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These days, Walt Willey, who studied fine arts at Southern Illinois University, is more likely to be found painting a portrait than studying a script.
The Ottawa native and former television soap opera star moved from his hometown to Nashville, Tenn., last year, after marrying Sarah Kaine, an actress and singer.
“I’m trying to do things I’ve never had the chance to do. I’m rewinding back to what I loved doing when I was 25 years old,” Willey said in a phone interview from his home.
He’s putting away the paintbrush this weekend and returning home for a Saturday, May 25, performance of “Wild Bill: An Evening with James Butler Hickok,” in the Canal Market Building on the La Salle County Historical Society Museum campus, 210 Clark St., Utica.
Willey wrote the play with fellow Ottawa native and lifelong friend Kim "Howard" Johnson and is staging it as part of Wild Bill Days, a festival taking over the museum campus Saturday and Sunday.
The Historical Society asked Willey to perform the show, which he has done twice in the past year, although not for a while in La Salle County.
“I do it as often as I can. It’s a nice surprise, and I’m honored to do it,” he said.
Hickok (1837-1876) was a Wild West scout, sharpshooter and lawman raised in Troy Grove. As a teenager, he tended mules that worked on the Illinois & Michigan Canal, where the Historical Society museum is located.
After a fight on the canal, Hickok fled back to his Troy Grove home and eventually to the western frontier, where his exploits have been recounted ever since.
“That’s what started his journey,” said Willey, who has done voluminous research on Hickok. “He needed to make money to get there so he started working on the canal."
After the fight, “He figured, ‘Let me get the hell out of here,’ and wanted to go anyway,” Willey said. “That was the last he was seen in these parts until after the Civil War.”
In addition to his one-man show, Willey has played Hickok for two seasons on the TV Western series “Gunslingers,” which has raised awareness for the one-man show.
“ ‘Gunslingers’ gets the message out that I am doing this,” he explained.
The play is made up of “modules,” Willey said, and is updated and retrofitted to reflect local color to appeal to its audiences. The Utica show will include a module about Hickok’s experiences growing up in Troy Grove.
“Wild Bill” will be followed by a question-and-answer and meet-and-greet session with audience members. Willey enjoys such moments and in the past has met and talked to Hickok relatives.
The actor portrayed Jackson Montgomery on the soap opera “All My Children” before the show was canceled in 2011. Every couple of years, he said, rumors float around that the show will be rebooted.
Should such a revival take place, would Willey want to be part of it?
“I don’t know. I did it for 25 years. I honestly don’t know. But I do love those people like family,” he said.
As for Ottawa, “I miss it like crazy,” said Willey, who added he might pick up a Bianchi’s Pizza while in town.
Pizza or not, Willey still has an appetite for playing Wild Bill Hickok.
Go info
• What: "Wild Bill: An Evening with James Butler Hickok," a one-man show by Walt Willey. Following the play, Willey will conduct a question-and-answer and meet-and-greet session.
• When: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 25
• Where: Canal Market Building on the La Salle County Historical Society Museum campus, 210 Clark St., Utica.
• How: Tickets are $20 for Historical Society members and $25 for nonmembers. They can be purchased from the Historical Society, by calling 815-667-4861 or contacting lchs@gmail.org.