About Us

Our Mission...

Olmsted Performing Arts' mission is to instruct, develop, and advance acting, music, and dance skills, to edify and positively affect all individuals involved in our organization, and to motivate staff, students, and volunteers to work at their best ability. We seek to serve the community with quality and affordable entertainment and to create a safe environment. Our practices are designed to build character, build confidence, build relationships, and encourage creative expression. Our goal is to operate a successful organization without compromising our values.

Director's Vision

I never imagined OPA would get so far so fast; it has been a wonderful experience! I love everything about our theater and am excited to see where we are going. Our biggest goal for the future is to have our own facility, where we can have main stage productions for youth and adults. We also hope to offer classes in dance, voice, instruments, arts, crafts and other kinds of fine arts. We have big dreams that may be a distance away, but we are determined to get there and to have fun in the process.

Interested in working with Olmsted Performing Arts? Please email résumé to Angela Boehm.

How to Contact Us

By email - click on any of the staff below to contact by email!
By phone - 440-465-3355
By mail - Olmsted Performing Arts, PO Box 38265, Olmsted Falls, OH 44138
Board of Director for Customer Service issues : Contact Toni Fenimore 440-465-3355

Our Staff

Angela Boehm (Artistic Director, Main Stage Director)

Angela Boehm is no stranger to the stage. She started young, performing in her high school theater program, at the Beck Center, and at Huntington Playhouse. She attended a college in Albany, NY and Tri-C in Parma. She has directed shows for Olmsted Performing Arts for five years. She is passionate about musical theater and loves working with children and young adults. She would like to thank God for her family and for the many people who support her career.








Aaron Calafato (Summer 2010 Youth Stage Director, Acting Fundamentals, Improvisation Instructor)

Aaron Calafato, born in Berea, Ohio, is also a native of Medina, Ohio. Aaron is a Bowling Green State University Theater/Film Alumnus who has been training and working as an actor for the last three years in New York City. Aaron professionally trained at HB studio and most recently, at the Michael Howard Studios Conservatory Program. He has performed in Television (The Bronx is Burning), NYC Theater (The Maderati, Shadows, Relative Insanity), New Jersey Regional Theater (The Glass Menagerie), Independent films (No Faces, Forgotten Promise), and as a voice-over artist. Aaron was directed in a staged reading by, acting guru, Larry Moss at the Producers Club in New York City. Some of his former instructors include Austin Pendleton (My Cousin Vinny, A Beautiful Mind), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck, Steel Magnolias), and Karl Bury (The Majestic, Brotherhood). Regionally, Aaron played Karl Lindner in Lorrain Hansberry’s, “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Civic Center in Cleveland Heights. Local actor and playwright Nina Domingue (Glover) directed the play. Aaron has been constructing, writing, and developing a solo piece entitled, “You Can See the World from Cleveland”. He was commissioned to perform the reading through the Cleveland Public Theater’s “Little Box Program”. In February, he will be directed by Terrence Spivey in “The Great White Hope” portraying District Attorney Cameron at Karamu in Cleveland Ohio. Aaron also serves as an acting instructor at Solon Center for the Arts, and is a teaching artist for Weathervane Playhouse as part of its theater outreach program.

Judy Crandall (Vocal Music Director)

Judy Crandall has been a music educator in the public schools for the past twenty-eight years. She began teaching in Maple Heights before becoming the director of the Olmsted Falls Middle School choral program. Over the next nineteen years, she taught students in the building which is now the police station and community center. She then took over the High School choral program where she directs the Chorale, Treble Choir, Concert Choir, Mens Ensemble, and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Choirs under her direction have earned consistent high ratings at district and state level adjudicated events and several groups have been invited to perform at state music education conventions. She is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the International Association of Jazz Educators and the Ohio Music Educators Association, and serves as an adjudicator for OMEA. She is listed in “Who’s Who of American Teachers”. She currently serves also as musical director for the Olmsted Falls High School Masquers. Her favorite thing about teaching and directing is watching cast members surpass their personal best time after time after time.


Gina Glazer (Operations and Front of the House Manager)

Christina Haviland (Assistant Director, Main Stage)

Christina's love of theater began with her first production at the age of 13, in Aurora Community Summer program's The King and I (Aurora, Colorado). After graduating High School, Christina received education at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in California. She has performed in community theaters in Colorado, California and Ohio, and finds the work greatly rewarding as it both deepens a "neighborly connection" and allows her to share her passion and talent for the stage.








Morgan Haviland (Hip Hop Dance Instructor)











Cathy Hongosh (Stage Manager, Main and Youth Stages)

Cathy has worked with OPA since 2003, as a parent volunteer and then as stage manager for Guys and Dolls, Once Upon A Mattress, West Side Story, and Babes in Toyland, High School Musical, Beauty and the Beast, Annie Get Your Gun, Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, High School Musical 2, the reprise of Beauty and the Beast and It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas. She feels blessed to be able to combine two of her favorite things, kids and musical theater. Cathy is an RN working as a school nurse, and lives in Olmsted Township. She is married to Ron, and is mom to 3 beautiful daughters who also love to be involved in musical theater.







Jacquelynn Hongosh (Graphic Designer, Lighting Designer, Webmaster)

Jacquelynn is proud to be a part of Olmsted Performing Arts' creative team. With Olmsted Performing Arts since 2003, she has stage managed and designed lighting for over a dozen productions, has designed show posters and marketing materials since 2007 and served as OPA's webmaster beginning in 2009. Other credits, with Grove City College and Olmsted Falls High School, include lighting design for Proof and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and stage management for Little Shop of Horrors. She holds a degree from Grove City College and currently works for Oberlin College.








Megan Hyde (Jazz Dance Instructor, Youth Stage Choreographer) Megan, a veteran of the Olmsted Performing Arts theatre and dance programs, is thrilled to be joining the dance instruction staff and her passion for dance grows more every day. Choreographer for 2009's production of Aristocats Kids, Megan will be returning this season and sharing her talents with the casts of Into the Woods Junior and Disney’s Mulan.








Michelle Mannino (Ballet Dance Instructor, Modern Dance Instructor, Dance Program Administrator)

Michelle graduated from Hope College (Holland, MI) with a major in Dance Performance/Choreography and a minor in instrumental music. While at Hope, Michelle studied modern, period, and social dance in addition to ballet, tap, and jazz. She also enjoyed performing in many of the dance concerts put on by the Hope Dance Department each year. Michelle began dancing at the age of three and has been teaching for about nine years. She also served as a choreographer with Kids Healing Kids for two years. Currently, she enjoys performing with the Duffy Liturgical Dance Ensemble here in Cleveland. Michelle is excited to join the dance department of OPA as a ballet instructor.





Kelleigh Miller (Dance Instructor)

Kelleigh is glad to join the Cleveland community after 13 years of being a professional performer in New York City. Her resume highlights include: hosting for the Travel Channel, performing with the New York City Opera, Off Broadway with a comedy improv troupe, and co-writing a feature film. She has been seen performing across the country in national tours, and around the globe, including a stint as a performer for Disney in Japan. She loves teaching people new ways to move and embrace the stage.










Erin Quellhorst (Hip Hop Dance Instructor, Jazz Dance Instructor, Tap Dance Instructor, Lyrical Dance Instructor)

Erin is originally from New Bremen, Ohio and currently resides in North Royalton. She has been studying dance for 24 years. For four years, she performed at Cedar Point in the summer live entertainment shows as a singer/dancer. Erin was nominated as Best Female Performer for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

She graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Music Therapy degree and a Dance Performance major. She’s also had the privilege of performing in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the National Dance Education Organization Conference. She was recognized as a top student in the dance and music departments and given the opportunity to represent both departments in the University Symposium Concert for four years, a prestigious and invitation-only performance opportunity. In college, she studied jazz, ballet, pointe ballet, tap, and hip hop. During high school, she studied with two local dance studios for 15 years and focused her studies on jazz, ballet, pointe ballet, tap, tumbling and lyrical during those years.

Currently, Erin works full-time at The Music Settlement in University Circle on Cleveland’s east side. She teaches dance classes for typically developed children and teens, as well as tailoring the classes for individuals with special needs from ages 24 months to older adult. During the summer, she teaches dance and choreographs for camps and musical theater groups in the Department of Early Childhood and Department of Music Therapy. In addition to her dance training and experience, Erin is a Board-Certified Music Therapist. Erin is excited to share her passion of dance and musical talents with the dedicated dancers of Olmsted Performing Arts.


Robert M. Smith (Voice and Contemporary Acting Instructor)

Robert is a professional actor, director, and choreographer. Robert is finishing his third year in the Master of Fine Arts Acting Program at the University of Florida. In May, you can also catch him performing in New York at the UF Showcase at New World Stages. At UF, some of his favorite roles included Dudard in Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, Medley in The Man of Mode; or Sir Fopling Flutter, Jess in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), and the Sam in Vincent in Brixton. Robert has also worked professionally at The Hippodrome State Theatre, in the classic A Christmas Carol as Fred, Christmas Future, and Young Scrooge. Robert received his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln from the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. He performed multiple times at the Lied Center of Performing Arts. He also was able to perform professionally with Rough Magic Productions.





Janet Strukely (Main Stage Choreographer, Ballet Dance Instructor, Dance Company Choreographer)

Janet Strukely has been dancing professionally for 8 years and has over 6 years of teaching and choreography experience across the Midwest. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Mercyhurst College with a B.A. in Dance in 2004, she joined the Saint Louis Ballet under the direction of Gen Horiuchi. She is currently performing with Ohio Dance Theatre, where she is the focal point of director Denise Gula’s newest piece, “Silent Witness,” that is touring throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania. Strukely’s career highlights include the Sugar Plum Fairy in “The Nutcracker,” the title role in “Cinderella,” and Waltz Girl in Balanchine’s “Serenade.” As a teacher, Strukely brings a strong sense of technique, anatomical knowledge and artistic presence to the classroom. In addition to being on faculty at Olmsted Performing Arts, School of Ohio Dance Theatre, Cleveland Ballet Conservatory, and teaching various master classes, Strukely heads the “Kids in Motion” program in Lorain County, where she teaches the National Dance Institute’s Methodology developed by Jaques D’Amboise in public elementary schools in the underprivileged communities in Northeast Ohio.

History

Olmsted Performing Arts began in 2003 as theater classes held at Olmsted Community Center. The first production was The Sound of Music, in summer of 2003. After that, shows began to sell out, and it was obvious that a bigger place was needed. Four dedicated parents met to evaluate the situation, and try to find a solution that would benefit both the cast and crew, and the audience. Currently, auditions and rehearsals are still being held at Olmsted Community Center, and performances have been held at River Church since summer, 2005. OPA is thrilled to be able to use River's state of the art theater, which holds 1200 people.

Since its beginning in 2003, OPA has grown to attract over 100 youth at each audition, a staff of 12-15 people, a crew of wonderful volunteers, and a growing audience. Its focus has been, and will continue to be, a solid program that strives to focus on the kids who participate and to constantly provide them with an experience in keeping with its mission statement.