Playhouse Square's Kristen Jantonio Finds Strength and Inspiration Through the Power of Theater

Ohio-native Kristen Jantonio serves as the Communications Manager at Playhouse Square, Cleveland’s vibrant hub for the performing arts. Her career has been marked by a dedication to storytelling and community connection, with behind-the-scenes roles at WEWS-TV in Cleveland, Meet the Press in Washington, DC, and the Today Show in New York City.

In her early-30s, Jantonio was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, a challenge she has met with grace and determination. Balancing her illness with advocacy work and professional responsibilities, she finds solace in her work at Playhouse Square, a place where stories of strength come to life on stage every day, just as she lives her own journey of resilience.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How did you get interested in theater to begin with? Was your first show at Playhouse Square?
My very first show was at Playhouse Square. We saw Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby, and I still have the program. My younger sister and I were completely captivated. The second show we saw, probably a handful of years later, was South Pacific with Robert Goulet. At that time, we didn’t know how big of a deal Robert Goulet was. We were like “Oh, yeah, he’s really good.”

Every Sunday, we would go to my grandparents’ house, and they had six VHS tapes that were musicals. Any time we were there, we’d be watching Sound of Music, Annie, My Fair Lady, and we just loved everything about them…Having Playhouse Square so close to us, we were lucky to have that exposure. It’s something we all enjoy doing together as a family, and we still do. That’s the music that we’re playing in our house. If we’re on a road trip, we put on Hamilton or Bridges of Madison County. It’s brings us all together.

What did you do before you joined the marketing team at Playhouse Square?
I went to John Carroll University and they have a fellowship for one graduating senior to work at NBC Nightly News for a calendar year in honor of Tim Russert. I was lucky enough to have been chosen for that. From there, I went to New York and worked as a researcher at the Today Show for three years before returning to Cleveland.

If you’re comfortable talking about your illness, please share with the readers what you have been going through.
In 2021, I was working an unusual shift and I started to notice I was tired and wasn’t hungry very much. I kept attributing it to work. After a few months had gone by, I went to my general practitioner and my OB/GYN and they were like “No, everything’s fine. You’re young, you’re healthy.” At the end of that year, I had to go to the hospital because I was in so much pain, and it came to be that I had ovarian cancer. It’s still shocking to hear it today. We don’t have a family history, I exercise, I eat healthy enough.

And then to hear that it was at an advanced stage, I was like “How was this missed?” After talking with doctors, they type of ovarian cancer that I had was slow growing, so we weren’t able to detect it. There is no early detection for ovarian cancer. People think that a pap smear will find it, but that’s not accurate. Surgery is the only definitive way to diagnose it.

Typically, ovarian cancer effects women who are in their mid-50s, mid-60s, or who have a family history or the BRCA gene mutuation. Younger people — I was diagnosed in my early 30s — only account for four-and-a-half percent of new cases of the type of cancer I had. It’s a very small amount and so very rare, so we still don’t understand to this day how and why.

Tell me about your advocacy work.
Originally, I felt alone in this journey, because it seemed like no one my age was going through this. When I was having chemotherapy in 2022, I found an organization called Outrun Ovarian Cancer, and they raise funds for research and education here in Northeast Ohio. Their big annual event is 5K race, and I thought “Come August, I will be there.” I reached out to friends and by the time that August rolled around, we had raised thousands of dollars from people from every stage of my life.

I also became aware of the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, which is the largest global nonprofit that works to advance ovarian cancer research. They have a program for advocacy leaders, and I was lucky enough to be selected for the state of Ohio.

And you balance it all with your day-to-day job at Playhouse Square.
I have to give a huge shout out to Playhouse Square. This job has given me so much hope. I’m excited to go to work every day because I know I’m going to be contributing in a positive way, and it’s also eight hours of my day when I don’t think about being sick. I am so lucky to go where I am passionate about my work and the people there support me professionally and personally.

How can people help?
The Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance is a national organization and they have so many resources available for patients, for caregivers, for people who want to support in any other way that they can. They are truly amazing at making a huge difference and strides in funding researchers who are finding breakthroughs in medication that could hopefully help with this. I would recommend people go to their website and if they want to learn more or share that information with someone that they love who could use it.