​​Amy Kleinman
board president

​Amy Kleinman is a graduate of Northwestern University where she studied communications and theatre. She was a director in the Meetings and Travel Department of the American Bar Association for 19 years before “retiring” to spend more time with her family. Her son and daughter attended Francis W. Parker School where she was active on parents’ committees for 16 years.

Amy is an active theatre-goer and also ushers at the Goodman Theatre, among others. Her interests include Pilates, yoga, tap, reading and spending time with her friends and family. Amy’s favorite Shakespeare play is A Midsummer Night’s Dream (and she will be happy to tell you why). Her favorite quote is also from Midsummer, "And though she be but little, she is fierce."

​Louis Fantasia

Louis Fantasia has produced and directed more than a hundred and fifty plays and operas worldwide. He served as Director of the Shakespeare Globe Centre's Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance Institute from 1997 to 2002, and was the first American 
to direct on the reconstructed London Globe stage, with a workshop production of Much Ado About Nothing in 1996.

Mr. Fantasia has taught at the Juilliard School and the University of Southern California School of Theatre, the London Theatre School (Head of Acting and Director of Studies) and Schiller College-Europe University (Chair and Artistic Director of Theatre Programs). From 1988 to 2002, he was Education Director of the Shakespeare Globe Centre's Western Region and ran the Globe's actor/director training programs in London. He has lectured at Brasenose College, Oxford; Sophia University, Japan; Rhodes University, South Africa, and at theatre conferences throughout the U.S and in Australia and England. In 2009, he gave the Grace Ford Symposium Lecture at the University of Mississippi. Louis has held the Cardin Chair in Arts at Loyola College in Maryland and the Roy Acuff Chair of Excellence at the Center for Excellence in the Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee.

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Mr. Fantasia is currently the Director of Shakespeare at the Huntington, the teacher training institute of the Huntington Library, Art Galleries and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, and Dean of Faculty at the New York Film Academy (Hollywood campus). He has been heard regularly on NPR's KCRW (89.9 FM) as a theatre critic and arts commentator, and is the author of the critically acclaimed, Instant Shakespeare, A Proven Technique for Actors, Directors, and Teachers, published in the U.S. by Ivan R. Dee and by A & C Black in England. His screenplay Demon Sword (co- written with director Paul Nicholas) was filmed in India in 2007.His second book, Tragedy in the Age of Oprah: Essays on Five Great Plays, was published by Scarecrow Press in 2012.

​Favorite Shakespeare play: 'Whichever one I am directing at the moment.'

​Lawrence Grimm

Lawrence Grimm has been an actor and teacher for over 20 years. His teaching artist work includes extensive residencies in New York and Chicago’s public, private, and parochial schools, social services facilities, and with corporate businesses and ad agencies. In New York he worked with Lincoln Center Institute, Roundabout Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, and Arts Connection. In Chicago his affiliations as a teacher include the Second City, Piven Theater Workshop, the Acting Studio, Writer’s Theater, Lookingglass Theater, The Illinois Arts Council, CAPE, Urban Gateways and Steppenwolf for Young Audiences where he serves as Senior Facilitator for Curriculum and Instruction. He has a Masters in Education from DePaul University and was a high school English and Drama teacher at Stevenson High School for three years and Chicago’s public high school for the arts, Chi-Arts, for four years.  Lawrence was the director of the Thresholds Theater Arts Project for seven years which brought the voices of adults who have suffered from mental illness to the stage. Additionally he has worked with the Memory Ensemble and those afflicted with Alzheimer’s through the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

As an actor, he is a founding ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theater and is the Director of Education and co-founder of their Youth Ensemble. He has worked extensively at Chicago’s prominent theaters including shows with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Victory Gardens, Next, Timeline, Court,  Collaboraction, Piven Theater Workshop and the Goodman. Film and Television roles include Welcome to Me (directed by Shira Piven with Kristen Wiig), Chicago PD, Unsolved Mysteries, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Cicero in Winter and Perfect Manhttan.

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​​Sylvi Kuperman

​Sylvi Kuperman is a Senior Research Analyst of Early Childhood Programs at James J. Heckman’s Center for the Economics of Human Development at the University of Chicago. Prior to her work at CEHD, Sylvi was a state-certified educator, teaching psychology and history at College of Lake County. She earned an M.A. in the Social Sciences from U of C, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Illinois. Sylvi is a proud 1987 graduate of Highland Park High School; she still credits her professional achievements to the exceptional teachers of its Fine Arts Department, and the experiences they enabled.

​Favorite Shakespeare play: As You Like It

​​William Loesch

William Loesch is a principal in the firm's Corporate, Securities & Tax Group. He advises businesses ranging from start-ups to public companies in a variety of matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic alliances, debt and equity financing, dealership and distributorship relationships, and employment and consulting agreements.

Clients for whom Mr. Loesch regularly provides representation span a broad range of industries, including consumer products, advertising, marketing, business services and equipment manufacturing. Mr. Loesch also has extensive experience in education law, particularly in mergers and acquisitions of post-secondary schools, both domestic and international. In addition, he has experience in contract matters relating to the Internet, including Web site development agreements, Web site hosting arrangements, and Web-based advertising and marketing agreements.

Lee May

Lee May is the Development and Membership Coordinator at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library in downtown Chicago. In his role at the PMML, he oversees day-to-day operations of the fundraising office, including managing the annual fund and membership programs as well as handling donor outreach and stewardship. Lee also has an integral role in assisting the PMML’s executive leadership in the acquisition, solicitation and stewardship of major gift and principal gift donors.

Lee is a graduate of the University of Chicago with a M.A. in Social Sciences and a concentration in history. He also has a B.A. from Michigan State University in History and Political Science. He has a long background in the arts, having been involved with music, theater and improv from an early age. As a result of these experiences, Lee is a firm believer in the importance and impact of arts education for children, especially high schoolers.

My favorite Shakespeare play is Julius Caesar and my favorite quote is the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V 'in its entirety.'

David Michel

David Michel holds an MA from the University of Chicago in Political Theory and a BA from Amherst College. A high school teacher and administrator for almost thirty years, he is the Co-Director of College Counseling at the Wheeler School in Providence, RI. David is also the Associate Director of Brewster Day Camp on Cape Cod and a member of the Brown University Leadership Institute's Advisory Board.

samuela brenda nematchoua

Samuela Brenda Nematchoua is an actor, writer, and director who recently graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in Theatre. Samuela is an alum of the CYS Youth Ensemble where she played Lady Macbeth in Macbeth and Duchess Frederick in As You Like It. Recent acting credits include The Cherry Orchard, Stop Kiss, Big Love, and The Tempest. Recent writing credit include Two Face, which was produced by Speakeasy Stage Company for the 2017 Boston Theater Marathon. Recent directing credits include The Vagina Monologues at Boston College. Samuela was also awarded 2nd Runner Up in the Irene Ryan Acting Competition as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region 1.  

Favorite Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, The Tempest. 

​​Bonnie Seebold

​Bonnie Seebold, H. S. English Teacher at Francis W. Parker School since 1977. Teaches freshman Reading and Writing in the Various Genres, teaches seniors Chamber Theater (Literature Adapted for the Stage), Contemporary Global Novel and Shakespeare. Has directed many scenes from short stories and Shakespeare as well as truncated hour long versions of such plays as As You Like It, The Tempest, and Hamlet. Adapted Gogol's "The Nose" for Chamber Theater. Prior to Parker, taught four years at Fenton High School, developed the Literary Magazine there. B.S., Journalism, University of Illinois; M.A.T., English Education, University of Chicago; postgraduate work in Oral Interpretation in the Speech and Theatre Department, Northwestern University.

Favorite Shakespeare play: "I cannot choose. Like Cleopatra, Shakespeare's "infinite variety" never stales. I'll agree with Louis and say 'whichever one I'm engaged with at the time'."

​Manon Spadaro
​Founding Artistic Director

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​Before founding Chicago Youth Shakespeare in March of 2013, Manon Spadaro was a theatre educator and director for over fifteen years. She began her training at New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts / Circle in the Square, and earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in theatre from Northwestern University. She has served on the drama faculty at Lake Forest Country Day School, Francis W. Parker School, Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development, and Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School.

Favorite Shakespeare play: Hamlet

​joshua zambrano

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​Josh recently graduated from Colorado College with a Bachelor of Arts in Organsimal Biology and Ecology (OBE).  Josh may have a degree in science, but his heart is in the theatre and working with kids. Josh is an actor, teaching artist, and the Site Manager & Program Coordinator for Driven and Empowered Youth, Inc., an organization that provides academic tutoring and after-school enrichment programs at 6 CPS schools.