... It's time to elect a Council to represent everybody SIR--If I may, yet again, take issue with Ian McGarry (Equity General Secretary) through your columns. He states on your front page, April 9, that 'it is signally unfair to suggest (the Honorary Treasurer) can be responsible for a proposal going to referendum and the timing of a referendum. I would suggest that if, in this instance, the ...

... The pain game SIR,--Last word, please, on this torture play. I sincerely congratulate the experi enced actress, Donna Reeve, on her success at being cast as the role of, what she interprets as, the spirited victim, and thank her for her reply to my earlier letter in The Stage. Whilst I agree that it is most men who do the torturing, I have to point out that if this play was intended as a ...

... 'Vote disapprove' SIR, Equity Council has in structed all General Branches that they should not circulate to mem bers any material relating to any ballot of the membership (that is, either an election, a referendum or a test of membership opinion) either immediately before or dur ing the period when the members are being required to vote. This includes any references in minutes of meetings ...

... SIR What a very strange and illogical set of responses there were to those individual members who support the Campaign for a Representative Conference whose names happen to be more widely recognisable than oth ers. The reason that they are so is obvi ous. They work regularly in all areas, and at every level, of our profession. Who better to represent the members of our union than just such ...

... ?SIR I lave recently attended a public showing of the video Circus Madness and would like to congratulate all those con cerned with its production. An expos£ like this has been needed for a long time. No matter what circus boss Martin Lacey chooses to believe, the paying public out here is neither gullible nor lacking in common sense. Many of us have thought, for a long time, that there was ...

... SIR--I would greatly appreciate the opportunity of addressing through your excellent newspaper, an open letter to those members of various atre companies who accepted compli mentary tickets for the last mid-week matinee performance of Which Witch on December 17. I feel that I have the right, as a pay ing customer of the theatre, to write this letter on behalf of the rest of the paying ...

... (It's no laughing matter9 SIR, There is no doubt that George Bush in agreeing to the ceasefire in the Middle East was influenced by David Hargrcaves and his election statement for the General Secretary of Equity. It is also a fact that John Major had also heard that Mr Hargreaves, in a minority of one on Equity Council, was trying to stop British tele vision programmes going out to the troops. ...

... Letters L should be addressed to: I The Editor, I The Stage And Television Today, I 47 Bermondsey I Street, I London SE1 3XT I SIR--As a regular reader of The Stage and Television Today I must respond to 'the dramatic gesture' proposed by Ian Flintoff (The time has come to give back your gong--January 20). Alas, as much as I admire Mr FlintofFs 'angry response' to the 'arts continuing to be ...

... SIR I feel I had to write to say that although I agree with everything your reviewer said about the wonderful production of Scrooge The Musical at the Apollo Theatre, Oxford, I was very disappointed to see it reviewed amongst the pantomimes Qanuary n). This brilliant musical is about as far away from a pantomime as you could possibly get and I feel that this needs to be pointed out to your ...

... Schedule D is an actor's concession SIR--May I be permitted to be cast in the unlikely role of peacemaker between Lawrence Blackmore and Robert Breckman? I have known and worked with both-few have done more than cither to defend the status of actors and others working in theatre in their deal ings with the Inland Revenue. I should like to redirect the debate on the taxation of actors to two ...

... SIR With reference to Rod Powell's article on me in The Stage and Tele vision Today dated November 4 1993. I wish I could claim credit for hav ing produced When The Boat Comes In; The Onedin Line; The Beider- becke Affair; Lovejoy and Bergerac. I did, however, direct episodes on all of these series. David Keynolds Controller of Entertainment Yorkshire Television Limited The Television Centre Leeds ...

... Fired up at the Station SIR, My article published on February 21 reported on five new musicals which were written in Oxford last year under the tutorship of Stephen Sondheim. Two of these can shortly be seen at the old Fire Station in Oxford. Eyam by Stephen Clark and Andrew Peggie, based on the true story of a Derbyshire village during the great plague of the 17th century opened on Tuesday, ...