{"id":11823,"date":"2024-04-18T15:23:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T15:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=11823"},"modified":"2024-04-18T15:23:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T15:23:21","slug":"derrick-davis-to-sing-the-role-of-coalhouse-walker-in-ragtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/18\/derrick-davis-to-sing-the-role-of-coalhouse-walker-in-ragtime\/","title":{"rendered":"Derrick Davis to Sing the Role of Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Derrick Davis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Dawn Scotland<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Reporter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI would describe myself as a multifaceted storyteller,\u201d said singer Derrick Davis.<\/p>\n

From tv, to the opera stage, film, and recording \u2013 the lyric baritone from Long Island has done it all.<\/p>\n

He has previously graced the opera stage in the acclaimed role of Phantom in The<\/em> Phantom of the Opera<\/em> and starred as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the musical I Dream<\/em>, which he played for the first time at the Toledo Opera.<\/p>\n

Now Davis is returning to the Toledo Opera to play the role of Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Toledo Opera\u2019s Ragtime<\/em> which will be opening April 19 at the Valentine Theatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of my career has been in musical theatre. I trained in opera; I grew up in the church. I was a youth pastor for quite some time. I\u2019m also an educator: I teach privately and I also taught at Cincinnati Conservatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love the artform of <\/em>storytelling — becoming characters, passing on stories and passing on truths,\u201d stated Davis.<\/p>\n

Davis is a first generation Panamanian American and was born and raised in Long Island, New York where his journey began.\u00a0 \u201c[Growing up] during the week was strictly schoolwork,\u201d he reflected on his immigrant background, \u201cbut the weekends were marked very much by music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Saturdays my father would play the oldies and contemporary R&B and jazz, and we would clean the entire house. Then Sundays would roll around and the mornings were marked with gospel music. In the evenings, when we would come back it was classical music. And that\u2019s where I started to find my love for obviously opera and classical repertoire but also for musical theatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat music was just so complex in its orchestration that it just really held my attention. So, as I got older, I availed myself to music.\u201d He studied musical theater in high school and then went on to study opera in college at Long Island University Post in New York where he traveled the world. \u201cAnd then dove headfirst into the industry,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019s impressive journey has taken him to stages across the country and internationally. In his exciting theater career, in addition to the roles mentioned, \u00a0he has sung the roles of Larry in Sondheim’s\u00a0Company<\/em>, Archibald Craven in\u00a0The Secret Garden<\/em>, and The Mufasa on the Gazelle Tour of Disney\u2019s\u00a0The Lion King.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Regionally, Davis starred in Dallas Theater Center\u2019s production of\u00a0Dreamgirls<\/em>\u00a0as Curtis Taylor, Jr., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Opera Carolina’s production of\u00a0I Dream<\/em>\u00a0and King Triton in\u00a0The Little Mermaid\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0at Theater Under the Stars.<\/p>\n

He has been seen on The Hallmark Channel, the\u00a0Daytime Emmy Awards<\/a>, Live with Regis and Kelly,\u00a0Dancing with the Stars<\/a>, as well as on the big screen in such movies as \u201cCan a Song Save Your Life\u201d and \u201cA Christmas Story.\u201d His concert career includes a sold-out performance of\u00a0Rogers and Hammerstein works with the Las Vegas Philharmonic<\/a>, as well as several solo performances in New York City featuring his original works and holiday favorites. (source:therealderrickdavis.com)<\/p>\n

With Davis\u2019s many successes and accomplishments one of the chief highlights of his career is the role he\u2019s playing now: Coalhouse Porter Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love him so much. He\u2019s so complex and tells such a beautiful story of Black excellence marred with Black struggle.\u201d The story of Ragtime<\/em> centers on the complexity of life at the turn of the century for three different ethnic groups. The story depicts a centuries old mosaic of American life that strikingly echoes the struggles and divides of today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way the country is right now, we\u2019re so incredibly [and] unnecessarily divided,\u201d he reflected on the unifying experience of performing theatre throughout the country, \u201cWe\u2019re so much more united and so much more connected than a lot of media would like for us to think [we are].\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of Ragtime<\/em> highlights the upper-class whites, the black Harlemites and the immigrant Jewish community and the social and economic turmoil that each group faces striving for the American Dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the mid-seventies when E.L. Doctorow was writing about how things were back then [in the 1910s] –we\u2019re repeating it again today,\u201d commented Davis. \u201cI hope that it\u2019s almost a shocking wake up call to the audience to do better as humans, to do better as Americans, to do better as citizens of this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to just recognize,\u201d he continued \u201chow we\u2019re all just fighting for the same things: for love, for peace, for a chance to live and for unity. And hopefully it will make a small notch in making America the beautiful place that it has the potential to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the show is presented by the Toledo Opera, Ragtime<\/em> is in fact a musical. \u201cIt slants a little more classical in its expression but it\u2019s a mixture of so<\/em> many different influences [from the different ethnic groups]\u2026 and because it involves such a large orchestra and a large chorus and is of the golden age of musical theatre style an opera company can put it on be incredibly successful with it,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019s message to our community: \u201cCome out and see it and bring your family! It will be a great conversation starter on so many different levels and it\u2019s going to be wildly entertaining!\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t want to miss Ragtime<\/em>! Toledo Opera will perform\u00a0Ragtime<\/em>\u00a0at the Valentine Theatre on Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 21 at 2 p.m. To learn more about the upcoming shows or to buy tickets visit ToledoOpera.org.<\/p>\n

To learn more about performer Derrick Davis visit therealderrickdavis.com or on social media.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dawn Scotland The Truth Reporter \u201cI would describe myself as a multifaceted storyteller,\u201d said singer Derrick Davis. From tv, to the opera stage, film, and recording \u2013 the lyric baritone from Long Island has done it all. He has previously graced the opera stage in the acclaimed role of Phantom in The Phantom of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[226],"class_list":["post-11823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11825,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions\/11825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11823"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=11823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}