BECKLEY — Editor’s Note: The following story was completed by Senior Editor Bev Davis before her untimely death last weekend. It is the last story she wrote for The Register-Herald.



When Andy Harvey was growing up in Shady Spring, he wasn’t sure what career path he might pursue. Homeschooled until his sophomore year, Harvey thought he might be a detective. Or an archaeologist. Or a musician.

He studied classical guitar with Beckley instructor Dan Bailey, but by the time Harvey had graduated from Greater Beckley Christian School, he was thinking about a career on stage.

“Once I found acting, I found my niche,” said the 23-year-old cast member of the summer shows produced by Theatre West Virginia. “God pointed me in this direction, and I have been running full force ever since.”

Oddly enough, his role as Willard in “Footloose” parallels the conflict of perspectives about acting and more traditional career roles.

“In one or two scenes, the character cusses. Some people may criticize me for that. Other roles may not seem appropriate by people with different views about Christianity, but God created art. Acting is a huge outlet for imparting the message to people. We are called to be light in dark places,” Harvey said.

The story line deals with a legalistic religion in which dancing is forbidden and in which there is a huge disconnect between faith and practical day-to-day living.

“I was wondering how I would approach this role as a Christian actor. As I’ve worked through it, I can see the faith aspect is played very sincerely. I think God is honored by ‘Footloose’ this year.”

After high school, Harvey attended Concord University for a year, then took some classes at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

“I didn’t have much direction when I came out of high school. I didn’t know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. A lady at church said, ‘Why don’t you try acting?’ When I took my first acting class, I was amazed that you could go on stage, play pretend, and that could be a career,” he said.

He quickly learned it takes hard work to play a role.

“I didn’t think there was much of a process. I thought you just learned your lines, and you said them. Now, I’ve learned it’s so much more than that. There are so many technical aspects to learn. You have to figure out a character, who that is, how he looks, how he thinks and why does the character do what he does. Becoming someone else and doing that believably takes a lot of work,” Harvey said.

Roles in which he is cast as someone similar to himself are easy. Those that take him totally into another personality are challenging, he said.

“Dave Morgan, for example, is pretty different from me. He’s quiet. He thinks before he speaks. It’s been a hurdle for me.”

He played Devil Anse Hatfield for one evening.

“That was an awesome experience!” It was an honor to take a role that important, even for one night.”

Acting moves and grows, and good actors move and grow with the career, he said.

“You have to work at it all the time. You are constantly learning. Each role is a different learning experience.”

Now in his third year with TWV, Harvey is fine-tuning skills he hopes will carry him to the West Coast and eventually to the big screen.

“This will be my last year with TWV. In the fall I will  move to Wilmington, N.C., to pursue film and theater for a year. After that, I plan to move on to Los Angeles,” he said.

Working with TWV has given Harvey diversity with such roles as Horton the Elephant in “Suessical The Musical,” Zeke in “High School Musical,” Spirit McCoy, Lije and Dave Morgan in “Honey in the Rock,” and Jim Vance in “Hatfields and McCoys.”

At Liberty University, he took on the roles of Danforth in “The Crucible,” Tony in “West Side Story” and Frank Butler in “Annie Get Your Gun.”

This year he is the fight captain for TWV.

As for favorite lines, Harvey said he prefers to leave each character behind.

“Once I play a role, I kind of forget it on purpose. When it’s time to take on someone else, I don’t want to keep too much of past roles or I will forget who I am in the new role,” Harvey said.

Leaving the Beckley area won’t be easy, he said.

“I love the friends I have made here. I love my family. They have been so supportive. But I want to go on and do an acting career and honor the Lord and support Beckley, W.Va.”