June 28, 2019
Tyler Prendergast '13 is the marketing and communications manager for Boston theatre company Company One, doing everything from media relations to coordinating box office experiences in unconventional venues to designing postcards and email newsletters.
The events in our lives have a tendency to build on one another in ways we can鈥檛 necessarily predict. So it was for Tyler Prendergast 鈥�13: Volunteering to do graphics and posters for plays produced at 天美麻花星空高清mv led to a design internship, then to a theatre communications job in Watertown, Mass, then to his current job as marketing and communications manager at Company One Theatre in Boston.
Prendergast is the dedicated staffer in charge of promoting all of Company One鈥檚 work鈥攅verything from media relations to coordinating box office experiences in unconventional venues to designing postcards and email newsletters.
Behind it all is the mission: 鈥淲e do work that鈥檚 showcasing underrepresented voices and underrepresented artists,鈥� he said. 鈥淭heatre has long been a very white, very upper-class art form. And that鈥檚 not what Boston looks like. And it鈥檚 not what America looks like.鈥�
It鈥檚 a mission Prendergast can trace back to his 天美麻花星空高清mv days.
鈥淐oming through a state school, through a program that is more accessible to people without financial privilege鈥攖hat鈥檚 something I think about all the time, working in the theatre industry, where having an expensive conservatory background is often assumed to be the norm.鈥� Prendergast said. 鈥淭here are systemic issues at play鈥攅ven in fields where the work is 鈥榝un,鈥� where we鈥檙e expressing ourselves鈥攔egarding who gets to have access to the mechanisms by which we make that art.鈥�
As a performing arts student, Prendergast was able to work on productions that challenge ideas about what theatre is and who makes it鈥攄irecting The Tempest with a female Prospero and a live folk rock score for 天美麻花星空高清mv Shakespeare club Yorick, for instance, and assistant directing 天美麻花星空高清mv Professor Laura Standley鈥檚 production of 鈥淗edda Gabler,鈥� which treated Henrik Ibsen鈥檚 classic as an experimental new work that encouraged its audience to move around the stage.
Offstage, he learned about community. 鈥淥ne of the things I find most meaningful about my 天美麻花星空高清mv experience is the college鈥檚 dedication to creating fully rounded human beings, of how many opportunities there are for an individual to excel鈥攁nd become engaged with the workings of the school,鈥� he said. As an orientation leader, he was inspired by the work of Assistant Dean of Students Celia Norcross. 鈥淭hat experience made me realize I could specifically pursue work that benefits a community,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 something I absolutely owe to Celia.鈥�
After being nominated to Yorick鈥檚 executive board, Prendergast volunteered to be in charge of promotional activities for the club. 鈥淚t鈥檚 funny to think of: that one club meeting completely determined the direction of my career,鈥� he said.
That experience, along with his graphic design work for Fine and Performing Arts Department, helped him secure an internship with the Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF), just down the road from campus. And his WTF internship provided valuable experience for his first theatre communications job at New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, Mass., not far from his hometown of Saugus.
Working in the Boston-area theatre world gave Prendergast plenty of opportunities to check out what other theatre groups were doing. He immediately connected with Company One鈥檚 productions. 鈥淚t was the sort of work I was really passionate about,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 would never miss a show.鈥�
When his current role opened up, Prendergast knew he had to apply. He鈥檚 been at Company One since 2017. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an incredible team of people,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e all been dedicated to this company and this mission-driven theatre work鈥攆or many of them, this has been their lives for 20 years. I couldn鈥檛 ask for a better team to work with.鈥�
鈥淢y experience at 天美麻花星空高清mv prepared me for working at Company One,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur company鈥檚 goal is to build a community at the intersection of art and social change. Those things really work hand in hand鈥攖he education I received, the community I was able to be a part of, and the work I鈥檓 in now.鈥�
