... LWT's drama budgets Dear Sir, I should be interested to know if other agents and artists have become aware of how con sistently lower the budgets for drama programmes of London Weekend Television are com pared with other commercial companies as far as actors are concerned. If this is not just my experi ence, it would also be interesting to hear from London Weekend wtiy this should be so! The ...

... Westminster Theatre SIR,-- I am writing to bring to your attention an incident which affects the theatre profession as a whoie, and which I feel is wrong. On June 5, we presented ine new musical, High Diplomacy bring ing back to the West End the great American Negro actress and mezzo-soprano, Muriel Smith, together with Donald Scott and Patricia Bredin. and a very talented company. Sadly, it ...

... Nicol Williamson Sir,-- I have just read of Nicol Williamson walking off-stage during a performance of Hamlet in the U.S.A. because of tiredness, as he had done a couple of months previously when this production was at the Round House. This same actor did the same thing a few years ago at Wyndham's during the run of Inadmissable Evidence, due to the fact that he found matinees too ...

... Equity protest SIR,-- As a young actor who was also present at the recent Equity A.G.M., unlike Mr. Brian Croucher I am proud not to have been one of the so-called disruptive element He complains that he and his friends were sneered at and noses were turned up at us, because we were interested in our union (mv italics), but surely the small per centage of members at the meeting were all ...

... Oxford Playhouse m/ SIR, I am collecting material for a book on the Oxford Playhouse, both its history and its relation to the development of the provincial theatre in Great Britain. I should be very grateful for the loan of pro grammes, press cuttings, or any relevant material from its beginning in 1956. Such material would be treated with care and promptly returned to its owners after it has ...

... 'Cry God for Larry' SIR, I would like to ihank R B. Marriott for his most excellent summing up of Cry God for Larry. Having read jusi the first instalment published in the Press I fell angry and a bit sick. How can anyone seriously discuss Laurence Olivier on this tittle-tattle level. Sincerely, Terence C. Rig by 139 Wendover Court, Chiltern Street, W.I. ...

... The young actor SIR,-- It is all very well for Briar Croucher to plead a pious interes in the welfare of the acting profes sion, but the methods he advocates are likely to have the opposite effect and bring Equity into disrepute He appeals to young actors t ...

... Shylock in the Park SIR, Would you allow me a post script to the letter you dignified by printing two numbers back? I would first like to add that there were a number of impeccable performances, the audience enjoyed it all, and the mulled wine was most cheering. Also, one erratum. The word I ventured to use, to qualify Eliza bethan costume, was not company as printed, but campery, mean ing ...

... What the public wants SIR,--I read the letter New Plays for Old with great interest. As director of a small seaside repertory company, I would like to point out to Mr. Curzon, that it is only by doing old, hackneyed plays that ^regular playgoers have already seen that companies like ours can continue to function. It is a cold, harsh fact, but we stiU need an audncnce if the weekly wage and ...

... Traditional pantomime SIR,--I must cross swords with Malcolm Richards, who claims that a pantomime cannot be truly traditional if the hero is played by a man. It was only with the rise of the female music-hall star, at the tum of the century, that the female principal boy was introduced, and portraits of ladies like Mane Uoyd in spangled tights, their eminently female dimensions surmounted ...

... Muggeridge answered SIR, Thank you so much for R. B. Marriott's excellent answer to Malcolm Muggeridge. To my mind, Mr. Muggeridge, with his easy access to the mass media, mounted a completely unfair attack on the Arts. This period, so soon after the lifting of censorship, should have been treated fairly and without hysteria. The article contributed much to the restoring of the balance. Yours ...

... The question SIR, The question which neither Mr. Cruttwell nor Mr. Jago deals with is this. Is the public money now spent on training professional performers being used in the best way? If it is not (and it would seem to be hard to devise a less satisfactory way than the pre sent one), then clearly there is a case for an examination of the facts so that a system can be devised to ensure that ...