Scottish National Theatre is run by Scots

It's a question worth chewing over, particularly after the spectacular early success of this new Scottish national institution. Unfortunately, having raised this potentially fruitful debate Mr Henderson Scott proceeds to drop it in favour of the less interesting debate of whether English-born people should run Scottish theatrical institutions. That's a great shame.

I am unclear what qualification Mr Henderson Scott thinks a person's bloodline brings to the process of dramaturgy. I do know that current Scottish playwrights – David Harrower, Steven Greenhorn, Rona Munro, Gregory Burke, Douglas Maxwell, Zinnie Harris, Nicola McCartney for example – were all nurtured by the English director Philip Howard when he ran the Traverse.

Would Mr Henderson Scott have preferred someone else do that job? I also know that the English directors Giles Havergal and Philip Prowse kept Glasgow on the theatrical map for many years with their work at the Citizens Theatre.

Would Mr Henderson Scott have preferred someone less English bringing theatre into the Gorbals? What about The Cheviot The Stag and The Black Black Oil? Perhaps the defining moment in contemporary Scottish theatre: the work of Liverpudlian director and writer John McGrath. Ought he have gone back to where he belonged?

It's true that there has long been a shortage of homegrown Scots directors working in Scotland (although many Scots now run major institutions in England – Michael Boyd at the RSC for example).

Our shortage of directors has root causes in our education and university system but it's also worth noting that the individual arguably doing most to remedy that shortage is Vicky Featherstone whose consistent patronage of Scottish directing talent like Antony Neilson, Tony Cownie, Matthew Lenton, Davey Anderson, Ben Harrison, Andy Cannon and Alison Peebles is helping to keep a generation of directors living and working in Scotland when a generation previously they would have swiftly flown to London in search of work.

Finally, having been the first Dramaturg for NTS I would like to set Mr Henderson Scott's mind at rest on his central point. Vicky Featherstone and John Tiffany do not program from a position of ignorance of Scottish theatrical history. John Tiffany has lived and worked in Scottish theatre since he was at university and he has a wider knowledge of the Scottish literary canon than any director I know.

Vicky Featherstone has made exploration, questioning and understanding contemporary Scottish culture the central plank of her directorship.

Neil Murray worked at the Tron and 7:84 in Glasgow for nearly two decades before joining NTS. These people know their Scottish theatre culture inside out.

So, although he is entitled to dislike their choices and while I understand he is just chomping at the bit to see a new production of Ane Satyre of The Thrie Estaitis – I hope Mr Henderson Scott will, in future, refrain from cheap catcalling and daft criticism of the directorate of NTS on the basis of where they happened to be born.

DAVID GREIG

North Queensferry

The National Theatre of Scotland is just four years old. In that time, the company's work has connected with almost half a million people through 120 Scottish-made productions in 128 different locations.

Leaving aside Paul Henderson Scott's mistaken assumptions (Opinion, 25 February) as to the depth of knowledge of – and respect for – Scottish theatre which resides within our company, may we correct his assertion that "incredibly, no member of the management of our national theatre is Scottish". (The same inaccuracy also appeared in Scotland on Sunday (Letters, 14 February).

Our chairman and vice-chairman are Scottish and five of the remaining seven non-executive board members are Scottish. Our small senior management team consists of three born Scots who have worked professionally in the performing arts in Scotland for a combined total of 60 years, a Welshman who has lived and worked in the arts in Scotland for 23 years, a Yorkshireman who has studied, lived and worked in the arts in Scotland for 18 years and two colleagues from the south of England both of whom were appointed for, amongst other things, their extensive commitment to Scottish theatre.

Of other National Theatre of Scotland staff, 22 are Scottish, four are English, three are Irish and one is Spanish-Iranian. This figure does not include the hundreds of Scottish actors, writers, composers, lighting designers, musicians, stage technicians, administrators and other theatre-makers with whom we have worked.

ROBERTA DOYLE

Director of External Affairs

National Theatre of Scotland

Civic Street

Glasgow