Dr. Patrick Preston stands, script in hand, on the Tilden Arts Center stage. (Melanie Singer)
By Wil Moser
Less than 50 feet separate the Tilden Arts Center and the Nickerson Administration Building at 4Cs. For Dr. Patrick Preston, that short walk marks the transition from chief human resources officer to stage actor.
By day, Preston serves as the mild-mannered senior vice president and chief human resources officer. By night, he heads to the Tilden main stage, script in hand, rehearsing for the spring musical, “Come From Away.”
Performance, he said, has always been part of his life.
“I grew up in Dorchester as one of eight children,” Preston said. “My father’s family immigrated from Ireland in the late ’50s, and most of them were Irish musicians.”
With limited theater opportunities nearby, Preston didn’t act in his first production until age 17. He later enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Boston, graduating in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in theater after briefly switching majors to history.
“I kept flip-flopping majors,” he said. “I’m sure I drove the registrar crazy.”
At UMass Boston, Preston met his wife, Eileen. The couple performed for several years with The Haley Murder Mystery Company, an improv troupe that toured throughout New England and parts of New York.
“We probably did that for three or four years,” Preston said.
They married in 1993 and moved to the West Coast before eventually returning to Massachusetts to raise their family closer to home.
Preston’s academic pursuits continued alongside his career. Inspired in part by Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary series, he earned a master’s degree in public history from Northeastern University. Later, while working as a program coordinator at Bay State College, he completed a doctorate in law and policy at Northeastern. After relocating to Falmouth in 2017, he earned an MBA from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“I’m sure I’ll feel this way until the day I die,” Preston said. “There’ll always be something else I want to study.”
After focusing on career and family, Preston returned to the stage following a 20-year hiatus.
“There was a show at Falmouth Theatre Guild — ‘Blithe Spirit’ — and my wife said, ‘We should audition,’” he said. “We got cast. It had literally been 20 years.”
Preston said he keeps his administrative and artistic roles separate.
“What we do here is a continuation of this love of lifelong learning,” he said. “You don’t bring the day job into the evening. It’s not like I close the door and start with my scales– I don’t think anyone would like that. One does not bleed into the other.”
He encourages students — and colleagues — to pursue new interests at any stage of life.
“When you get to whatever age, people feel like they cannot do something because they didn’t do it before,” Preston said. “Well, here’s your start. Get started, and don’t ever stop.”
One can find Dr. Preston on campus– not just in his office in the Nickerson Administration building (maybe practicing his scales), but also at the Tilden Arts stage, performing alongside faculty and students.
His advice to give is simple:
“If you’re interested in something, study it. Learn it. For your personal development, don’t ever stop learning.”
