Laura Galt
By Forrest Preece
I don’t use the term “Renaissance Person” lightly, but when I’m writing about someone like actress/producer/director/dialect coach/national-level publicist/dancer/educator Laura Galt, I can’t help myself. She’s definitely an all-star around Austin these days. In June, she received a Tony, the theater community’s highest honor, for being co-producer of The Outsiders, Broadway’s Best Musical for 2024.
I have listed some of her accomplishments in an inset box here. No doubt, Laura has proven that she has a wagonload of talent – and she started showing evidence of where she was going with her life at a young age.
When she was four in Oklahoma City, her mother asked her what she wanted for her birthday. Laura said, "I want you to rent The Myriad" -- which at the time was OKC’s version of Madison Square Garden. Her mom said, "What will you do with that?" Laura said, "Perform for everyone!” Her mom enrolled her in dance class instead. Looking back, Laura says that she was inspired by seeing the Disney on Parade traveling show, even though she screamed and cried when she got close to the costumed characters.
As a youngster, she started dreaming of Broadway after she had her first audition and was cast as Louisa in Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma's Sound of Music. But in college and afterward, life took a few twists and turns -- some things swept her up and set her off on tangents. But she kept on moving, looking for paths that were “joyful, experiential, interesting, and welcoming with found family.”
During the ensuing years, she earned degrees, accepted acting roles, did productions, and never took her eye off the ball. Her drive, her “cannon fire be darned” attitude, and her willingness to take chances culminated in her taking a Tony Award home this year. By the way, The Outsiders Musical also won Tonys for Best Direction, Best Lighting, and Best Sound Design.
Recently, Laura and I talked about how this triumph of hers came to be. It started in 2018 when she heard The Outsiders Musical was in development and that a Texas band, Jamestown Revival, was composing the score. Her Texas/Oklahoma girl’s ears perked up and after thinking about it, she realized that backing this effort could be the win of a lifetime on a lot of fronts. For one thing, it would increase interest and visibility for her native state – and she thought that maybe a film version of this musical could be made there. Also, she wanted a new generation to see and be influenced by this hard-hitting story that had inspired her as a child, and to elevate the Texas musicians who were composing.
If you are not familiar with the plot of The Outsiders, it revolves around the age-old friction between privileged kids in a high school (The Socs) and the “have-nots” (The Greasers). Tensions escalate, there is a fight between the groups, and one kid is killed. I don’t want to be a spoiler, so I’ll just say the plot takes dramatic twists past that point. The ultimate lesson of the play is that loyalty is important, but there needs to be a meeting ground between people in different social strata.
Author S.E. Hinton wrote the novel while she was in high school, basing it on her own experiences. It was published in 1967, and in 1983, Francis Ford Coppola made it into a film that featured a group of young actors who became stars, including Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, and Patrick Swayze.
About 10 years ago, Fred Roos, producer of The Outsiders movie pitched the idea of making the story into a musical. Soon, he and American Zoetrope began to interview several Broadway lead producers. As luck would have it, they landed on The Araca Group, which is the organization under which Laura works. They soon began interviewing book writers, composers, directors, and choreographers. Management also brought co-producers on board to help source investors, partnerships, and sponsorships.
The book writer, Adam Rapp and composers, Jamestown Revival (a Texas band led by Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance), and composer/orchestrator/book writer, Justin Levine have been with the show from the beginning. Laura got to know all these people well during the ensuing years as they fleshed out all parts of the musical.
Their out-of-New York tryout/world premiere was scheduled for a 2020 launch in Chicago, but Covid put an end to that. When the date was pushed from 2020 to 2023 and the world premiere shifted to La Jolla Playhouse in California, director Danya Taymor and choreographers Rick and Jeff Kuperman were brought on board. With them added to the team, the synergy between the creative and technical forces ignited into the musical that took Broadway by storm. Laura says that as a producer with the show since 2018, it has been exciting to see the different iterations and to watch the iconic story morph and grow.
Their team created a superb piece of theater that honors Hinton's legacy and is resonating worldwide. For their efforts, they received 12 Tony nominations and four wins. One thing Laura notes -- the production is very cinematic for a stage play. The musical uses projections, lighting, freeze-frames, and slow-motion as a way to play with time - mimicking something a film editor might do in an editing room. As she says, there are many aural and visual cues that support the action throughout the play – the song lyrics, the train whistle in the choral arrangement, the foreshadowing sound of a violin, and so on.
One regret Laura has is that she lost her mom and dad to cancer before their time and they were not able to share in her achievements. She says that her mom would have been beaming, just like Sarah Paulson's mother on a recent CBS Sunday Morning show. As for thanks, she is so grateful that her oldest daughter, Campbell Snavely, has been with her every step of the way -- including attending the very first meeting she had with the lead producers in New York. Her youngest daughter, Scout, has also been supportive. “She doesn't love theater as much as Campbell and I do, but she has been on the sidelines cheering me on through the process.”
Laura Galt
--Tony-Winning Broadway producer, Drama Desk Winner, indie film producer, actor, dancer, director, casting director, assistant director, and educator/teaching artist.
--Worked in Los Angeles at International Creative Management, as an associate publicist for Nancy Seltzer Public Relations, and was a part of the publicity team for Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Kathy Bates, Placido Domingo, Rob Reiner, and Jonathan Demme's acclaimed film Philadelphia. Laura was also Julia Louis Dreyfus's assistant and worked for Burt Reynolds Productions. She coordinated extras casting on Aged Out (starring Tye Sheridan of X-Men and Ready Player One) and co-conceptualized/produced SXSW panels, "Hollywood to Broadway: Adapting Films for Stage," and "Film and Music: Collaborating on Broadway.”
--Recognized for her performance as Judy in A Kid Like Jake, Laura won Broadway.com/Austin's Best Supporting Actress and Actor to Watch. Laura was a cast member of Company of Angeles' Production of David's Mother which won Los Angeles' prestigious Dramalogue, Ovation, and Garland Awards.
--Holds master’s degrees in communication disorders/speech-language pathology and in educational administration. She provides dialect and accent modification training to actors and business professionals.
--Served on Zach Theatre's Education Board and was involved as a teaching artist and judge for Young Playwrights for Change, a national middle school playwriting competition run by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education in collaboration with Zach Theatre.
