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
MATTHEW MORRISON
Before receiving his BA in Performance and Communication from St. Lawrence University, his Masters in Acting from The American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard, and his training at the Moscow Art Theater in Russia. Matt was voted “Loudest” in high school – he particularly loves encouraging The Young Shakespeareans to be as noisy as possible. Credits include "The Night of the Iguana" and "James and the Giant Peach" at ART in Boston, "A Small Group" at the Hudson Theater in Los Angeles, and "The Little Things" on HBO Max as well as on the big screen. Matt joined The Young Shakespeareans in 2018, co-directing and serving as fight choreographer for "Macbeth", helped launch TYS' online program, co-directing The Young Shakespeareans of John Adams Middle School's production of "Romeo & Juliet" in Spring 2020, and will launch TYS' Virtual Program there co-directing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Spring 2021.
