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
why we do it
The Young Shakespeareans was created with five goals in mind:
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To create a learning community that employs theatre arts to maximize students' academic, social, and aesthetic potential;
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To increase students' sense of compassion, self-awareness, and emotional literacy, through their analysis and understanding of dramatic literature and universal themes;
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To create a “contagion of community” that engages the cooperative participation of students, parents, faculty, and administrators;
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To encourage business and institutional investment in the surrounding school community;
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To capture the imagination of the broader community and promote high academic standards for all student groups, regardless of ethnicity, native language, or income level.
