Lenten-goers at Grace Lutheran Church in Austin are in for a real treat Wednesday night.

Madelyn Wiedemann will make her acting debut.

Wiedemann will portray Anna, the grandmother of Jesus Christ. Her dramatic monologue is part of the Ladies of Lent series being offered during the Lenten season at Grace Lutheran Church of Austin.

Wiedemann is 83 years old and she is being directed by her son.

"I will tell of her love for her grandson and the heartache she suffered when he died and how she hopes to see Him again," Wiedemann said.

The mother of five children and grandmother of 13 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren also said she is not nervous about appearing in public.

"Why should I be?" she said. "I'm not really nervous. Just as I have done other times in my life I will ask God to be with me."

On March 12, Jacque Johnson, a seventh grader, performed as the first "Ladies of Lent" dramatic monologist. She was the daughter of Jairus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus Christ.

After Wiedemann's performance Wednesday night, Robin Brandt will perform as Mary of Bethany Wednesday, March 27 followed by Jeannine Anderson as Mary Magdalene April 2; and Jill Lee as Mary, the Mother of Jesus, April 9.

The 7 p.m. Lenten worship services follow a soup supper and fellowship, beginning 5:30 p.m. each Wednesday evening during Lent.

The dramatic interpretations of significant Biblical characters in the life of Jesus Christ were adapted by David Wiedemann from works of Kahil Gibran, playwright John M. Braaten and the Bible.

The director is the only son of the actress.

"Of course, I'm tough on her," David Wiedemann said after a Sunday night rehearsal. "I'm tough on all of them. I want them all to do their best."

Wiedemann was born on a farm near Ostrander in a family of three girls and one boy.

"My father played the violin and mother sang and we all enjoyed music," she recalled.

She moved to Austin in 1937 to go to work, but music was always a part of her life.

"I just loved to sing. I'm a soprano and I always was singing along with first the old Edson phonograph we had at home and then the radio when we got one. I went to country school and we used to do a lot of singing there, too. It was a passion of mine," she said.

Her husband, Lawrence "Larry" Wiedemann died in 1997. He worked for 44 years at Hormel Foods Corporation's flagship plant in Austin. The couple had four daughters and a son.

After winning an amateur talent contest on Austin's original radio station, KATE, she gave up the opportunity to go to Nashville, Tenn. and make a record. Her son said it was because of her true love.

"She was offered a recording contract and invited to go to Nashville, but she decided married life and family were more important," David Wiedemann said.

Her God-given talents of singing hymns, gospel music, bluegrass and country music -- even a little pop music -- and also playing the guitar never kept her far from performing before an audience.

"Harbor Lights," "Blue Hawaii" and "Faraway Places" as well as other pop classics sounded just as natural coming from the housewife's voice as they did from the songbirds of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, singing them for fame and fortune.

Even children's classics such as "The Umbrella Man" and "My Little Buckaroo" widened Wiedemann's audience.

"I always had the best teachers in the world," she joked. "Kate Smith and all the others singing their records on the radio."

When she and her husband joined the original Grace Lutheran Church in 1947, Wiedemann immediately joined the choir. She continues to sing in the choir today, ranking with Kenneth and Eva Schara as the senior members.

In her spare-time, she joined her husband at the square dance barn they built and operated for many years along 10th Drive SE near the bowling alley in Austin.

The husband and wife team taught square dancing, called dances and spawned a growth in the dancing craze that lasted until the fad fizzled.

"We used to go dancing at the old Terp, the Rainbow and the Oasis," she said. "When the Big Band and swing music era came along, we were swept up by it. I met my husband at a dance and then square dancing was so much a part of our lives later on, too. Music has always been important to me."

So has her religion. Wiedemann said it's an "honor" to play the grandmother of Jesus Christ.

"I haven't acted since I was a little girl in country school," she said. "I guess because I'm a grandmother I have a soft spot in my heart for the Anna role. I've been reading the script since Christmas when David gave it to me. It's really not hard at all once you get to know it.

"Now, we've been rehearsing for a couple of weeks and I think it's very important to me that people hear the word of God."

Lee Bonorden can be reached at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com