OAKLAND CENTER Former director is ready to move on

Through her grief, she found the resolve to change the course of her life.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Sandy Vansuch says she's never had a chance to "just take some time for me. It's never been my style. I've always gone ahead to the next thing."
Now, the next thing on her agenda is ... nothing.
Vansuch recently resigned from Oakland Center for the Arts, the theater group she founded in 1987.
She plans to take the summer off, then resume teaching theater classes this fall at Penn State University Shenango Campus in Sharon, Pa. When she eventually returns to a theater, she says, it will be in a different capacity.
It's a startling change for Vansuch, who as the Oakland's artistic director has been busy selecting plays, choosing casts, directing shows and building sets.
Besides teaching, she also worked for many years as a member of the local stagehands' union and led a professional touring children's theater company.
Her resignation from the Oakland wasn't borne of discontent with her job, but a need for peace after some sorrowful events in her life.
Difficult year
Vansuch was interviewed exactly one year to the day after she lost a dear friend. Pat Tomillo, an Oakland founder and board member, died of a brain tumor.
So far this year, Vansuch has dealt with two more blows -- the sudden deaths of her mother, who had lived here, and a beloved aunt in New Jersey.
"I am emotionally and physically whipped," said Vansuch, 55, her elbows resting on a white cloth-covered table at Jo & eacute; Restaurant on Belmont Avenue.
"I don't feel old, but I feel like I need to shift gears."
During Vansuch's leadership, the Oakland forged its reputation on nontraditional, contemporary, sometimes edgy productions.
Earlier this season, the Oakland offered "The Laramie Project," which was based on the murder of a gay college student in Wyoming. "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," about a rock singer whose gender-altering surgery was unsuccessful, will be presented in June.
Productions of comedies "Nunsense" and "Tony n' Tina's Wedding" were so popular that those shows were revived, sometimes repeatedly.
The Oakland also gave the premiere performances of an original play, "The Romeo and Juliet War" by Boardman native Michael Dempsey, and collaborated on bigger shows with other arts groups.
Last show
Vansuch didn't know that "Fiddler on the Roof," which the Oakland co-produced with Ballet Western Reserve in April, would be her last show.
It was special to her because "I wanted to do [it] all my life," she said. Her parents loved the musical. (Her father died around the time the Oakland was founded.)
Auditions for "Fiddler" occurred just after Vansuch's mother's death in January. That was a welcome diversion from her grief, she said.
Vansuch's aunt, who lived alone, passed away during rehearsals. "That really threw me for a loop," she said.
As executor of her aunt's estate, Vansuch has had to travel to New Jersey several times to take care of matters. During her absences, her work shifted to Anita Lin, the ballet's artistic director, and music director Gary Kekel. Vansuch's real-life drama had an impact on the cast and crew.
"I never saw a group of people rally and bond in such a way," Vansuch said. "They were there for me, too. ... They rallied around me in a way I've never known in my life."
That's also when she made up her mind to end her tenure at the Oakland. Before that, "I thought maybe I'd take the summer off. My aunt dying really put the cap on it.
"In an odd way, it opened some doors for me," Vansuch said, her eyes tearing. "I don't have anyone to take care of."
Except, finally, herself.
Staying in area
Vansuch isn't planning to leave the area. She has a home on the North Side as well as some relatives and many friends. She'd like to act in some shows.
She's thinking about writing her own works; characters in her Russian family and events in her theater career would serve as inspirations.
She may return to the Oakland as a guest director, but she doesn't want to supervise one show after another, she said.
Asked about her favorite Oakland productions, "You know what, I'm glad I did it all," she said. A highlight for her as a director was the Stephen Sondheim musical "Sweeney Todd," based on the legend of a barber who slit his customers' throats and his lover who made meat pies of their corpses.
Vansuch calls herself "a lucky person" to have worked at the Oakland.
"I've never made a lot of money but, for 17 years, I've had a job where I could pretty much do what I wanted to do."
The Oakland's mission of being a home for creative expression and diverse artistic vision will continue, board president Dennis Clouse said.
"She helped us to establish a relationship with the creative community and the community at large," Clouse said.
As news of Vansuch's departure has spread, people have offered their help so that the Oakland not only continues, but thrives. "That's a good thing," he added.
That's as it should be in Vansuch's view.
"If the Oakland can't function without me, then it's my fault," she said. "The Oakland isn't me."
shaulis@vindy.com