Dear Editor,

I am writing in order to pass on congratulations from myself, an ETHS alum, and another ETHS and YAMO alum to Viveka Herzum for her well-written, honest, and brave review of this year’s production of YAMO. What Viveka wrote was not easy. We are all aware of the social pressures of high school and how difficult it can be to criticize work put out by one’s peers.

We know that Viveka and the Evanstonian are probably getting flack from the Theater Dept. and those involved in YAMO, but we think her review is important. It is such an amazing thing for high school theater students to receive well thought out and fair criticism of their work, something that Viveka masterfully provided.

We also urge the Evanstonian to continue to publish honest reviews of student productions in the upcoming issues. As long as these opinions are supported and given without overt biases, we can see only good coming from them: for the actors, who are given a chance to grow; for the readers, who are given the chance to see a well writ- ten review of a production and compare those views to their own; and for the writers, to gain experience and growth from the journalistic exercise.

We look forward to reading more of Viveka’s and the entire Evanstonian staff’s work throughout the year.

ETHS 2013 alum (name withheld)