... Tribute to Boothe SIR, Having worked closely with Michael Boothe (pictured right) for five years at Equity, I would like to record the great personal contribution he made to the theatre. Boothe was a very dedicated member of the Equity Council for several years. He was genuinely unaligned to any political group and only had the interests of the members at heart particularly the average, ...

... Motion carried away SIR,--Your front page story Scrap the AGM (April 2) completely misleads your readers as to what exactly happened. Firstly, you imply that the motion was carried. It was not. Secondly, you claim that the motion called for the establishment of a traditional Branch Delegate structure in Equity. It did not. The only motion which did call for a true Branch and Delegate ...

... Club row's satirical turn SIR-On behalf of the committee and myself I write to offer our wholehearted support to the comments attributed to Mike Halloran of the Club and Institute Union in your last week's front page news story, Clubs fear closure as artists' fees soar. Mike is absolutely right, turns are costing us far too much. What they don't seem to understand is that we are members' clubs ...

... New system is a stick-up SIR-The arguments of the Equity Council for accepting the new Commercials' Agreement will stretch our members credulity. The majority of members, they say, estimated at 80 per cent, would gain, and the size of the gains will be greater than the losses. The employers furnished Equity with details of 24 advertising cam paigns shown over a 12 month period. The ...

... Yorkshire figures it out SIR-In the article Pay Freeze Outrage in The Stage and Television Today, August 22, it is reported that a union spokesman said: We are especially incensed at the pay freeze in the light of YTV figures which show that company directors' fees rose by 319 per cent last year, and we are pointed by the attitude ot the compa ny to the loyalty of staff and their con ...

... A day to remember Sir, Stephen Citron, who is mad about musicals, tells us that he would see four shows in a weekend. In 1950 I went up to London and managed four shows on the Saturday. It was in the days when MGM was running the Empire cinema and its excellent stage show (based on Radio City Music Hall), called Yesteryear, started at lunchtime with the George Melochrino Orchestra, full ...

... Treasured memories SIR Can I add a memory of Adelaide Hall? She topped the bill in my first ever professional production a Pierrot show for the Watford Palace in the early seventies. Her agent had convinced everyone at the theatre that 'The Singing Blackbird' was a current, fabulous and rather expensive star. She arrived, a theatrical landlady, about to make a comeback. And come back she did! ...

... Apologies are not accepted SIR As a theatre practitioner I am probably not alone in feeling astonish ment, anger and a sense of betrayal at lAird Palumbo's apologies to the arts (Arts Council issues shock apology, front page, November 18). He shows a cynical disregard for the damage caused to the arts by the Arts Coun cil's inaction and inability to fully rep resent them. Where were they ...

... 'Protect artists from the overnight experts' \I refer to Kate Miller's most fng article Agents need w (July 19) and then passed on to him at a time ^NqHjor that party? us the cheque though. One young against unscrupulous 8 r1H be^most^interesp ...

... Ruling it out SIR,-- I would like to present arguments against the rule changes for the election for the post of General Secretary, now the subject of a referendum, which are not represented in the arguments accompanying the ballot paper. The procedure whereby the whole member ship elects the General Secretary, who previous ly was appointed by the Council, is very wel come. Members have ...

... 'Don't be properly addressed without us!' SIR Following Rupert Watts' excellent article on the new Unity Theatre (Looking forward with new Unity, December 2) only one thing was missing. ..our address! As Unity has a wide variety of productions planned for the new year, we would urge any readers interested in participating at any level, (writing, directing, acting, stage management) as well as ...

... 'What dash?' SIR, I was rather bemused to read John Constable's quote on the front page of The Stage (October 3 1 stat ing that he and I had a personality clash. As far as I am aware, it is wild ly inaccurate. Throughout our discus sions about his play, The Complete Casanova, our relationship remained both forthright and amicable. The rest of the reported dispute was, I was told, resolved by ...