The Young Shakespeareans

ALISON KORMAN Artistic Director / Founder
Alison is an entrepreneur and classically trained actor who, after working in Mexico and Senegal, returned to New York City's Metropolitan Opera and 92nd Street Y before founding her own arts management company, Korman+Company. During 25 years procuring and producing $5 million annually in still photography, she simultaneously performed off-Broadway and in various theatrical venues abroad. Living in Los Angeles since 1997, she has served as an Account Director for the Taproot Foundation, performed for hundreds of schoolchildren with the LA Assistance League’s Nine O’Clock Players, and began teaching Shakespeare to Title 1 elementary school children in South Los Angeles in 2009. She conceived the idea for The Young Shakespeareans Program in 2010, officially founded the organization in 2017, and has developed its curriculum in the conviction that unleashing the awareness and potential of Title 1 public school children transforms their lives while serving the broader community. Alison continues to perform in theatre, film and television. She received her degree in Special Education and Foreign Language from Washington University in St. Louis.
of John Adams Middle School
CAROLINE SIMONE O’BRIEN
Caroline is an award-winning actor, director, puppeteer, and writer performing in the US, the UK, and Australia with credits including "A Time to Kill", "Dancing at Lughnasa", and "A Streetcar Named Desire" among others. A graduate of The Groundlings, Second City, & UCB, she is also an accredited coach with Ivana Chubbuck. She has worked for the United Nations, was published by the European Commission, and remains a keen human rights advocate touring with the Connecting Cultures Mobile Museum, and voicing "The Artist’s Way" podcast. Caroline joined The Young Shakespeareans in 2019 co-directing "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" and "Romeo + Juliet" in 2020 at Nevin Avenue Elementary School. Her company Skithouse Production is the home of kind humor.