Tom Walker: Loss of a "Living" Library
A note from Living Theatre Artistic Director Brad Burgess on the passing of beloved company member and friend Thomas S. Walker
It is said that every day the equivalent of the Library of Alexandria is lost online…yesterday we lost someone who carried a living library with him.
A library of memory, of knowledge, of moments, of love, of history, of heartbreak, of struggle, of triumph, of social change, of passion, of friendship, of patience, of action, of caretaking, of commitment, of camaraderie, of community.
Judith said to me while I was rolling something for her and Tom on his visit at Lillian Booth the next day, “Tom is strange anyway, strange person…40 years and I still haven’t learned how to deal with him…really…mysterious creature…” I think it’s one of the coolest things she ever said about anyone, of all the incredible people she met in the course of her life, Tom kept her on her toes. I sent him the recording of it and he often referenced it when we talked of his life and journey over the past few years.
He committed over fifty years to The Living’s mission and to the people that have made up our community over many generations. I worked with him for almost twenty, my longest collaborator. He was one of my dearest friends and one of the people who inspired me to devote my life to the work, and will keep inspiring us all.
We had so much more to do, plans we made in South Korea…he wanted to record his biomechanical archive, “before I can’t do it anymore…” he was set to work this spring at the Beinecke with Yale and the ten research associates who were so excited to work with him to identify what only he could…he wanted to perform in Bussan and see the beaches there…
I am so sad and shocked by the fact that we won’t…we were so excited about the next years together…
The only comfort I can offer is that he was able to have one last big adventure across the globe on a new continent. He was given an ovation before every performance in Korea for his fifty year anniversary, adored, revered, loved for the living legend he was. When we were out in restaurants people wanted him to sign the walls, and he was given gifts, clothes, food and drinks. He delivered a stunning, unforgettable performance that left the Korean audience in wonder, they never saw anything like it.
Here he is in his final production, as Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall, talking to god, asking “why?” He repeated the question over and over and over until he was exasperated, in the same way Steve Ben Israel performed the “zhu zhu zhu” from Mysteries.
We will mourn him and celebrate him. Already the many online tributes remind us he had done more than enough for world theatre, and for the people he loved, a long time ago. The fact that he kept going, kept caring, is a reminder to all of us that we can too and to keep asking “why?” in order to find the energy and courage to move forward.