Industry News: New PR Firm Polk & Company to Open; Clients Include Roundabout & More

Longtime public relations professional Matt Polk has launched Polk & Company, a new public relations and media strategies office to open on Monday, January 14, 2013.

With a 15-year career that began at Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Matt Polk began working on Disney's The Lion King during its first year and went on to create, execute and manage publicity campaigns for a wide range of corporate, commercial and not-for profit productions and clients including Disney, DreamWorks, Roundabout Theatre Company, The Heiress and Once. Additionally, he has created numerous publicity campaigns for notable celebrities and producers, cultural institutions, film/television projects and philanthropic causes.

Effective January 14th, Polk & Company will represent all of Roundabout Theatre Company's productions, including The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Picnic, Talley's Folly, The Big Knife and the national tour of the 2011 Tony Award winning musical Anything Goes. The firm will also work with producer David Binder (A Raisin In the Sun; 33 Variations) on some of his future commercial projects.

From Matt Polk: "I am eternally grateful to Chris Boneau and Adrian Bryan-Brown, who have been my mentors for the last 15 years. I have learned from the most respected and accomplished experts in the business. I made the decision to leave my professional family in order to grow, and to continue to challenge myself and further my personal commitment to my current and future clients."

Polk will be joined by Broadway publicist Jessica Johnson, who began her career at Boneau/Bryan-Brown in 2003 and most recently managed the publicity for Broadway's One Man, Two Guvnors; National Theatre Live, Royal Shakespeare Company and Barrymore with Christopher Plummer. She has also served as a press agent for Roundabout for 10 years.

Polk & Company specializes in public relations, media strategies and social media. Focused on the client's goals, with an emphasis on strategic and creative thinking, Polk & Company serves to develop, position and communicate a strong identity for the client across all media platforms.??

Matt Polk began his theatrical publicity career working on Disney's Tony Award winning production of The Lion King, and most recently managed the press campaigns for the Tony Award winning productions of Anything Goes and Once. For the past 15 years, he's worked at Boneau/Bryan-Brown as Vice President of Account Services focusing on commercial and not-for-profit projects. Matt managed theatrical publicity accounts for Disney Theatrical Productions, DreamWorks and a variety of independent commercial producers. Over the last decade, he managed the publicity team for NY's largest not-for-profit theatrical institution Roundabout Theatre Company, and served as a national consultant for Arena Stage in Washington D.C. during their inaugural year at the Mead Center for American Theatre. Matt has consulted on national tours of both plays and Tony Award winning musical productions. He has also managed celebrity personal publicity campaigns, philanthropic cause related campaigns including the Pink Well Challenge and has coordinated outreach campaigns for film production companies including Focus Features. Tony Award winning productions include: Anything Goes, Assassins, The Lion King, Nine, Once and The Pajama Game. Broadway productions include: The Heiress, That Championship Season; 33 Variation; Kiss Me, Kate; The Music Man; Shrek the Musical. Roundabout Theatre Company credits include: 110 in the Shade, The 39 Steps, Anything Goes(Broadway & national tour), The Apple Tree, Bad Jews, Big River, Brief Encounter, Cabaret, Cyrano de Bergerac, Harvey, The Importance of Being Earnest, Intimate Apparel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Picnic, Sons of the Prophet, Sunday in the Park with George, Tigers Be Still, Twelve Angry Men (Broadway & national tour), Waiting for Godot and Wishful Drinking.