As a teacher, Anné Hughes ('83) has directed her theater students with learning differences to perform on stage, even speaking the words of Shakespeare with confidence and fluency.

"I'm always scanning the ensemble to see if I can find one person who's not in the moment on stage, and I can't," she says. "They are consistently in the moment."

Hughes serves as fine arts director at the Dallas-based Shelton School, a private institution that supports students with learning differences, such as ADHD and dyslexia. The school nominated her for the national Excellence in Theatre Education Award, presented by the Tony Awards and sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University, and she earned one of 18 honorable mentions from thousands of entries.

It's a tough job. She puts in a full day of work as the director of fine arts, then spends her evenings in rehearsals for the productions.

"Our students are intelligent, they just learn differently, and the result of that is that they're extremely hardworking. They are creative problem solvers, and the success of our theater department comes directly from the passion, perseverance and heart our students pour into each production."

'Always a Part of My Life'

Hughes' parents were founding members of a community theater in Wichita Falls, and she was constantly attending plays and acting in shows. She was named after the title character in The Diary of Anne Frank, a play in which her mother performed.  

"Theater was always a part of my life from the time I was born," she says.

As a speech and drama major at North Texas, she worked with Ellyn Gersh, a drama teacher; Imogene Mohat, longtime dean of women who was acting director of the drama division at the time; and Ralph Culp, who cast her in A Streetcar Named Desire her freshman year. Sadly, that same year, her older brother Kenny died in a car accident.

"Ellyn Gersh and several other teachers kept a close eye on me those following years," she says, "and that was very, very meaningful to me."

In her last year of college, she had a friend who was on the crew for the production of Deathtrap, which was part of the Gaylord-Hughes gala productions that raised scholarship funds for the drama program in the 1970s and 1980s. They attended an afterparty, where she met Tom Hughes ('51), the producer and managing director of Dallas Summer Musicals.

"Even though we had this significant age difference, we ended up falling in love," she says.

Hughes lived in New York City to pursue a theater career for two years. Then she came back to Texas and married Tom (who died in 1994) and raised their three children. When their youngest child was in elementary school, she felt the call to go back to the stage, this time as a teacher.

Unlocking the Door

Hughes was hired for a middle school drama position at Shelton in 1999, then was promoted to the upper school in 2012 and named director of fine arts in 2015, overseeing a staff of 14 teachers.

Shelton produced a video with the students and alumni, including Deja Jackson ('26),  touting why Hughes was deserving of the honor from the Tony Awards.

"I'm fortunate to be a part of such a special team that helps create theater for these young people," Hughes says. "Our students are working really hard to remediate a learning difference. We're asking them to come to school from 8 to 4 and do something that's difficult for them, whether it's reading or math. A lot of students tell me, 'I didn't think I was going to make it through English class today, but then I remembered I had rehearsal.' So, we have this community of hardworking, kind, respectful, just beautiful people."

She directs three shows -- a fall play, a winter musical and a spring play -- each year. As many as 80 students can be involved in the production, with a crew of up to 40 students.

She makes sure they are decoding the written language accurately and fluently. She may spend time with a particular student going over a certain part of a scene.

"Once they understand what they need to do to decode the language, they get it," she says. "It unlocks a door, and off they go."

And some of those moments become magical. When they performed Romeo and Juliet, none of the language was changed to accommodate a learning difference. They enjoyed the experience so much that they asked to do another Shakespeare play the following year.

"It's so rewarding to walk alongside these young people as they experience theater and learn more about the human condition. And, of course, they're growing in empathy and understanding of other people. So that's encouraging, especially in today's world."