Riverside Brookfield High School’s improv group, The Shenanigans, has introduced new types of comedy and senses of humor with its new members and a new sponsor for the 2016-2017 school year.

“Shenanigans is like that estranged family that gets together at Thanksgiving that ends up having a lot of fun together,” said junior Taner Guzeldereli.

This year, the Shenanigans added six new members to their group: Elona Selencia, Amanda Enstrom, Shania Alexander, Andres Resto, Ivan Astroga, and Alyssa Peralta. According to Shenanigans member, Rosie Nolan, this is one of the biggest group of new members they’ve had.

For their auditions, the new members had to participate in improv games, such as Freeze and Three line scenes, to demonstrate their ability to think on their feet. A select few were asked to come for callbacks, and after some tough decisions, six new members were added to the Shenanigans.

“The decisions are very hard to make because this year, there were so many people who were really good… this year especially,” said Senior Rosie Nolan.

With the new year, the Shenanigans have a new sponsor as well, Colleen Stahnke. She has taken the reigns from the previous sponsor, Mr. Dignan.

Ms. Stahnke has been at Riverside Brookfield High School for 2 years. Aside from being the sponsor for Shenanigans, she is also sponsoring the fall play and Speech Team this year.

“Over the summer… I was approached about doing the fall production, and it came up that Shenanigans was available… and since no one else had come forward yet, I thought it would be something that I’d really like to be apart of,” said Ms. Stahnke.

As a sponsor, Ms. Stahnke supervises the Shenanigans rehearsals, and intervenes when needed. The students themselves are in charge of running rehearsals and preparing for their upcoming show in December.

“[Ms. Stahnke] is so receptive to our ideas, and she has a lot of comedy background, so she knows where we’re coming from,” said Senior Rosie Nolan.