MANON SPADARO | Founding Artistic Director

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Before founding Chicago Youth Shakespeare in 2013, Manon Spadaro was a theatre arts instructor and director for over 20 years. She served on 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, among others. Manon studied acting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts at Circle in the Square, and earned both her bachelor’s and master’s Degrees in theatre from Northwestern University. She has directed somewhere upwards of 50 productions, including dozens of Shakespeare plays with young artists ages 13-24 years old. ​​

JOSHUA ZAMBRANO | Director of Community Engagement

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Joshua Zambrano is an alum of the CYS program and went on to graduate from Colorado College with a Bachelor of Arts in Organismal Biology and Ecology (OBE).  While his degree may be in science, his heart has always been in the theatre and working with youth. After graduating, he worked as a tutor/mentor and site coordinator for Driven & Empowered Youth, Inc, a program aimed at providing free tutoring resources and summer programs to students in under-resourced CPS high schools on Chicago's northwest side. Starting in the fall of 2018, Josh was asked to serve as an interim science teacher at his alma mater, the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts), where he served for two years. Currently, he is working as an instructor in the Theatre department at ChiArts, teaching acting techniques to first-year students.

Josh is a working actor and current ensemble member of Visión Latino Theater Company and Counter Collective, two theater companies whose missions are geared towards enacting positive change in the theater community of Chicago and telling the stories of those who are less likely to be heard. 

MEREDITH BOE | Development Coordinator

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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.

SARAH LIZ BELL | Artistic Associate

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​Sarah Liz Bell is a Chicago-based actor and teaching artist. She holds a Master’s in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and a BFA in Acting from Baldwin Wallace University. Recent acting 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!

KEVIN JOHNSON | Artistic Associate | Fight Choreographer | Human Lexicon

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Kevin Johnson a Chicago actor and writer, as well as a teaching artist and director with EDGE of Orion. As an ensemble member with Unrehearsed Shakespeare, Kevin has portrayed roles such as Edgar in Coriolanus, Brutus in Julius Caesar. His award-winning original verse-play, The Tragedy of Johnny & Lisa, a Shakespearean adaptation of The Room, has seen several staged readings and one production in recent years. Kevin is also an alum of the CYS Ensemble many times over, having performed in Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, Uneasy Lies the Head, Othello, and King Lear. 

JEREMY OHRINGER | Principal Guest Artist

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​ Jeremy Ohringer is a Chicago-based is a director and teaching artist. He holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Boston University, where his projects included Horizon Line (Inspired by Homer's Odyssey), Angels In America: Perestroika, and Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children. Chicago directing credits include: Milkwhite (The Kinematics), Sad Songs For Bad People (Co-Director, Rough House Theater), Salve Regina: A Coming of Gay Story (Center on Halsted/Ringwald Theater), Who Rowed Across Oceans (Lost Compass/Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and a new adaptation of Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening with Fearless Theater. As a Teaching Artist, he has been with CYS from the very beginning, and served as the first "director" and co-developer of the CYSE program. Jeremy also works as a teaching artist with Steppenwolf, Writers Theatre, and Open Books, among others.

EVELYN REIDY | Visiting Guest Artist

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​Evey Reidy is a Chicago-based actress and teaching artist. Evey has worked with Chicago Youth Shakespeare on seven productions and multiple CYS In-Schools residencies across Chicago and the suburbs. Other teaching artist credits include work with Writers Theatre (where she is the Education Coordinator), The Viola Project and The Boston Shakespeare Project. As an actor, she has worked in Chicago with Dandelion Theatre, Commission Theatre, The New Colony, The Boston Shakespeare Project, and more. As a director, she recently assistant directed the Chicago premiere of I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard with First Floor Theatre. 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! 

Evey served as CYS's Director of Community Engagement & Lead Artistic Staff from 2016-2020. She is currently pursuing graduate studies at The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, where she will earn a Masters in Shakespeare and Creativity. 

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.