Tina Sotis: I met Ben at Liana Toscanini's house about 22 years ago. One afternoon, I was doing some paperwork for her in the little side room off of her kitchen when I heard a knock at the front door. I couldn't see who it was, but a jolly, booming voice rang out, demanding to know if Liana had any Campari. The friendliness and confidence in that voice was unmistakable, and I stopped what I was doing and smiled to myself. "This," I thought, "must be the famous Ben Luxon." From that point forward, I got to know this welcoming, warm, and down-to-earth man who gave so much of himself to his friends, his community, and to the world. I joined the Sandisfield Players in 2013, cast as Mrs. Webb in "Our Town." I had no idea whether or not I could act, but Ben inspired me, practically pushing my panicked self onto the stage, and eliciting performances from me I didn't think possible. I thrived under his watch; he saw something in me I didn't know existed. He changed my life, and those of everyone in his orbit.

I still can't believe that I'll never hear that merry, exhuberant baritone voice again. There will never, ever be another Ben Luxon, and the world is a little darker because of our loss.

A big bear of a man.

An immense talent.

A sweet guy.

Ben was all these things and more.

Who can forget his “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”

“Johnny Comes Marching Home” or “Mr. Bear?” More than just a song when he did them, putting his heart and soul into their performances.

Benny the boy wonder, who grew up in Cornwall and started singing in the local pub his father took him to.

He was to become a teacher but decided to pursue music instead at the London Guildhall and became an internationally known baritone and opera star.

He traveled the world, performing at the storied opera houses around the world.

He had a wonderful sense of style and timing.

Who can forget him as the chicken in “Jack and the Giant Beanstalk?”

His voice reverberates in my head when I think of him.

His humility was touching. I remember on more than one occasion, him questioning how he ever got to where he was.

He loved performing.

He loved working and he even liked complaining about his aches and pains after toiling all day in his gardens.

He was a wonderful friend, eager to help, especially if it involved working in nature, whether cutting down trees for firewood or clearing rocks from the soil when preparing new garden beds.

His work at the Arts Center will long be remembered. Gathering a group of players together, some of whom had never before been on stage, and wielding them into an amateur troupe of thespians, putting on such plays as “Under Milk Wood”, “The Stamp Collection,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Even having the troupe perform the American epic, “Our Town,” at the Minack Theater in his native Cornwall.

Ben will be sorely missed.

When my friend, the late Charles Fidlar, the brilliant conductor of the Torrington Symphony Orchestra where I played violin, invited me in 2016 to join a theatre group in Sandisfield for the role of the “Undertaker” in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” I jumped at the chance. To have even a small part in this play about a small New England town, which broadens to encompass all of mankind, and to have it produced in an actual small-town in Massachusetts by a group of amateur actors offered an opportunity for a wonderful experience.

Charles’ invitation was punctuated with a comment that the director of the theatre group, the Sandisfield Players, was Ben Luxon, who in previous years had been an internationally known opera star. Having researched elements of the opera for a book twenty years earlier, it piqued my interest to meet a person like Luxon, a well-known baritone, let alone act under his tutelage and guidance on the stage.

Indeed, for the next five years, Ben Luxon and his group of Sandisfield Players combined their musical and theatrical knowledge for nearly yearly productions. Ben’s death this July marked the end of a wonderful period of creativity in our small towns.

With humility and love of the stage and all things musical, Ben guided all of us – amateurs that we were – through the joys of seven glorious productions. His evocative descriptions of all things dramatic were riveting. Always inspirational, his remarkable ability to memorize lines was our model.

As a director, Ben was a master at developing refinement of character which made all of us very comfortable, regardless of any or no theatrical experiences. Ben was the shepherd guiding the willing sheep to a place of confidence.

Another aspect of his role as our director was his skill at building our sets. For each production, whether it be “Our Town” or “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” he oversaw all of the carpentry involved for each set. His equally talented, artistic wife, Susie Crofut, designed and painted all of the stage accoutrements.

Ben was a Renaissance man in the world of theatre. The success of most theatre groups, whether large or small, depends on many multiple talents. Ben embraced all of them, always aware of what appealed to audiences. Once he assumed the role of a humorous, squawking chicken in “Jack and the Giant Beanstalk,” the audience roared with laughter.

And when Ben made arrangements for us to take our production of “Our Town” to Cornwall, England, he and Susie had their personal imprint on every aspect of the production and the set design at the incredible cliff-side Minack Theatre. We were the only American troupe to bring that play to Porthcuno. On the Friday night before our opening Saturday, we portaged all of our props down ninetyfive stone steps to the stage built into the cliff side. One week later we lugged it all back up those steep stairs. It was our theatrical highpoint.

Always playing a character in our plays, Ben often lip-synced songs in order not to overwhelm the rest of us, even with what was left of his amazing, aging baritone voice. As a form of ruse for the audience, it was very effective and just another example of his thoughtfulness.

The idea of the Sandisfield Players began when Luxon and his friend Val Coleman wrote a small play about life in the town of Sandisfield for Sandisfield's Semiquincentennial Celebration. They cast it with local amateur actors, a few of whom continued the idea and kept the Players going. Twelve productions later, with participants ranging from age eight to eighty, our run came to a close with the highly acclaimed and successful “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” In between, we even did a very successful rendition of Dylan Thomas' “Under Milk Wood.”

For sure, all of this could not have happened if it were not for the musical and theatrical gifts imparted to us all by that amazing, brilliant Ben Luxon. His God-given, beautiful voice afforded a lifetime of exquisite performances and gave us all witness to a Voice for All Seasons.

John Funchion is an author. He lives in Norfolk, Connecticut.

Flora Parisky: Ben Luxon transformed Sandisfield with the creation of the Players. He built a congregation of inspired and dedicated residents who built what dreams are made of.