Kat Largent (’17) grew up as a theater kid directing plays in high school, working backstage, and doing tech work. In college, she worked for Waco Civic Theatre at night and on weekends, doing public relations and filling in wherever she was needed. Now she’s living the dream of every “theater nerd” who ever imagined a career in New York City, where the neon lights are bright and there’s magic in the air on Broadway, to paraphrase George Benson.
“I am, by nature, a person who needs stability and a predictable source of income,” said Largent, who looked for a job that would allow her to stay connected to the theater while offering a regular paycheck.
She found it at Playbill magazine where she was hired as a digital media coordinator, largely trafficking ads and executing ad campaigns to run on the company’s website.Now, more than five years later, she’s working as a media planner at TodayTix, a ticketing platform that has tasked her with helping spin up a digital marketing agency for Broadway shows, cultural institutions, and arts organizations.
Growing up in Houston, Largent wasn’t even sure she wanted to go to college, but her parents encouraged her to apply to Baylor. “When I visited the campus, everyone seemed so welcoming and happy that I thought they were all paid actors,” she said with a laugh, though she allows that she became just like them once she was a student there. “The atmosphere is just so positive.”
During a semester abroad in London, Largent worked as an intern at an agency that did PR for the music industry. “Slash from Guns N’ Roses was one of our clients,” she said. Backstage at a Def Leppard concert she saw Brian Mays, Queen’s lead guitarist and backing vocalist, chatting with members of the band and thought, “What is my life right now?” When her work-study program came to an end, Largent knew that she wanted to live in London someday. “It’s my favorite city in the world,” she said. So, after graduating from Baylor with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, she enrolled at the London College of Communication to pursue a master’s degree in media communications.
While taking classes, she worked for an agency that did marketing for theaters in London’s West End. “I kept working for them after I graduated, and I would have stayed except for Visa issues,” she said. “So I went back to Texas to recalibrate.” She found the opening for a digital media coordinator at Playbill on a jobs board that lists both onstage and administrative theatrical positions. Even now, she can’t believe she landed the job fresh out of grad school. “I thought that’s where my career might be headed in 10 years,” she said of the pinch-me moment when she received the offer from Playbill.
In her capacity as media planner for TodayTix, her role is to create media plans. “When we get a budget approved, I help figure out where to allocate the dollars and how to spend them, but I also act like a media buyer,” she said. “Working in the arts can be crazy and wild, but I love it.”
While one of the perks of Largent’s job is the occasional free ticket to a Broadway show, more often than not she finds discounted tickets online. Recently she saw Gun & Powder at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse. Set in post-emancipation Texas, the musical was inspired by the story of legendary outlaws Mary and Martha Clarke, African American twin sisters who passed as white, defying racial boundaries to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and seize what rightfully belonged to them.
“I loved it,” said Largent, who plans to see it “a thousand more times” when it comes to Broadway. “It had the best singing I’ve ever heard at any show, and the director, Stevie Walker-Webb, is from Waco.” Early in his career, the Obie Award-winning director and playwright was the founding artistic director of the Jubilee Theatre, which has been called a beacon of hope and creativity in the Waco community.
Aside from Alicia Keys on her Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen, Kat hasn’t worked with any other major celebrities. “She’s really involved in the whole process and asks really smart questions when she comes in for meetings every week,” Largent said of Keys. “I haven’t met her, but I’ve been in meetings where we’re on a call with her, and she just seems so cool.”
Aside from Alicia Keys on her Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen, Kat hasn’t worked with any other major celebrities. “She’s really involved in the whole process and asks really smart questions when she comes in for meetings every week,” Largent said of Keys. “I haven’t met her, but I’ve been in meetings where we’re on a call with her, and she just seems so cool.”
Star sightings, which come with the territory if you live in New York City, are a whole other story. “One of the coolest ones was on opening night for Hell’s Kitchen,” she said. “Michelle Obama and Oprah were there! They walked by, and we were all like, ‘Is that—?’”
One thing Largent knows for sure is that her Baylor education laid the foundation for the life she’s living now. Aside from the hard skills that enabled her to find meaningful work, she also acquired what are called “soft skills,” or people skills like teamwork, communication, adaptability and critical thinking, which enables us to look at different points of view, remain open-minded, and respect evidence and reasoning. Learning to think critically about art, Largent said, has allowed her to see the work she does as an opportunity to be a positive force in the world.
As for her big-picture plans, she’s still figuring it out, though she doesn’t see herself leaving New York anytime soon. “I love the theater, and I love being so close to Broadway, so I think I’ll stay put for a while.”
