I have read with interest your articles concerning the new cash crisis at the Dome.

I worked at the Dome before its closure and during its closure but left just before it reopened, so know a bit about what went on.

The venue has become a "concert hall" (wrongly or rightly) which encourages acts from across the world to perform, many of which, if people are honest, they have never heard of.

The Dome has become the Barbican of Brighton, selecting the upper class as the target audience.

The venue discourages local theatre groups to perform there as they have an "amateur" tag.

Why don't we see established groups such as Brighton Theatre Group, Brighton and Hove Operatic and many more putting on shows there? Simple. The hire of the venues is well out of the price range of local groups.

Brighton has a wealth of talent and this should be encouraged, as the theatre performers of today are the theatre watchers of tomorrow.

As for further funding for the Dome, this is way out of my league and if the Festival Society is granted further assistance, good luck to it but please don't forget us amateur groups.

Speaking on behalf of my own company Starlite, we are currently having success with a new musical which we could not have afforded to put on at the Dome Complex. (It was a smash hit at the Gardner) and we are now taking the show to the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End.

This has been achieved by our own hard work and dedicated members of the "ordinary public".

My own company, and I'm sure many others would like to be in the position of sitting back, obtaining a nice big grant and put productions on for the good of the arts.

Come on, the Dome, get real. Like the rest of us, you have to strive to get those "bums on the seats".

-Alan Skinner, Starlite Theatre Company