GRANDMA GATEWOOD TOOK A WALK by Catherine Bush

Director: TBA

Contract Dates: April 20 – May 17, 2026

In 1955 at the age of 67, Emma “Grandma” Gatewood told her children she was “going for a walk.” and set out with her duffel bag and a pair of Keds sneakers to walk the Appalachian Trail. Two thousand miles later, she became the first woman to solo hike 14 states from Georgia to the top of Mt Katahdin in Maine. This is a true and inspiring adventure celebrating the resiliency of the human spirit and the courage required to walk into the unknown.

GRANDMA: Female mid-60’s. An Appalachian farm woman who has seen and endured much. There is no pretense about this woman– she is who she tells you she is. Practical, determined, feisty and forthright, she is a force to be reckoned with as she narrates her journey, which includes flashback scenes from her past. Born into a large family and married at a young age to a husband who beat and abused her, she had 11 children and raised each of them with love and without complaint. Her decision to hike came from her love and passion for the beauty of the trail, and perhaps subconsciously her need to reconnect with her own identity and power after years of being in an abusive relationship.

MAN: Male, 50’s. This role plays a wide range of 13 different people, including her abusive husband and her drunken father as well as people she meets on the trail.