Ashland creative duo to perform musical play at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Published 12:00 pm Monday, July 28, 2025

New musical touches on motherhood, friendship, loss with true-to-life story

Ashland’s Annie Macleod is heading across the pond to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh to perform the musical play “Forget-Me-Not” at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in early August. 

“It’s a true pleasure to represent the Rogue Valley and Oregon and the United States at the fringe festival,” Macleod said.  

Macleod and co-collaborator Julie Lake’s musical play centers on their first-hand experiences as childhood friends, creatives and mothers, and the challenges of balancing artistic ambitions with parenting — hashing through these topics and feelings via their enduring friendship that went through strife. 

“The story is completely true, nothing’s fabricated, so both of us learned and had very different journeys and were going through the same thing, which is how to balance drive and desire and longing as artists with motherhood,” Macleod said. “It’s going to challenge the audience and some might feel envy or judgement or moments that they don’t like our choices, but we are aiming to be real and vulnerable and make sense enough that people can see themselves in it.” 

The musical is filled with original songs written by Macleod and Lake and will be performed with a guitar, keyboard and both women’s voices.

The music of “Forget-Me-Not” involved Lake sharing her melodic talents with the public for the first time, and with the sonic expertise of Macleod, the two deliver bold and raw tracks that offer somber, serious and sometimes silly music for their real-life story. 

Macleod and Lake will premiere“Forget-Me-Not,” directed by Peter Cook, with daily performances Aug. 1-9 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

“Forget-Me-Not” is the third piece produced by The Wildflowers — a creative company started by Lake and Macleod which “focuses on bold storytelling, radical honesty, and the belief that motherhood and art are not mutually exclusive,” according to a news release sent by Macleod.

Lake is a two-time Screen Actors Guild award-winning actress with roles in shows such as “Orange Is the New Black,” “Mental” and more. She is a writer, musician, Yale University graduate and certified creativity coach. 

Macleod is an award-winning singer-songwriter and nurse practitioner whose musical career has included collaborations with Grammy-winning producers and international tours.  

“I have been a songwriter and musician since I was young; I grew up doing choir and theater and in my early 20s gigged a lot as a solo artist,” Macleod said. “I took a hiatus to have children and went back to it in earnest in the 2021 time frame, living in Ashland and gigging wineries and doing the (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) Green Show and the Joshua Tree Music Festival.” 

The duo met in middle school and continued being friends through adulthood. “Forget-Me-Not” centers on a disastrous visit between the two women. 

“In 2021, me and my kids went out to visit Julie post-pandemic and it was a terrible visit; we totally underestimated how hard quality time with kids around is and we both had high expectations and hopes for what it would feel like, and it was kind of painful to not get met,” Macleod said. 

Lake was trying for a second child, Macleod was leaving a marriage and pursuing her musical ambitions, and a tense exchange caused a year of silence between the two as each grappled with identity, motherhood and more. 

“We did not want to put anything in (“Forget-Me-Not”) for sensation value or entertainment value; the sensitive parts are difficult,” Macleod said. 

Following a birthday gesture, Lake and Macleod began to repair their decades-long friendship. 

Eventually, the two got the idea to translate the challenges of balancing creative careers with traditional gender roles as well as their renewed friendship and make pain, lessons learned and growth into art. 

“Without being grandiose, we hope in a tiny way this will shift people towards reaching for their own freedom and greater sense of integrity, meaning, wholeness and courage,” Macleod said. “We hope the show and story will help people feel more confident and speak their truths and embolden their voices to go out in public spaces.”

For more information on Lake, Macleod and The Wildflowers creative company, visit wildflowersshow.com. 

Reach reporter James Sloan at james.sloan@rv-times.com.