early stage memory loss often have an easier time accessing those kinds of memories. So, instead of asking a student what they had for breakfast yesterday, she might ask them to tell her about a favorite breakfast cereal from childhood.

"They remember those good feelings," she said. "They're deeply encoded."

The class moves at a slower pace than a typical improv class, so everyone can follow along. Instructors might repeat instructions a few times when students cannot come up with an answer or forget what they're saying. No one jumps in. The instructors know that's something that happens a lot for these students in the real world, and in this class, people with memory loss are given space to take their time.

Experts say there are a lot of perks participants get from doing improv.

Dr. Danny Fisher at Harborview Medical Center works with patients suffering from memory loss and dementia. He said improvisation is an important skill for people with memory loss.

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"It keeps you socially engaged, and it teaches you how to keep moving forward and always thinking about going with the flow," he said.

It's also refreshing to hear "yes" to their ideas, because in they hear a lot of "no" in their day-to-day lives.

"Your doctor may be very cautious and say 'no' driving, or your caregivers may be worried about you potentially falling for financial scams," Fisher said. "So you're told ‘no, you can't manage your finances anymore.'"

"There can be concerns about just sort of forgetting that you've left the stove on," he added, "and now, all of a sudden, ‘No, you can't use the stove. You have to use the microwave.'"

All those no's can make it feel like your world is shrinking, and this class is meant to counter that.

Plus, it's a chance for students to do the number one thing we can all do to keep our brains healthy. Not brain games like crosswords or Sudoku, but being socially engaged.

"It's talking with other people. It's having conversations and being in the moment," Fisher said.

Seth Thompson, one of the instructors at the class in Bellingham, said teaching this improv class has been profound, especially when a student comes into class quiet or withdrawn before opening up. He called it magic with a medicinal quality to it.

"It's manna, the bread that fell from heaven, because you can tell that it fills people and it nourishes them," Thompson said.

He said it's so interactive that it seems to wake something up inside of people with early stage memory loss.

"You can watch the light just kind of come back into somebody's eyes who maybe wasn't really present," he said. "Within an hour, they're contributing, and they've got plenty to say."

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Caregivers often participate in the classes, and Thompson said they notice changes in almost every class, especially when it's someone's first time.

"It can be pretty emotionally overwhelming," he said. "I walk out of here and get about two blocks away, and I can feel my eyes welling up sometimes."

After class, student Ryan Albachten-DeGolier often lingers and chats with folks. She said it's meaningful to connect with people in a similar boat.

"You're not alone, and memory loss is a very lonely experience" she said.

After just one hour of class each month, she said she feels a sense of belonging where she can let her creativity and her silliness rip.