Geraldine Connor’s acclaimed production Carnival Messiah will experience another ground breaking moment as the production prepares to showcase at the Royal Albert Hall in London in July.
As the name implies, the showcase is an opportunity to present to a special audience the creative and marketing potential of a product. Messiah and the creative team are no strangers to this approach, having been initiated into the world of theatre business, beyond the limited run, by the American Broadway bound Dream Team.
But that was not to be-not then anyway. Since the rights of Carnival Messiah reverted to Connor, the company, headed by Vicount David Lescelles (the 5th Earl of Harewood) remounted Messiah in Leeds, UK for an extended run in the autumn of 2007, as part of the celebration of the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
An award winning film and theatre producer himself, Lescelles is committed to the advancement of Carnival Messiah. Taking on the role as executive producer, Lescelles says: "I don't know of any more exuberant, more spectacular, more inclusive expression of Caribbean culture than Carnival Messiah.
He brands it as "a profound and uplifting cross-cultural experience . . . born in the Caribbean and nurtured in Yorkshire".
Meanwhile, Connor continues to strengthen her own directorial and musical skills and is on board with The Harder They Come Jamaica's phenomenal theatre production (from the film by Perry Henzell) which is making history now as Caribbean theatre that has broken into the mainstream.
That is the plan for Carnival Messiah. According to Carol La Chapelle, who has journeyed with Derek Walcott and the Trinidad Theatre Workshop, as they left their mark in the international theatre arena, Carnival Messiah has the potential to be the next international Caribbean theatrical benchmark coming part of the Caribbean.
La Chapelle will journey to England to join Connor in rehearsal with the cast and prepare to present this cultural feast from Trinidad and Tobago to the UK audience, among whom will be members of the Royal family.
