I’ve just returned from seeing “Nightfires” at the Town Hall Theater — an extraordinary show for which the cast expended many hours of planning and practice and were generous in sharing their talent and passion with our community. The musical and poetry selections, the costuming, the staging, and the music were all magical.

Unfortunately, I did not hear half of it because — as has also been the case the last several theatrical and opera performances I’ve attended at Town Hall Theater — the people sitting behind me chose to carry on a continual conversation throughout the entire show. These people were not kids, but rather three adults in their sixties or seventies. Both I and the person sitting next to me turned around and gave them a glare several times, and I finally pointedly asked them to please stop talking. This resulted in obnoxious comments and an escalation of their talking.

I am dismayed by the utter sense of entitlement, the rudeness and lack of common courtesy by adults attending a live performance. For those who missed the memo in your childhood: Take off your hat in the theater; do not talk during the performance unless you are experiencing an emergency; and do not kick the chair in front of you. If you want to talk through a show, stay home and watch your television screen where you can talk incessantly to your heart’s content.

Live theater and music is a gift and a blessing to all who are attending (and who paid good money for their seats) — not just by those selfish few who have decided that their running commentary is more important than the experience of the other members of the audience.

Cindy Hill

Middlebury