As a senior at the University of Incarnate Word, Laura T. Garza was giving a final presentation in her capstone class when she suddenly began to cry. She was about to graduate with her Bachelor of Arts in Theater, and she kept thinking about her friends, who planned to attend graduate school or move to New York.
“What’s wrong?” Garza’s professor, Margaret Mitchell, asked.
Garza explained that she wanted to attend graduate school, but the closest program was the Master of Fine Arts in Theatre, Directing at Texas State University.
“Well then you’ll have to drive to San Marcos,” Mitchell told her.
Garza stopped crying.
She went home and talked to her husband, and he encouraged her to apply. She commuted from San Antonio to San Marcos for three years.
“We’re trying to … bring theater back to where it was. When I was here as a student, those were the golden years. It was popping. It was happening.”
— Laura T. Garza
In her final year of graduate school, Garza became pregnant with her second child. On late nights when she was too tired to drive back home, she would get a hotel room for the night.
In 2013, a very pregnant Garza walked on stage at her commencement ceremony to receive her MFA. The same year, she joined San Antonio College as an adjunct professor.
Garza, who earned an Associate of Arts in Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts from SAC in 2007, has served as the college’s theater program coordinator and faculty instructor since August 2022.
“I imagined myself working at SAC because as a student my professors did so much for me,” Garza told SAC Student News recently. “I knew I wanted to come back and do the same for others, and this felt like home and where I wanted to be. My mom always taught me that if you want something bad enough, you’re going to make it happen. I just kept pushing, and here we are.”
Garza has trained with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and with Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company. She has 31 Alamo Theater Arts Council (ATAC) awards — 28 for her work as a producer, and three for acting and directing work.
In 2010, she won a Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (ACTF) Merit Award for directing and sound design. In 2011, Garza won an ACTF Directing Award and was recognized as a national finalist for her work directing “Angels in America: Perestroika.”
Garza said her primary focus has been to build a thriving program by recruiting students and increasing enrollment. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly lowered enrollment, which affected the department’s budget. Ticket sales for the theater decreased.
“We’re trying to make things work and happen as best we can and bring theater back to where it was,” Garza said. “When I was here as a student, those were the golden years. It was popping. It was happening.”
When Garza was a student at SAC, the college’s theater program had four directors and ran multiple shows simultaneously. Back then, Garza served as president of SAC’s OnStage Drama Club. Now she is the college’s only full-time instructor.
She said her typical work day includes classes in the morning, meetings and then straight into rehearsals or a show, depending on if the theater is in production.
She brought on a temporary, full-time guest lecturer, and she wants to bring on more full-time directors who are skilled in other sides of the theater.
“The students deserve that,” she said. “With different creative minds, our department thrives.”
