Naperville actress Gabrielle Garza tours country in 'Spring Awakening'
Lots of high school girls dream of being in a Broadway show. Naperville native Gabrielle Garza acted on her dreams and now at 25, roughly eight years after graduating from Naperville Central High School, she has an acting job many would do anything for. She is touring the country in a production of the Tony-award winning "Spring Awakening" opening Tuesday, Aug. 4, at the Oriental Theatre.
Garza had been involved in theater as a youngster, but seeing the musical "Ragtime" in eighth grade made her all the more eager to go into theater. That yearning only got stronger as she got older. By the time she was applying to colleges in her senior year of high school, she said she realized "there wasn't anything else I wanted to do."
"I realized I had to be serious about it," Garza says, adding that she chose Emerson College in the Boston area, because it was closer to New York. After graduating in 2006, she moved to New York and started auditioning.
"After college, it is very easy to get lost," Garza says, "but I was like I owe it to my self and be proactive about my future."
Still, auditioning was hard. "You get a lot of nos," Garza says.
She paid the rent by working a series of day jobs. "I mostly worked in spas," Garza says. "I worked the front desk. I checked clients in for their appointments and rung them out. I knew people who waited (on tables), but I didn't think I could handle it. Receptionist was definitely less stressful than waiting tables."
Garza did a little acting in little shows. "They were like off-off-Broadway," Garza says, "off-off-off-off- Broadway."
Mostly she auditioned for shows, got told "no," and worked her day job. Lots of would-be actors live that kind of life in New York and never progress in their careers. Garza got lucky.
"I did an audition for 'Spring Awakening,'" Garza says. "I didn't think I would get it."
Garza ended up landing one of the roles in the touring production.
In retrospect, Garza, who looks much younger than 25, was a natural for a show about a group of angst-ridden adolescents in late 19th century Germany.
"The show is the story of a group of teenagers in 1891 in Germany," Garza says. "Exploring puberty and sexuality at a time when kids didn't talk to their parents about this."
"Spring Awakening" was adapted by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater from German playwright Frank Wedekind's highly controversial 1906 play of the same name.
Garza plays the role of Anna, a character, who despite her young age becomes a surrogate mother to one of the more troubled boys. Indeed, Garza's easygoing manner, dark hair and compassionate eyes give her a kind of earth mother look.
"It wasn't too hard to get into the mind-set of an angsty teenager," Garza says. "Because I thought about what I was at that age. I clearly remembered what Anna is going through."
For the past year, Garza has been touring the country in the show and living the actor's traveling life.
"It has been very exciting," Garza says. "Growing up in Naperville, I had never been west of Texas. Our first half of the tour was all West Coast. It was Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, LA. It has been great traveling the country."
And it is the realization of Garza's dream.
"When I first saw 'Ragtime' in the eighth grade, I just loved what I saw." Garza says. "The actors on stage seemed so spectacular. But I could see myself in a few years there doing it, too. I was like, 'I am going to be on Broadway.'"
Garza is not on Broadway yet, but she is well on her way with a role in the first national tour of a Broadway show. It doesn't get much better than that.
• "Spring Awakening" runs Tuesday, Aug. 4 to Sunday, Aug. 16 at the Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph, Chicago. Tickets are available at all Broadway In Chicago box offices (24 W. Randolph St., 151 W. Randolph St. and 18 W. Monroe St.); the Broadway In Chicago Ticket Line at (312) 902-1400; all Ticketmaster retail locations (including Hot Tix and select Carson Pirie Scott, Coconuts and fye stores); and online at BroadwayInChicago.com.