Telluride Museum presents Fireside Chat at The Peaks, 1/21

21 Jan Telluride Museum presents Fireside Chat at The Peaks, 1/21

[click “Play” to hear Susan’s conversation with Sasha Cucciniello]

Julia Archibald Holmes

The Telluride Historical Museum’s Fireside Chat series continues this winter with “Women in Their Words.” The event takes place Thursday, January 21, 5 p.m., in the Great Room at The Peaks Hotel & Spa. SquidShow Theatre’s Sasha Cucciniello brings historical women to life, with narration by Colin Sullivan.

The list the Telluride Historical Museum came up with is the tip of the iceberg but nonetheless impressive: Chipeta, wife of the paramount Ute chief Ouray, the “Tomboy Bride” Harriet Backus, early skier Marjorie Perry, homesteader Katherine Garetson, botanist Ruth Aston, Julia Archibald Holmes, the first woman to climb Pike’s Peak, and all the “Soiled Doves,” the prostitutes of the Old West. 

“After reading ‘Tomboy Bride.’ I wanted to learn more about the other intrepid women who challenged what society deemed proper for a lady,” explained Sasha. “Colin and I scoured the history books to find and weave their stories together. There were diaries, memoirs, even poems. Mining what these singular women wrote, said and/or remembered makes this a truly unique and powerful piece of theatre.”

Click the “play” button and listen to Sasha’s podcast for an excerpt Holmes’s writing, a teaser from just one of the amazing stories.