Just like all of us – actress, singer, storyteller, wife, and mother Gwenda LedBetter copes with the trials and tribulations of everyday life. But unlike many, she deals with it creatively by writing poems, stories and plays. Her public performances give voice to her joy and sorrow, frustration and fear and the audience revels in it along with her.
At age 82, Gwenda has written her second solo work – The Old Woman in the Basement scheduled to open at NC Stage the beginning of November with David Novak directing. It’s based on an all too common battle everyone will face as we get older – losing things.
In the play, the main character Mariah, tells a friend what it feels like to lose the power she felt when she was younger.
“You lose you looks, health, love, friends, and the keys to the car. How can you get all that back?” Mariah asks.
Old Woman in the Basement was inspired by the Sumerian myth Descent of Inanna, the Queen of Heaven and her plunge into the Great Below. With each step the Queen loses more of her power as does Gwenda’s heroine. Old Woman in the Basement follows Mariah Kincaid as she deals with her new life in the cellar of her own home, dwelling in the past and shutting out the present. In the basement, Mariah must face the inevitability of aging, loss of power and the dark shadows that bind her. In the myth, Inanna is reborn, regains her power, and ascends the steps back up into the light. Come to NC Stage and find out what Mariah does.
For more than 50 years, Gwenda has entertained audiences across America, starting with her role as the Storylady at the Pack Library and on the Mr. Bill Show which aired on WLOS-TV. She went on to star in several Asheville Community Theatre musical productions including South Pacific and Camelot.
“People recognized me all over town,” Gwenda recalls. “I’d be filling my car with gas and someone would say ‘Good story yesterday.’”
Then in 1979, Gwenda set off across the mountains to tell tales to thousands of people at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Jimmy Neil Smith, the creator of the Festival called her, “a pioneer in the storytelling movement.” The Festival brought in offers from all over launched her career nation wide.
In 2006, Gwenda wrote Friday’s Father about her childhood growing up on Virginia’s Eastern Shore with an alcoholic father. With David Novak as director, she performed the one-woman play at NC Stage to standing ovations. That same year, Gwenda was awarded the Oracle’s Circle of Excellence by the National Storytelling Network. In 2009 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from North Carolina’s Storytelling Guild.
If You Go: The Old Woman in the Basement, part of the NC Stage Catalyst Series. Performances November 2-11. Friday & Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15. Please call (828) 239-0263 for tickets or visit www.ncstage.org. NC Stage is located at 15 Stage Lane in downtown Asheville.
