​​​Manon Spadaro
​Founding Artistic Director

Before founding Chicago Youth Shakespeare in 2013, Manon Spadaro was a high school (and middle school) theatre teacher for over fifteen years. She began her training at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at Circle in the Square, and earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Theatre from Northwestern University. Manon has served on the 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, and has directed somewhere upwards of 50 youth productions, (she's lost count), including dozens of Shakespeare plays with young artists ages 13-19 years old. ​

​​​Evelyn Reidy 
Director of Communications | Lead Artistic Associate 

​Evey Reidy is a Chicago-based actress, teaching artist, and self-professed Shakespeare nerd. Evey has worked as a Teaching Artist and Artistic Associate with Chicago Youth Shakespeare on five youth ensemble productions and multiple CYS In-Schools residencies across Chicago and the suburbs. Other teaching artist credits include work with The Viola Project and The Boston Shakespeare Project. A proud graduate of Tufts University, Evey's scholarly work has explored how Shakespeare writes about gender identity and mental illness. She is so grateful she gets to show students all the ways Shakespeare can be vibrant, current, and accessible to them and to all! 

​Sarah Liz Bell
​Artistic Associate 

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Sarah Liz Bell is a Chicago-based actor and teaching artist, having collaborated on in-school residencies and CYS Ensemble productions for the last three years. With a Master’s in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Most recent credits include Elizabeth Bennet in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Edge of the Wood Resident Theatre) and Desdemona in OTHELLO (Babes with Blades Theatre Co.). Sarah’s passion for sharing Shakespeare with students knows no bounds!

​​​​​Jeremy Ohringer 
Principal Guest Artist | Youth Ensemble Co-developer 

​Jeremy Ohringer is a director and teaching artist. Recent directing credits include an adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening with Fearless Theatre, Who Rowed Across Oceans by Danielle Littman, which was seen in both Chicago and at the Edinburgh Fringe festival, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando Adapted by Sarah Ruhl, and Salve Regina, which premiered at the Ringwald Theatre before moving to the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC. His Shakespeare directing includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Skidmore College and Macbeth, As You Like It,Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and Hamlet with high school students. As an educator, Jeremy has worked with the National High School Institute “Cherubs” program at Northwestern University as well as Steppenwolf, Global Voices Initiative, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Actors Training Center, Northlight, Emerald City, Shattered Globe, American Theater Company, CO/LAB and Parker Plus.

​​​​​Meredith Boe 
Development Coordinator 

Meredith Boe is a writer, editor, and critic whose work has appeared in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Review of Books, After Hours, and Chicago Stage Standard, among other publications. She's worked in book publishing and marketing and now hopes to focus more on grant writing for nonprofit arts organizations. Aside from working as a full-time freelancer and volunteering with child literacy programs, she sometimes writes poems on a typewriter around Chicago with the poetry-on-demand group, Poems While You Wait. She first began a love affair with Shakespeare's plays and sonnets in middle school.

CYS is fortunate to work with some of Chicago's finest teaching artists and theatre professionals. Click to view a list of CYS teaching artists and their bios.