Brady Walker: from activism to acting

Jun. 11—Oakvale native Brady Walker will be performing in "Hatfields and McCoys" for Theater West Virginia at Cliffside Amphitheater in Beckley. There will be 12 shows and the first one will debut June 17.

This play is a professional production, but this is not Walker's first time in the spotlight with the Theater West Virginia team.

"This year, I will be doing 'Hatfields and McCoys' and the 'Wizard of Oz,' and I will be starting rehearsals June 5," Walker said.

Walker has been acting since he was seven years old when 4Pals Productions first saw him singing on his grandmother Debra Williby-Walker's Facebook page.

"I started with 4Pals Productions in a play called 'House Divided,'" said Walker.

"4Pals got him started," added Williby-Walker. "They messaged me, then had him come in because they wanted to include him in to sing a solo. He thought he was just going to sing a song, but they stuck him in there and gave him lines."

He went back and performed with them again after this, but then auditioned for Theater West Virginia through Zoom shortly after COVID started.

Since then, Walker has acted in several plays, including other professional productions like "Honey in the Rock," "Alice in Wonderland," and "Romeo and Juliet." In those he played Tad Blevins, the White Rabbit, and a townsperson, musician and page.

Walker was also featured in the "We're All Stronger Together" commercial for the Riff Raff Arts Collective.

Williby-Walker said that Walker got many compliments on his work ethic and record from many other actors.

"I'm his grandmother, so of course I'm going to like what he does. I'm a little biased, but the directors and others tell me he has what it takes," she said. "To be nine years old at that time, the other actors told me that it was really good to have Shakespeare under his belt."

Williby-Walker also said she was impressed by his ability to learn his lines because they do not get very much time between rehearsal starting and the first show.

"I read through his lines with him, and he can memorize them after looking at theme time," she said. "They practice all day Saturday through Friday, but they only get around two weeks of rehearsal before jumping in."

Walker said his favorite type of plays to do were fantasy, but he still enjoyed doing the history pieces as well.

"My favorite of the three, I think is 'Alice in Wonderland,' said Walker.

Walker said the hardest part of it all is learning his lines.

"He acts nervous when he's rehearsing his lines and when he's auditioning, but then he just goes in and does it like it was nothing to him," said Williby-Walker.

Walker will be working with a lot of the same people he did the past year during these plays.

"I'm most excited about seeing my friends again," he said.

Walker said he doesn't have any goals for the show right now because he's young and just acts because it's fun but said that he can see himself trying Broadway, television, or movies later on when he is older.

"I just do it because I love it really. I'll probably have a goal when I'm older, but right now, I just do it because it's fun," said Walker.

While Walker enjoys acting, it is not his only extracurricular activity.

"He dances tap, ballet, jazz, and hiphop, he paints and draws, plays the hand drum, writes music, and takes ukulele lessons," said Williby-Walker.

However, Walker said his favorite thing to do is dancing and painting.

This is all stuff he does on top of helping with many community service programs such as the Oakvale Area Outreach team and his own program Sowing Seeds of Love.

Walker has been doing Sowing Seeds of Love since he was four, which started when he just began handing seeds out to people.

"He would send them to South Africa, so those kids could plant seeds like he does and raise their own vegetables like my dad taught him, so that is what we originally started doing," said Williby-Walker

"He started sending them to a friend of mine in South Africa, and she had a non-profit over there and would feed children all the time, so they raised the food to feed the children their soup kitchens," she added. "She took them into the schools, and they planted gardens at the schools."

He continues sending seeds to people in Mercer County, and last year, he sent them to McDowell County in addition to Mercer.

"When COVID started and no one could find seeds, he had over 4,000 and something collected, so he sent them to every county in West Virginia," said Williby-Walker.

Williby-Walker said Walker keeps her "pretty busy," but feels that all of his work is important and that the arts are important for every child.

"They can express themselves through the arts," she said. "A lot of people's different feelings and motions come out in an artwork, just like in people's writing."

Williby-Walker describes Walker as creative.

"He's always drawing and creating," she said. "He's just a very creative person."

Walker sells his artwork at community shows and through other shows and platforms under his middle name Michael-Andrew. It is available to buy at The Hatter's Bookshop and Diamonds 'N Gold shop, but it only on display at Mount Hope.

"He says his middle name is more suited for his artwork," said Williby-Walker. "People buy his art, and they always express how much they love it and think it's awesome that he does it."

When COVID started, it gave Walker more time to work in the arts due to virtual schooling, but he was not able to get vaccinated before schools started going in-person again and was homeschooled since then.

"Right now, I'm homeschooled, but in the fall, I'll be going to PikeView "I homeschooled him until we got him vaccinated," said Williby-Walker.

Walker is hoping to find a club in the arts when he gets to school, but is most exited to see his friends again.

Walker plans to keep doing as much as he can in acting and is excited for the start of the play.

— Contact Kassidy Brown at kbrown@bdtonlinecom