Professor Gus John is proud to invite all of you to the “Gala of Gari“: a celebration of the life and work of Geraldine Connor featuring the words, dance and music that she loved. 

This special gala in remembrance of Geraldine Connor will have extracts from Geraldine’s best-known work Carnival Messiah (see video above) - her large-scale reinvention of Handel’s Messiah, originally presented at West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1999 - and feature specially devised performances by some of her favourite collaborators.  Participants will include classically trained singers Ronald Samm, Simone Sauphanor and Brian Green, actors Ram John Holder, Renee Castle, Nigel Wong and Jojo Kelly, dancers David Hamilton, Ayo Jones and Jonathan Bishop, a piece by South Asian company Kala Sangam, and music across the spectrum, from steel band to gospel.

Join us for a night to make you smile and make you cry, to make you clap your hands and stamp your feet, but most of all to celebrate the life of Geraldine Connor, a great teacher, composer, performer, director, musicologist and all-round inspiration to us all.  There will never be another Geraldine, but this evening is to help keep her memory and her legacy alive. All money generated on the evening will be used to continue Geraldine’s work.

The “Gala of Gari” will happen on Saturday, March 24th (at 7.30pm), in the Theatre Royal Stratford. All tickets cost £10.

Click here for more information about the event and the venue.

Picture: “Carnival Messiah“, by carnivalmessiah.com (Flickr)