I am a member of staff at the Octagon Theatre. I would like to clarify a point made in your article from March 8 which ran the headline: £400 a day to save the Octagon.

Firstly, the article stated that "theatre bosses" employed Alun Bond as Project Manager, the man who is to implement the Octagon's rescue plan, which was formulated on the same Alun Bond's Artservice Report. I would like to make the distinction very clear that, by "theatre bosses", you meant the Board of the theatre and not Lawrence Till, our Artistic Director and chief executive. Mr Till was denied input to the rescue plan, which is set to cut Bolton-produced shows from 10 to three per year. Nor does Mr Till have any responsibility for the appointment of Alun Bond or for the implementation of the Board's rescue plan.

The Board of the Octagon would like eventually to return the theatre to more producing work. Mr Till and the staff of the Octagon are in favour of maintaining the Octagon as a producing theatre, which is artistically led to provide a loyal and growing audience with live entertainment - "Made in Bolton" for the people of Bolton. This has to happen now, the future is now!

Octagon staffer

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