Broadway PR firm Polk & Co.'s founder and president, Matt Polk, has just announced that Tom D'Ambrosio, Wayne Wolfe, Frances White and Colgan McNeil will be joining the public relations, media strategies and social media firm. Beginning January 6, 2014, the four press agents, formerly of The Hartman Group, will join the existing company of five including press agents Jessica Johnson and Michelle Bergmann.
With D'Ambrosio, Wolfe, White and McNeil joining the publicity firm, Polk & Co. will now officially represent Wicked and the upcoming Broadway productions of Rocky, If/Then and The Velocity of Autumn as well as off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre.
The Polk & Co. team was also awarded representation of the off-Broadway hit Buyer & Cellar, joining the line-up of productions that includes Bronx Bombers, Of Mice and Men and Bedlam's Saint Joan & Hamlet.
Additionally, Polk & Co. represents Roundabout Theatre Company and their productions of Machinal, Cabaret, Violet, The Real Thing, Bad Jews, Dinner with Friends and Too Much, Too Much, Too Many.
Additional clients include Birdland Jazz Club, By Experience, Production & Set Designer Derek McLane and John Stamos.
TOM D'AMBROSIO has been a theatre publicist for over 20 years, representing productions both on and off-Broadway. A graduate of Syracuse University, he previously worked at The Hartman Group, Barlow/Hartman, Richard Kornberg & Associates, James LL Morrison & Associates, Bill Evans, and Jeffrey Richards & Associates. He currently represents Wicked, If/Then, Rocky, and Second Stage Theatre. Past productions include Sister Act, Next to Normal, Come Fly Away, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, Metamorphoses, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and The Little Dog Laughed, among many others.
Wayne Wolfe began his career in 1990 working for Shirley Herz, and over the past 23 years has worked for Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Mary Bryant, Livent, Barlow/Hartman and The Hartman Group representing 40 Broadway productions and over 100 Off-Broadway productions. Wolfe represented the original Broadway productions of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Barrymore, Ragtime, Fosse, The Full Monty, King Hedley II, Sweet Smell of Success, Hollywood Arms, Dance of the Vampires, The Retreat From Moscow, Anna in the Tropics, Lestat, In The Heights, 9 To 5, A Steady Rain, Donny & Marie - A Broadway Christmas, Ann, First Date and Big Fish. He has represented the Broadway revivals of A Chorus Line; West Side Story; How To Succeed...; Promises, Promises; Fiddler on the Roof; Show Boat; Noises Off; Medea and Macbeth. Wolfe is a graduate of Hofstra University and a member of ATPAM.
Frances White has been a Broadway publicist for the last five years at The Hartman Group, working on such hits as Billy Elliot; Memphis; Elf; Sister Act; Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway; Lysistrata Jones and The Trip To Bountiful. She currently works on Wicked and the Off-Broadway Second Stage Theatre as well as the upcoming shows Rocky and If/Then. She is a graduate of Emerson College.
COLGAN McNEIL began his theatrical publicity career in 2012 and is thrilled to join the team at Polk & Co! Colgan previously worked with Disney Theatrical Group and The Hartman Group, where he contributed to the publicity campaigns for Ann starring 2013 Tony Award nominee and Emmy Award winner Holland Taylor, Big Fish and Murder For Two. He is a proud graduate of Hofstra University.
Jessica Johnson began her career at Boneau/Bryan-Brown in 2003 and is a founding member of Polk & Co. As a press agent for Roundabout Theatre Company for ten years, she has contributed to over 100 publicity campaigns including the Tony-winning revivals of The Pajama Game & Anything Goes. At Boneau/Bryan-Brown she also managed the U.S. publicity campaigns for National Theatre Live (and the National's Broadway production of One Man, Two Guvnors); the Royal Shakespeare Company (and their 2011 New York repertory engagement); and additional theatrical cinema events such as Barrymore with Christopher Plummer and The Importance of Being Earnest with Brian Bedford. Jessica is a member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers. She has a B.S. in Marketing Communications from Emerson College.
MICHELLE BERGMANN began her career as a theatre publicist in 2007. A graduate of Emerson College, Michelle has previously worked with Disney Theatrical Productions, The Hartman Group, Barlow/Hartman and Roundabout Theatre Company. She has represented numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions including: Newsies, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Wicked, Next to Normal, Billy Elliot, Sister Act, Come Fly Away, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, ...Spelling Bee, Boeing-Boeing, Young Frankenstein, Slava's Snowshow, Guys & Dolls, Radio Golf and A Moon for the Misbegotten.
Matt Polk is the founder and president of Polk & Co, a public relations agency specializing in public relations, media strategies and social media. He began his theatrical publicity career in 1998 working on Disney's Tony Award winning production of The Lion King. Additional press campaigns for Tony Award winning productions include Once, Anything Goes, Assassins, Nine and The Pajama Game. Polk worked at Boneau/Bryan-Brown for 14 years as Vice President of Account Services focusing on commercial and not-for-profit projects including Disney Theatrical Productions and DreamWorks. 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 to 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 manages celebrity publicity campaigns including John Stamos, philanthropic cause related campaigns including the Pink Well Challenge and has coordinated outreach campaigns for film production companies including Focus Features. www.polkandco.com
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