For the all-female musical sketch comedy group, Bloomers, making people laugh is another benefit of their educational experience at the University of Pennsylvania.

The troupe’s 40 members, including the cast, band, technical crew, writers, business team and costumers work together to produce original comedy sketches, complete with rock and pop music.

Bloomers perform one major show on campus each semester.

The troupe also entertains at events in the surrounding Penn community.

Laura Petro, a junior majoring in communications and Hispanic studies has been acting since she was in the third grade, and became involved in Bloomers as a freshman. Petro says doing comedy challenges her to think about the audience. 

“It’s hard to make people laugh,” says Petro, a native of Galloway, N.J. “You have to think, what do people from different backgrounds think is funny? What life experiences are they bringing to the table that we’re going to bring up for them?" 

Taiwo Sokan, a junior, from Maplewood, N.J., had done some acting when she was younger, and when she was searching for a group to join at Penn, she discovered Bloomers.

“I had experience acting, but not with the comedy part of it,” says Sokan, a theatre arts major and biological basis of behavior minor. “Through Bloomers, I grew as a person and developed my personality and kind of came out of my shell.”

Bloomers members also have a chance to learn through the many aspects of the shows’ production process.

“We’re given opportunities to spearhead projects, to reach out to other groups on campus, to reach out to professional groups around Philly,” says Nina Kao, Bloomers’ music director.

Through their work in Bloomers, members have an opportunity to learn and hone valuable skills in communication, leadership and team building. 

“Those are skills that apply to any field,” says Kao, of Novato, Calif., a music and classical studies major. 

A classically trained clarinetist, Kao has learned to expand her comfort zone as a member of Bloomers.

“Bloomers is unstructured and that’s what I like about it,” says Kao. “Now, I’m playing the saxophone in Bloomers and singing with a band that does rock and pop covers.”  

She encourages fellow band members to play music without looking at sheet music. “Play it by ear, it’s good for your brain,” Kao instructs the newest troupe members. “Eliminating all of the structures that were previously in place makes us so much more creative and so much more productive.”

Bloomers members are a close-knit group, encouraging and inspiring each other as they work together on the productions. 

“The more you work with someone, it helps so much on stage because we understand how each other’s mind works,” says Petro. “When something goes wrong in a bit, like maybe a cue gets messed up, or we forget a line, the better you know that person, the better you can make it work because you can anticipate what they’re thinking and bounce something off of them that you know they’ll respond to.”

Through their experience with Bloomers, Sokan and Petro are seriously considering becoming professional performers.

“After being in Bloomers and studying it in my theatre arts courses, I realized how hard it is to do comedy, and how lucky I am to have discovered that this is something I love to do,” says Sokan.

“I feel lucky to be able to part of the group,” says Petro.