Michele Pawk

Butler native and Broadway star Michele Pawk has enjoyed a successful career in theater, film and television that has spanned more than 40 years. She most recently working alongside Jonathan Groff in the musical “Just in Time,” which was nominated for six Tony Awards this year.

Pawk said she loved growing up in southern Butler County, and never forgot the family and friends who helped to mold her as a performer and supported her throughout her career.

Pawk said her mother, the late Sandy Pawk, was instrumental in nurturing her career.

“My mom wanted me to be in high school musicals,” Pawk said.

When Pawk was a junior at Knoch High School, she said her mother sent her and her sister, Laura Santora, of Butler, to dance lessons at Lee’s School of Dance.

“Mom was a tapper,” Pawk said. “We all were tappers.”

Her mom and Lee Garrard, instructor at Lee’s School of Dance, pushed her with tough love.

“They love you, and they have a high standard,” Pawk said.

Santora said Pawk was in all the musicals while she attended Knoch High School, but was not always the star. International mezzo-soprano singer Marianne Cornetti, who also graduated from the school in 1980, was her competition. They both studied piano.

“Michele accidentally took piano lessons from Uncle Vince” who was not an uncle but a distant cousin by marriage, Santora said.

Their families grew close when Michele, her mother and sister worked at Vince Tavolario’s restaurants, Natili North and Natili South.

“When she would come to her lesson, she always wanted to sing,” Tavolario said.

Years later, he asked Michele Pawk to sing with his trio at Natili.

Tavolario saw her talent and encouraged her to go to his alma mater, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, for musical theater. It was then that she seriously began to pursue a career in musical theater.

Santora said she has always idolized her sister, who is seven years her senior.

“My sister is my best friend. She is a wonderful wife, mother and aunt to my children,” Santora said.

She said Pawk and her husband, actor John Dossett, are real people — presenting themselves the same on stage as they do off. Santora attends as many of her sister’s shows as she is able to.

“When they get the opportunity, they invite me to Broadway opening nights,” Santora said. “It was really wonderful when I saw her and John together in ‘Wicked.’”

She may be seeing a lot more of her sister in the near future. Pawk said she will be leaving New York City soon for a simpler life, perhaps back where it all started.