Annie Hough - Artist Spotlight

Imagine, if you will, that you're a bumblebee. You and your friends spend your days in vibrant flower patches, lapping up nectar and taking the occasional nap upon a soft petal before flitting back to your hive. Life is good... or, at least it used to be. Nowadays, flowers are harder to come by. Everything that has sustained you and your friends is disappearing at an alarming rate, ever since these loud giants and even louder machines have begun showing up...

For Annie Hough, these types of scenarios are all too common and that environmental injustice is what inspire her plays, which are designed to educate the masses on the impact our species has on local ecosystems. They feature integrated lessons on social issues and have a special focus on intergenerational relationships. Awesome as this is, it wasn't what she dreamt herself doing.

Photo of Carol Anne Hough, taken from her website bio.

She started out pursuing a Masters in Horticulture at The U in Minneapolis. Having heard about a scholarship for those living with disabilities to take a class at the Playwrights' Center, she decided to throw her name in the hat and was chosen to receive it. Now, at the time, she wasn't a huge fan of plays, however, she always loved writing short stories, and this class would give her the opportunity to share her passion of story writing with others.

While participating in the class, she wrote a short, semi-autobiographical play of a day in her life as a student, sharing all of the crazy interactions that she would experience throughout the day. She had the opportunity to share this during a round table reading, which caught the attention of a director, who was in the audience. Afterwards, he approached her about directing her play at a Minnesota Area Community Theatre Festival, as well as submitting it to the Fringe Festival in Minneapolis. That's impressive for a first play!

Some would think this would be what ignited her passion as a playwright, but no. It wasn't even after creating a one act play as her final project for her Masters in Horticulture, called Orchard Adventures, that gave apple maggots the spotlight and was produced the following year. No, not that either. What ignited her passion was meeting a fan of her work at a café in Detroit Lakes who asked, "Are you Carol Anne Hough, the playwright?" Wow, that had a real nice ring to it. "Yes, I am!"

From there, she was connected to Amy Stearns at Holmes Theater who loves to support local artists, especially those that are small town come-ups. Her first production through this partnership was directed by her fourth grade teacher, with one of her sisters being the Head of Wardrobe and another being the Stage Manager. Even her nieces and nephews were involved in various ways - it was like a family affair!

In the last 20 years, she has written and had produced 11 plays, all focused on different ecosystems and many were inspired by her adventures in her garden with her now 10 year-old Bijou pup, Elmer. Her last six plays have been produced locally by Jacob Hartje; however, some of her plays have been performed in places as far away as Australia, where an educator has integrated them into her Science curriculum!

Her next play, Parkland Adventures, which is set in the transitional ecosystem between prairie and forest, is set to be performed in Moorhead in July and Fergus Falls in August - both locations are due to be announced. When you go, you may see her dedicated partner, Richard, who has not missed a single play!

You can learn more about Annie and her works on her website: https://www.carolannehough.com/.

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