Lasting memorial to Geoff Brown at Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Deafened friends and colleagues of Geoff Brown, one of the STAGETEXT founders who died last year, have raised funds for a seat to be named in his memory at Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold, North Wales.
Geoff, who lived in Widnes, was instrumental in getting captioning on board at the theatre in the early days of STAGETEXT and enjoyed many captioned performances there. His favourite seat was M38 in the stalls – in the area reserved for caption users - and this is where his ‘in memoriam’ plaque has now been installed.
Brendan Carroll, Chair of the local group of the National Association for Deafened People (NADP), was a longstanding friend of Geoff’s and approached the theatre to see if they could suggest some kind of memorial.
“After losing his hearing at the age of 17, it was wonderful for him to be able to enjoy the theatre once again, and he loved going to Theatr Clwyd with his family and friends,” Brendan said. “Geoff did sterling work on behalf of deafened people for many years and we wanted to create some kind of lasting memorial. Besides his work for STAGETEXT, Geoff was instrumental in founding our local NADP yahoo.com (NW England) group. Anyone interested in joining us should contact me.”
Brendan’s email address is croaghgorm@yahoo.com
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Comments:
Arlene Romoff
13 August 2012, 8:37pm
Thanks for sharing this information. I had the privilege of meeting Geoff on a trip to London with the Theatre Development Fund (TDF) in 2000, attending the very first open captioned performances together. Geoff was, indeed, an inspiration, that spanned borders.
Michael Theobald
13 August 2012, 4:00pm
Geoff was a very good friend of mine and always managed to kindly drive me (for a bottle of Bordeaux rouge!) from Runcorn or Chester Stations to Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold on caption days. Our journeys were full of wit and repartee (via pen and paper of course!). Geoff more than anyone foretold (to a sceptical me) the success of the future STAGETEXT in the late 1990s in no uncertain terms. How right he was, and how my life was changed for the better from 2000.Thanks Geoff, you will always have a place in my heart!
Peter J Pullan MBE
3 August 2012, 2:41pm
Delighted to learn of this memorial to Geoff. Happy memories too of our first captioned performance at Clwyd Theatr Cymru (‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in October 2001) and the subsequent wonderful shows that we enjoyed there.
Sharaine Rawlinson Roberts
31 July 2012, 10:55pm
I’m delighted to learn of this memorial honoring Geoff. I was terribly saddened to learn of his passing last year while I was at ALDAcon. Geoff taught me British fingerspelling and we talked each year at ALDA. What a wonderful man he was!
CCAC
31 July 2012, 2:48pm
So happy to read this news. Thanks for posting it. Geoff was an inspiration way beyond the UK also.
cheers,
ls/ccacaptioning.org
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