TORRINGTON – Monday afternoon during the Torrington Rotary Club meeting members of the Torrington High School Troupe 757 showed off their theatrical skills in appreciation for the donation the troop received from the club earlier this month. 

The meeting was called to order shortly after the noon hour by club president, Eric Boyer, as club members finished up their lunch.

After the opening prayer, Boyer then introduced the guests during the meeting and the club moved on to donations. 

The member donations collected during the weekly meeting are used for Rotarian community efforts. 

There was no old business for the club to discuss and Boyer quickly moved the meeting into the new business portion of the agenda. 

“We got a letter from a recipient of the Dyecrest scholarship for Rotary,” Boyer stated to the members. “Lesley Gunhammer says, ‘First of all I’d like to express my gratitude and appreciation for being chosen to receive the Torrington Rotary Club Dyecrest scholarship. Thank you for helping me out.’”

“Today we had planned on also having area governor Dan Carter with us, but he said next meeting he’d give us a brief rundown of what a person actually does as area governor for Rotary,” Boyer announced. 

An announcement was made for Rotarian members to donate to the upcoming silent auction. 

“We are blessed to have with us today the Torrington thespian troupe 757, sponsored by Goshen County School District high school theater,” Boyer said as he introduced the group. “They are going to do, I believe, three short one-act plays about five minutes each. We really appreciate their attendance today. If you will remember, the Torrington Rotary Club donated to them to help pay for travel expenses so they could compete at the International Thespian Festival (ITF) which they are here to thank us for that,” he continued.

One by one, the troupe introduced themselves to the club.

“Thespian Troupe 757 would like to thank you all for your generation donation for our trip to ITF in Bloomington, Indiana in June. We appreciate the support that you give to all youth of Goshen County and your donation will help defray the cost of this amazing experience for the 18 students that will be attending,” Torrington High School Student, Jordan Napier said as she addressed the club. “If you do not know, ITF is a week-long festival of workshops, competitions, one-acts and full-length plays and musicals performed by high school students from around the world. The opportunity to learn and be inspired by our peers cannot be matched. Today, we would like to share a few of the individual events that we will be competing in this summer.”

MaKenna Matthews and Hailey Antoine performed a one-act play about a confrontation between a mother and her teenage daughter for the club while Kaycee McCallen kept the audience on their toes with her emotionally compelling monologue performance. Napier delivered beautiful rendition of “When he sees me,” from the musical “Waitress” to the club. 

Troupe 757 was accompanied by their sponsor, Christine Quillen.

After the performances had wrapped up, members of the troupe answered questions regarding ITF for the rotary club. 

With no additional new business, the meeting was adjourned shortly before 1 p.m.