Diplomacy on Stage

I can proudly say that I produced the first Broadway musical fully translated into Bosnian in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  

I have adored musical theater my entire life. I also have a deep passion for international relations. I am Mexican and French, and my mom worked for the Mexican government as a diplomat. I grew up in the U.S. because of her job. I’ve always felt that I was so many things at once — but never fully one of them. At the same time, I felt like I could connect to many different kinds of people from all over the world.    

My Mexican uncle introduced me to musicals. Growing up between cultures, I was navigating multiple languages at once. Sometimes speaking felt like the most difficult way to express what I was feeling. I loved musical theater because when words were no longer enough, people sang. Music felt like its own language, one that transcended all the others I was trying to navigate. That was incredibly freeing. 

Anne-Sophie Lacombe García Credit: Sanela Zukić 

I knew I wanted to study both theater and international relations, even though they did not seem to go together in an obvious way. I couldn’t choose between them.  

I am so grateful for Northwestern, because it let me pursue both with an unconventional double major in theater and international studies. But when I started thinking about a career, it terrified me that I did not see a way to combine my interests.  

Then I attended a talk by my music theater professor, Ryan Nelson, and Elizabeth Blumenthal ’92, a U.S. diplomat who had majored in theater at Northwestern. They discussed an organization founded by Ryan called Broadway Across Borders. They planned to make a musical in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the goal of strengthening connections between institutions, artists and future cultural leaders in the country.  

I left that talk with butterflies in my stomach. I called my dad and was like, “I figured it out. I can do both things. Ryan is living my exact dream: cultural diplomacy.”

Shortly after, Northwestern’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs announced a new fellowship for students and recent grads to pursue global opportunities. The fellowship provided funding, mentorship and a language-learning stipend. I was like, “This is it.”  

In August 2025 I joined Broadway Across Borders in Sarajevo. We set out to produce a musical that would resonate with Bosnian teenagers and the challenges and experiences they face, as well as provide a meaningful educational opportunity for students at the University of Sarajevo. 

I served as artistic producing associate for Be More Chill. I was responsible for marketing, rehearsals, scheduling and organizing critically important partnerships. For example, there are three arts-based academies at the University of Sarajevo — for performing arts, the fine arts and music — and they had never collaborated with one another. That was shocking to me. So I had to create a bridge between them, because you need actors, designers and musicians for a musical. 

In March we staged three performances at the Sarajevo Youth Theatre. There was a palpable sense of excitement, as though people were witnessing not just a musical but also the growth of a new creative economy. The United Nations Population Fund in Bosnia and Herzegovina then organized a conference to help facilitate more seamless collaborations in theater between local institutions. Now that it’s 30 years after the Bosnian war, the country is ready to thrive.  

I feel so honored that I was chosen for this fellowship. It has changed my life. I get emotional thinking about this, because my mom passed away when I was 13 and this would have made her the happiest. This is exactly what she would have wanted for me. 

Northwestern gave me the opportunity to study theater and international relations — a rare combination. And Buffett gave me the opportunity to develop expertise in a profession that exists at the intersection of those fields. It showed me that the career I had always hoped existed was actually possible. Now I can enter the field of cultural diplomacy saying, “I know what I’m doing. Hire me, and let’s make this happen.”  

Anne-Sophie Lacombe García ’25 was selected for the Buffett Post-Baccalaureate Fellowship, established in 2025 by Northwestern’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. She spent eight months in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, working with Broadway Across Borders to produce Be More Chill. Lacombe García starred in the Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts’ spring 2025 production of Man of La Mancha.