Jonathan Shmidt Chap­man is a nation­al­ly-rec­og­nized leader in the fields of The­ater for Young Audi­ences and Jew­ish Edu­ca­tion. He is the founder of The K’ilu Com­pa­ny, cre­at­ing projects that acti­vate Jew­ish ear­ly child­hood through the­ater and imag­i­na­tive play. Jonathan served as found­ing project direc­tor of Aggadah Adven­tures at Con­gre­ga­tion Beit Sim­chat Torah, stag­ing Jew­ish sto­ries as immer­sive the­ater expe­ri­ences for chil­dren and fam­i­lies. He is part of the inau­gur­al cohort of the Man­del Institute’s Jew­ish Edu­ca­tion Lead­er­ship Pro­gram and a Jew­ish Edu­ca­tion Project Young Pio­neers Award recip­i­ent. He serves on the the­ater fac­ul­ty at North­west­ern Uni­ver­si­ty, teach­ing course­work on Sen­so­ry The­ater. As a writer and direc­tor, Jonathan has cre­at­ed new the­atri­cal work for chil­dren and fam­i­lies at Lin­coln Cen­ter, Kennedy Cen­ter, and Seat­tle Children’s The­atre. He holds an M.A. in Edu­ca­tion­al The­atre from NYU and a B.A. in Eng­lish Literature/​Theatre Arts from Boston Uni­ver­si­ty. He cur­rent­ly lives in North­brook, IL.