In the early hours yesterday, someone broke into a storage trailer holding the sound system for Shakespeare in Delaware Park and took the equipment. By nightfall, the company had somehow scrambled to piece together a borrowed and rented sound system which allowed The Merry Wives of Windsor to start at its scheduled time.
"It's very sad that individuals would with a free Shakespeare festival where our only mission and goal is to do free performances for the public would want to steal things from us like this and possibly cause us to not be able to do what we do," said Managing Director Lisa Ludwig.
With no performance scheduled for tonight, Ludwig is hopeful that a regular sound system will be installed for Tuesday night's performance.
"It's not stuff that people would be able to just go home and say: Hey, I'm going to hook this up to my stereo. It's theatrical equipment," Ludwig said.
"It's not going to be of use to the people who stole it. They're going to have to sell it or get rid of it. Hopefully the people are going to be on it and find the people who did this."
Shakespeare supporters are being asked to watch social media and E-Bay to see if the missing equipment turns up being offered for sale.
"Hopefully we'll be able to find this. It's not equipment that you could naturally use."
