We commend the Reichhold Center for the Arts for choosing to bring Shakespeare to their stage Saturday night. The Aquila Theater Company's performance of "Julius Casesar" was sterling –– when you could actually hear it.
The company's professionalism went beyond the call of duty, especially when they did not walk off the stage when you could barely hear them above the screams and shouts of the teenagers in the audience who, caught in a short downpour, acted as though they were at a football game.
We also commend the V.I. Council on the Arts for purchasing some 500 tickets in order to expose these young people to classical theater. Now you need to expose them –– and many of the adults who used their time to walk around talking to each other during this most exquisite performance as if they were in a cafeteria –– to proper decorum.
The behavior of some members of the audience was beyond embarrassing, not to mention rude and inconsiderate to those people who wished to actually enjoy the show.
We overheard one young man ask a classmate if he was getting "extra credit" for the grim task of experiencing the work of the greatest playwright in the English language.
We can only hope that along with that extra credit, these unprepared young people get a lesson in basic etiquette. It is not their fault they do not know how to act. It is up to the adults in their life to teach them –– including by example.

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