Scatterbomb has gone from having a handful of cast members to now having over 20 members.
ANGELINAPEREZ/THEQUADRANGLE
By Maria Castano & Angelina Persaud, Contributor and Managing Editor/News Editor
Manhattan University’s improv club, Scatterbomb, welcomed an unexpected number of new faces this fall during their auditions, from having only four people on stage four years ago to needing to reject auditions as to not surplus the club this year.
The tryouts lasted three days and were full of games and activities designed to showcase the new members’ theatrical skills and sense of humor, and introduce them to the club’s atmosphere and overall dynamic.
Scatterbomb is committed to giving all Manhattan University students opportunities to have a creative and fun outlet from college life. The club helps its performers build their stage presence while providing an inclusive environment for students interested in the performing arts or who just want a hobby entirely unrelated to their major.
The Quadrangle spoke with the president of Scatterbomb, Chayse Martino, to get some insight on how the club has grown over the years and what they plan on doing to not only secure this new wave of interest but to keep expanding it all over campus.
“I honestly feel like Scatterbomb is gonna get a lot more support this semester and this year in general because we’ve been building our core group of people that come to our shows,” Martino said. “We are hoping that with all the new members and all the new freshmen not really knowing what [Scatterbomb] is, hopefully, they’ll see that there’s a comedy show on campus and want to check it out.”
Martino has faith in the power of word of mouth as publicity, but this isn’t their only method to get more people interested in their shows.
“We are testing out some new ideas with a rotating cast,” Martino said. “Angie [Perez, the co-president of the club] and I are possibly thinking of expanding the types of shows we put on.”
With the sudden rise of members in the club, they believe a rotating cast can be a fresh addition as well as a way to spotlight the different skills of all their new members.
Only three weeks into the semester, Scatterbomb has already started to find ways to make this experience memorable for its participants, not only by making it a fun experience but also one where students can gain confidence as performers.
Improv allows the performers to have the liberty of being creative and witty; however, this amiable atmosphere has brought some difficulties to the presidents of the club.
“In the next few years I hope it continues to grow and we gain more support and funding because we have no budget,” Martino said. “I’m hoping that we get more people involved in improv because it’s so fun and I just want everyone to try it out once and see if they like it.”
So far they have succeeded in their task of getting people hooked on improv, like Robin Somma, a freshman criminology major who recently joined, but already has high hopes for her future in Scatterbomb.
“I haven’t been in [the club] for very long but it’s very special to me,” Somma said. “I think it’s super fun. I think everybody in it is great and I think I’m gonna make some good friends here.”
Nicholas Tomczyk, a freshman civil engineering major who is doing improv for the first time, talked about his experience with the art.
“I kind of make jokes all at once but improv is different from that because you have to work on a scene and work with others,” Tomczyk said. “You can’t just jump in there and start doing whatever, you have to work around other people… it’s pretty fun.”
To make improv work, teamwork is unavoidable, as well as paying attention to social cues and small details in the dialogue that could carry a scene.
Freshman mechanical engineer Kristine Bopp, and new member of Scatterbomb, shared with The Quadrangle what it means to her to find that outlet during a stressful school week.
“I wanna have fun, mechanical engineering is gonna be stressful, so I wanna be able to give myself a positive outlet,” Bopp said. “I’m gonna be stressed out and I’m gonna have hard days, but I want to be able to look at Scatterbomb and look at what I do and be like ‘this is fun, this is great, this is the people I wanna be around’.”