... Learningto listen with John's help SIR, As a technical writer on matters audio for more years than sometimes I care to recall, I want to go on record with unstinted praise for RSC's Head of Sound, John Leonard, for his 'Back stage Special' article (March 20). Here is a man who knows what theatre sound should offer the public, not what some performers, managers and sound operators consider are ...

... Nice one, Alec SIR, I was delighted to read Alec McCowen's letter (March 20) as it puts into words something that I have thought for a little while. One reads constantly that they are trying to attract members of the public to the theatre who aren't regular play goers and they can't think of ways to get them there. What is the most important thing to the average person when going to see a ...

... Equity did not throw out resolution SIR. You are not correct in stating in Backstage February 27 i that the Equi ty Council threw out the resolution from our 1985 Annual General Meet ing, about Stage Managers. In fact, the resolution was amended and it is now our policy to secure on all relevant theatre contracts a full Stage Management team: Company and Stage Manager or Stage Manager, ...

... Encourage new methods SIR, The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks. Reginald Jessup, in his impassioned rebuttal of my welcome to Edwin Mirvish, may have knowingly overlooked certain items. I do not wish to cast aspersions upon his integrity, but:-- 1 Of the 40 shows he has calculated, over half are reruns. Mirvish uses reruns. 2. The My Fair Lady revival of Mirvish can surely be ...

... Concern at show trials SIR--We the undersigned members of the Old Vic Theatre Company view iwth deep concern the show trials about to take place in Czechoslovakia of actor Albert Czerny, playwright Vaclay Havel and ten other academics, journalists, a priest and workers at present imprisoned without trial for public ising the erosion of human rights and freedom of expression within ...

... Unlucky for some SIR, I wonder as a matter of some urgency, if you could correct a little error which appeared in the Letters column (August 8.) You printed a letter wherein I had informed you that Vernon Adcock has this year embarked upon his THIR TIETH (30TH) consecutive summer season at Weston-super-Mare: unfortu nately, by some quirk of fate, this was transposed to read Thirteenth and ...

... Come off it, girls! SIR, Re: Letters from Y. Moffat and Kerry Ellen Bryan (August 1) COME OFF IT, GIRLS! Mutiny is the non starter of the year. EVERYTHING that's been said about it is true. It just doesn't work as a musical. I wonder if they (or David Essex for that matter) has ever seen a really good one? There's nothing like the exhilaration felt when all the components of the genre music, ...

... Coco and the animals SIR, H. T. Bonnie has been misled regarding the last wishes of Coco the Clown with reference to performing animals (Letters, July 25). Only one member of Coco's family subscribes to the claim that his will asked for a circus to be started without animals being used. All his other rela tions know that the old man attached himself for decades to the Bertram Mills' Circus, ...

... An atmospheric evening SIR,-- My mates and I were really chuffed when it was pointed out to us today (March 18) your mention of The Stage Door Canteen; we recently all had the very good fortune to attend. What a shame for all your readers who didn't go that you didn't give a bigger description of the whole evening, even with pictures. This would really have captured what we all felt. It was ...

... BBC's roadshow 'insult' SIR, I am writing to air my views on the new series, The Tom O'Connor Roadshow, shown Monday to Friday each week and in my opinion shown five days too many. It is the biggest load of toot I've ever seen and it amazes me that the BBC have nothing better to invest their money in. Do they really believe that this programme meets the basic standards thai the daily viewers ...

... Crying out for audibility SIR, Hear hear. Just a brief word from a London theatregoer, to endorse the words of John Mills (December 1 1) on the matter of voice projection. As a non-affluent 'goer', from the higher parts of the auditorium, it is too frequently the case of not being able to decipher the dialogue. Either it is too weak, gabbled, or shot off into the wings. As British audiences, ...

... British Theatre Association MUST be saved SIR, 1 read with deep regret your front page story (Jan 23) on the threat of closure looming over the British Theatre Association. It is surely a sad reflection on the state of arts funding in this country that money cannot be found to keep such an invaluable and irreplaceable institution as the BTA operating. It's truly unpara lleled library alone ...