David Lee has served as the Producing Artistic Director at Avenue Arts since the conception of the theatre company in 2017. He has had the pleasure of working with a diverse group of actors including youngsters as the Director of the Young Actors’ Workshop each Fall and Spring. Some of his favorite directorial endeavors include “August: Osage County”, “Cry It Out”, “Next to Normal”, as well as many Young Actors’ Workshop productions, including “Shrek Jr.”, “Willy Wonka, Jr.”, “Annie, Jr.”, and “Seussical, Jr.” David also understands the importance in the development of new works and has formed a company of actors called “Underground” that performs staged readings of new works. David is a Canton native and attended Malone University where he was trained in the Michael Chekhov Technique of acting and received a B.A. in Communication, Visual and Performing Arts.

Jared Sparks has been involved in the Northeast Ohio theatre community in an array of capacities since he was a young child. Jared has performed in over 50 stage productions throughout five different counties as well as worked behind the scenes in Stage Management, Properties Design, Lighting Design, Directing and Musical Directing. Some of Jared’s favorite stage credits include Flowers For Algernon (Charlie Gordon), Hairspray (IQ), Leading Ladies (Butch Myers), and Two By Two (Japheth). Jared has also been privileged enough to direct copious amounts of talented artists in productions such as “The Laramie Project”, “The Last Five Years”, “Bent” and “The Rocky Horror Show”. Jared would like to thank everyone for the continued support of growing the arts in the community.

Sarah Jane Toy has been choreographing and teaching in the Canton area for 10+ years and currently teaches private dance lessons out of her home studio. She started performing at the age of 8 and has been involved in many aspects of theatre including directing, costuming, and set construction. Sarah Jane has also choreographed a handful of young actor's workshops at Avenue Arts Theatre such as Annie Jr., Godspell Jr., High School Musical Jr., and Sister Act Jr.

Ginette Jaramillo found her love of theatre back home in Santa Fe, NM when she began acting for Bible Alive Theater. Over the years she has done just about every role- acted, directed, props master, ran tech; and most recently been stage managing with various theatre companies across the country. After graduating from Malone University, where she was part of a traveling theatre troupe, she is currently an intervention specialist for the Stark County Educational Services Center. Ginette has enjoyed working with Avenue Arts and having the honor of stage managing the most talented actors in Northeast Ohio.

Emily’s previous productions with Avenue Arts include Cry It Out and Afterglow. Additionally, she was the Company Manager for UNDERGROUND, an Avenue Arts staged reading company. Thank you for supporting live theatre!

Linda Alexander-Radak has been serving as Avenue Arts’ Technical Director since shortly after the conception of the theatre company in 2017. Although, Linda’s set-building and design projects date back to the days when the Kathleen Howland Theatre was housed in Second April Galleries. Linda is an extraordinary artist with an array of talents that do not go unnoticed through her dedication and persistence to keep the arts alive through Avenue Arts. Linda considers herself a “chickenista” - having over 40 egg-laying chickens. She would like to thank her husband, George, who supports every hair-brained idea that she comes up with and even helps make them happen.

Michele is a retired librarian who now narrates audiobooks and indulges her love of the theater. You may have last seen her at Avenue Arts as Sonia in "Vanja and Sonia and Masha and Spike" or as Meredith in "Whitesville" on the Knight Stage She has appeared at various theatres around Northeast Ohio in productions including Lear (Lear), The Importance of Being Earnest (Miss Prism), Music Man (Eulalie Shinn), and Pride & Prejudice (Mrs. Bennet). Michele also does costume design and construction and is a general nerd who loves to read, hike and go camping. michelemcneal.com