Two months after being told they would get a meeting with the Prime Minister and architect Renzo Piano, the 128 artistes objecting to the roofless theatre proposal have still not been consulted.

The artistes issued a press statement this week angered by the fact that they still had no date for the meeting, even though they abided by the government's request to have a list of 15 representatives.

They claimed that replacing the opera house site with an open-air theatre would be the largest cultural capital investment by the government since the creation of St James' Cavalier Centre for Creativity, Valletta, 10 years ago.

However, none of the major would-be stakeholders had been consulted. The group said they were increasingly concerned about the government's intention to launch the theatre in two years' time.

Meanwhile, the group is in the process of setting up an association of performing artistes in Malta, spurred on by the need to be better represented.

The aims of this association will be to act as a voice for performing artistes but also to promote the professionalism of this sector.

The group has already engaged a lawyer to create a statute for the association and a meeting will soon be called for all those working in the performing arts together with students. The meeting will elect the first board of the association.

Meanwhile, the signatories reiterated their call to government for dialogue with arts practitioners on the proposed performance space project and emphasised once more the need for a purposely-built modern theatre to serve the needs of 21st century performers.