The Citi Performing Arts Center – Report from the field by Cheyenne Postell, ’10

Cheyenne Postell works as a Group Sales Manager for the Citi Performing Arts Center in Boston, and she gives us an overview of her career path since graduating in 2010.

It has been 4 and a half years since I graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing and Theatre Studies with an emphasis in Dramaturgy and Directing. The summer after college I spent in the box office at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. That Fall I moved on to be a Professional Intern at the Huntington Theatre Company. During my year as a paid intern, with benefits, I worked in both the box office and in the Artistic department, doing dramaturgy. After the year as an intern was up, I became the Subscriptions Associate in the Huntington Theatre Company box office. During my year and a half as a box office manager I also held down a job as a Head Usher with ArtsEmerson, and spent Sundays in the Faneuil Hall BosTix booth. In a remarkable feat of scheduling I also managed to Assistant Direct Brokeology by Nathan Jackson at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. At this point, I decided I needed to move to a new position that would afford me more regular hours and an income that could bring me down from three jobs to one. I found the Citi Performing Arts Center; they needed a Sales Manager. I applied, but did not have any sales experience. I was confident in my abilities in ticketing and honest about what I would need to learn and got hired as the Account Executive in Group Sales. One of the best parts was that I got to work right inside the Wang Theatre. After a year and a half as the Account Executive, I was promoted to the job I had applied for in the first place, Group Sales Manager. Almost immediately after being promoted I quit my second job – while I had stopped working at BosTix I continued on with ArtsEmerson – and finally got my wish to have one regular job.

I have worked with 5 different theatre companies in 4 and a half years. At one point in my life it was a running joke with a few old professors and current colleagues that I was everywhere. And I really felt like I was, but not that it was a good thing. I would sell tickets during the day and scan them at night, all without being able to see a show myself. But then, I realized that this was not a unique situation. Almost everyone I kept in touch with after Emerson had a couple jobs or a job and a side project. The incredible thing is that we all stayed in theatre. It is tough in the beginning; I never had enough money or time. But I was doing work that felt relevant to what I had been studying, and was a part of communities that embraced (and continue to welcome) me. Now that I am out of the weeds (as they say) I am happy that I didn’t just get a job in a bank, as I often thought about doing. Sticking with theatre and the path I put myself on in 2006 (with the help of an Emerson professor) paid off. I am not yet a dramaturg. But I found a career in the theatre that will one day leave enough space in my life for taking steps toward finding a more artistic niche for myself in the community.