... Royal was saved from threatened demolition Your news item (October 14, News, page 4) implied that the Theatre Royal, Chatham was facing imminent demise -- nothing could be further from the truth. The Theatre Royal, Chatham Trust is starting refurbishment work as you stated when you reported that Roy Hudd knocked out the first brick to remove the wall which has segregated the stage from the ...

... Upset over reporting of on-line contracts I refer to your headline story, 'Theatres attack new on-line deals' (September 30, News, Front page): 1. The opening paragraph refers to scores of venues which may need to renegotiate their contracts with us. In fact, this situa tion affects no more than seven venues and in reality probably only one or two. 2. The Royal Court did not have a final ...

... Race row response sums up Equity's useless name game Your 'Equity Chiefs in 'Apartheid' Row' story (October 28, News, Front page) and subsequent letter from Robert Birmingham (November 1 1 Letters, page 9), just about sums up the problems which have faced Asian artists for years. Even during the period I was Equity councillor for the Afro- Asian artists, it was always the infighting which ...

... On the trail of a musical family I am tracing my family tree, and have come across the i names of Orlando and Osborn Powell, sons of my great great grandfather John Powell. I had been told by various family members that both were conductors at the City Varieties music hall in Leeds. I have also been told that Orlando wrote the songs for Marie Lloyd. 1 believe that both were born in the North ...

... On the Kay-se for life story I am working on a biography of Kay Kendall (with the assistance of her sister, Kim), and should like to hear from anyone who worked with or knew Kav. Eve Golden 58 Summit Avenue Lyndhurst New Jersey 07071 USA ...

... Bums on seats is the main aim Mark Ravenhill last month wrote an article for the Evening Standard about plays becoming shows. He criticised audiences for going to see An Inspector Calls just to see a house collapsing and crockery smashing. He accused the West End of pre senting shows simply to pay the ground rents and the investors. Well, no doubt Mr Ravenhill needs to earn some fees for ...

... Funding should reward well-run theatres I refer to Jill Fraser's letter (January 28, page 9). The Watermill Theatre was one of eight regional organisations that agreed to participate in a modest research project undertaken at City University during 1998. Using hnancial data sub mitted from two successive accounting periods, the pro ject aimed to analyse income and expenditure in order to ...

... More sounds for the over-sixties Your correspondent Sunil Hirandani (January 28, Letters, page 9) speaks for many people when he com plains about the disappearance of classic popular music from the airwaves. The more radio stations that open, the less choice there seems to be and there is none at all for people who want to hear music from the great American (and British) songbook, performed in ...

... No hasty decisions on stabilisation funding The article 'Stabilisation funding boost for RSC' (February 4, News, Front page) paints a very misleading picture. The Arts Council has at no point told the RSC that it has been accepted onto the stabilisation programme, and the decisions on the companies who will under take the full stabilisation process will not be made for several months. The RSC ...

... Two's company for performers Marc Maco (January 28, Letters, page 9) seems a little confused between the functions of an agent and a union, in this case Equity. He implies that one needs one or the other, but that they are mutually exclusive. And he appears to blame lack of star-level income on union membership. Would life were so easy! It is not Equity's job to negotiate vast sums of money, ...

... Equity council will reflect all areas of membership It is distressing to find the profession's newspaper peddling prejudices rather than reporting facts. I refer to the coverage of Equity's current constitu tional debate (August 26, News, page 2, Leader, page 6) about walk-on artists. You claim that in one of the possible options being considered (option five:) Theatre and television actors ...

... Not a shock I have been out of the theatre business for many years now, so my comments should be viewed as those of the man in the street. For the life of me, I can not understand why everyone is so shocked by the fact that Ilfraeombe's Landmark (August 19, News, page 4) is making a substantial loss or why there is even the thought that it will ever make a profit. Who in their right mind would ...