Ranch women revealed in Montana Monologues

When Wendy Woollett walked into the Wild Sage Café in St. Ignatius she found inspiration in ranch woman Pat Shepard.

“She looked like Georgia O’Keefe,” Woollett said. “She looked like a story and she was.”

Woollett didn’t know at that first meeting in 2002 what Shepard’s story would be, but after an initial conversation with Shepard, that became an eight-month oral history collection, the playwright decided to create “The Montana Monologues,” a three-act play of the most defining moments in the lives of three ranch women in their 70s and 80s. 

Woollett, an administrative associate in UM’s School of Physical Therapy, said she chose these women because they represent a “dying breed,” a demographic that grew up on ranches in the 1930s and 1940s and whose stories hadn’t yet been told.  She also wanted to portray the fading away of life of the family rancher, an idealized existence Woollett thought she’d find everywhere in Montana when she moved here in 1988.

“I came to Montana thinking it was the last best place, but I realized that it’s being subdivided like everywhere else,” Woollett said.

A playwright and inner city drama teacher in San Francisco, Woollett was yearning for a life change when her friend presented her with the story of a ranching family in Helena.  Woollett moved to Helena to write, “Building the Herd,” based on the oral history of Bryan Hilger, and never looked back.

The book, and subsequent meeting with Shepard, helped Woollett find five other women through coincidence and word of mouth.  Each woman shared her childhood experiences, secrets and funny stories with Woollett over the course of each eight or nine-month interview.

For example, Woollett said, the late Anne Hirschy of Big Hole Valley used to allow two baby moose that slept in their barn to enter the house and drink water from the kitchen sink.

“That’s what makes the best stage material,” Woollett said.  “They were the dramatic people and I just picked up on it.”

As the project progressed, Woollett elicited support from everyone she knew.  UM’s Wilderness Foundation awarded her a Matthew Hansen Endowment grant to fund three of the histories. 

When selecting actresses for the production, Woollett approached the Chantilly Theatre in Stevensville.  Anne Marie Carbin, who plays the late Anne Hirschy, said Woollett appreciates that Chantilly provides mature women like Carbin with opportunities to act.

“She had a vision that the women playing these roles would be older, more mature,” Carbin said.  “I was honored that she thinks I have the talent to do it the way she wants and to participate in the project.”

Though the monologues were scheduled to debut at the Roxy Theatre last April, Woollett’s diagnosis of renal cancer in January 2007 put the project on hold.  With the support of her friends and oncologist Dr. Judy Schmidt, Woollett pursued the production and decided to make the premier a benefit for the Guardian Angels Foundation, a Missoula-based nonprofit that provides financial assistance to cancer patients receiving treatment in Montana.  Woollett herself was a recipient of their aid.

“She really embraced this foundation,” Schmidt, co-founder of Guardian Angels, said.  “It’s a wonderful opportunity for her to give back to the foundation and showcase her talents.”

After the Lolo show, Woollett has a vision of a “Montana Monologues” road show, showcasing the nearly extinct lifestyle of ranch women.  She is currently incorporating the monologues into a book titled, “The Road to Wisdom: Stories from Montana’s Ranch Women” and believes they could even debut off-Broadway.

“‘The Montana Monologues’ have a spiritual force behind them,” Woollett said.  “I feel like they’ll be contagious.”

“The Montana Monologues” premieres Friday, Sept. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Dunrovin Ranch in Lolo.  A $25 dollar donation is suggested, and attendees are asked to bring lawn chairs.