By Sharon Shatananda

On Wednesday, October 23rd, Tuscarora’s student improvisation troupe, Shenanigans, put on its first performance of the year.  Shenanigans is an hour-long comedic improv performance put together by students from all grades.

Drama director Mr. Daniel is the group’s current sponsor. The troupe also has two captains, senior Ben Fuhrmann and junior Ryan Phillips. The group is made up of 10 students, five of whom are new this year, as well as two alternates and the captains.

Shenanigans is known around the school for its improv games. Phillips says his favorite game is panel of experts, where three or four members of the troupe debate a crowd-chosen topic. In Shenanigans’ most recent performance, juniors Stephen Coakley and Carly Smith, senior Sean Phillips, and sophomore Daniella Roberge debated the topic of The Wizard of Oz.

The biggest crowd favorite is a tossup between the Dating Game and Cube. For the Dating Game, a guy is chosen from the audience. He then chooses who of the troupe he would rather date after asking a series of questions. Senior Ty Raffensberger volunteered and eventually chose Smith as his date, letting down Ashley Armstrong, who was pretending to be Beyonce, and Adara Hotaling, who was portraying Wonder Woman. While the audience chose the roles of Beyonce and Wonder Woman, along with the topic of Wizard of Oz for panel of experts, Smith chose to be a country character, but it was never clear to the audience exactly who.

Shenanigans has three more scheduled performances at Tuscarora, but the troupe is willing to perform whenever it gets the chance. The troupe is also looking for more opportunities to perform in the community this year .

Considering that it was the first show of the year and with the lack of advertisement, Fuhrmann felt that there was a fantastic turn out. Since the group was created in 2011, it has since gained recognition in the school. “Once people gave us a chance, they kept coming back, and told their friends,” says Fuhrmann.