For those of you who never saw the elegant black man,
sometimes wearing a cape, stride to the front of our church
and climb to the lectern for the reading of the “word”-
For those of you who never heard his stentorian tones
reverberate from the walls and rafters-
well I’m afraid you have missed something wonderful.
This gentleman's name was Darryl.
Darryl Croxton. Most of us knew little about this man.
He seemed kind of theatrical, a little strange, mysterious, artistic,
but one of us.
Darryl was an actor.
He was also a native Baltimorean who achieved national
recognition for his work.
Unfortunately, we will not hear Darryl's voice again.
Darryl died three weeks ago. Alone.
Darryl appeared on Broadway in Hamlet, Little Indians,
The Taking of Miss Janie and Sly Fox.
His Off Broadway productions include The Threepenny Opera,
The Glorious Monster, In the Bell Of The Horn, Cabal of Hypocrites,
De Obeah Mon, MacBeth, Hamlet, Othello, Love's Labours Lost
and Benito Cereno.
Darryl toured internationally performing his acclaimed
one-man shows: The Best of Both Worlds, Portraits in Black,
The Sun in Splendor, Shadows in the Sun, and Shakespeare in Sable.
Darryl came back to Baltimore and to Old Saint Paul’s.
For the past 10 years in his active semi- retirement Darryl has been
Founder, Producer and Artistic Director of Baltimore’s Theatre
of the Rising Sun a theater company that focused on bringing
classical plays to Baltimore audiences. He also gave his talent
to reading on Sunday morning- ”the word of the Lord”.
“Thanks be to God”.
A memorial service will be held on Thursday June 11 at 10:30am
it would be great if it were S.R.O
I am so incredibly sad to learn of Darryl's death. The first time I heard him I was new to Old St. Paul's. There is no doubt that the possibility of his speaking kept me ever hopeful--he shared the word of God like no one else! His passing is a true loss for us all. Meg Montgomery
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting us know about Darryl's death, Fred. I remember him well from years back, when I first began attending Old St. Paul's. He was a very colorful individual and I was glad that he had chosen OSP to be his spiritual home. I am sorry that I will be unable to attend the memorial service tomorrow but my thoughts will be with all of you. May Darryl rest in peace, and may God's gracious light always shine upon him.
ReplyDeleteTim Grayson+
Darryl has been on my mind for the past six months- we were close friends for a period of time here in NYC- and I am just now learning of his passing as a result of finding this blog. Darryl and I played opposite one another in the off-broadway play, Does A Tiger Wear a Necktie? I was just 20 years old; he, about 28. I delighted in hearing your description of him- just as I remembered him, then. So saddened to hear of his death. But, glad to know he had found such a warm spiritual home.
ReplyDeleteAndrea Frierson