Sir,-I reply to your story on the front page of your March 1st issue, printed under a deliberately misleading headline, in which the, propriety of a publicly funded theatre using the daughter of the director so prominently' was questioned.

Contrary to what you wrote in last week's leader, I have no objection to someone raising the issue. It is a perfectly legitimate question. What I object to is the way the paper chose to handle the story'.

Your reporter rang claiming to have received a letter and a phone call on this subject. I was then lured, against my better judgement, into talking to the paper.

As a result, you now did not need to publish the letter, you could create your story. A negative headline and a concentration on the theatre being publicly funded and you could give the impression of something shady going on down at the Orange Tree.

What is shabby about the way you have behaved is that you know and accept that Octavia Walters' training, experience, talent and the reception given to her performances, entirely justify her being given work at the Orange Tree.

And yet you deliberately created a negative story. Why, I wonder? You have, of course, had your fun but I suspect that more damage has been done to your paper than to the Orange Tree Theatre.

And in your patronising leader last week you even have the temerity to suggest that your actions are linked to the preservation of an open society. And try to imply that I, by taking exception to your front page story, am somehow wanting to stand in the way of freedom! What pretentious tosh.

I suppose I need to spell out my daughter's credentials for those who may be reading this but who have yet to see her at the Orange Tree.

She was trained at LAMDA, one of the top drama schools in the country. Her first job was with the RSC. She played in the West End and at the Young Vic with Shared Experience, one of the country's leading theatre companies.

She toured with Prunella Scales, as Anya in The Cherry Orchard and she has acted at Salisbury and Ipswich, where, in a season of plays, her parts included Lady Macbeth.

She had been doing high quality work for three years before her first Orange Tree part. In fact I employed five other LAMDA graduates, who I had seen during her time at the school, before I employed her! Her work at the Orange Tree has been received one might almost say with adulation.

Naturally I knew my daughter's work. Clearly she is in a privileged position with regard to the Orange Tree. There is nothing I can do about that. The point was always going to be whether she was good.

I am delighted and proud to be able to say that she is very good. People keep telling me that. Including the national press.

The reputation of the Orange Tree rests very largely on the consistent excellence of the acting. The idea that I might wilfully jeopardise this is ridiculous.

Of course it is frustrating for actors (and directors) to find that they cannot get a foot in at a particular theatre. I understand that. It happens to all of us. It is not a fair or sensible profession. And it is ludicrously overcrowded.

This is very detrimental in many ways. And leads to letters like the one this paper claims to have received.

Personally I favour some sort of restricted entry. But such a solution for keeping the numbers under control has had its day and would now be illegal.

To answer a point in Mr Wilson's letter, much of which was incoherent and irrelevant, it has always been the Orange Tree's policy to have a permanent company.

Once I find talented actors with whom I like working I will continue to employ them whenever I can. Anyone who actually goes to the Orange Tree will be aware of that.

If it were possible, I would have a permanent company continuing from year to year. You may rest assured that I will be doing all I can to find more parts for Octavia Walters and to develop her talent, as I hope I have done and will continue to do with many other actors. That is what a proper theatre does.

-Sam Walters, director of the Orange Tree Theatre, Clarence Street, Richmond.