Karen has served as Chance Theater’s Community Outreach and Education Director since 2015. As an educator, she is deeply committed to using theater as a tool to build empathy, confidence, and meaningful skills in her students. Through programs like Speak Up, she empowers local youth, veterans, and teens on the autism spectrum to find their voices and share their stories with courage and authenticity. Her career highlights include writing and directing A Celtic Holiday with Craic in the Stone (named Best Special Event by Examiner.com), teaching and directing at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton for the First Stage, and the in-school residency program. Regional East Coast Director for Creative Theatre, and Debate Coach and Judge Trainer with the Orange County Debate League. Karen has been at Fairmont Private School since 2009 as a teacher and is the current Middle School Coordinator for the International Baccalaureate Program. In 2021, she was recognized as one of Orange County’s Top Ten Teachers by Parenting Magazine. As a performer in orange county, Karen has appeared with the Pacific Symphony at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and on the Chance stage in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (OCTG nomination for Best Ensemble), the Southern California premiere of Middletown, The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later (named to LA Stage Times’ Top Ten of 2013), Passion Play (Orange County premiere), Rare Birds (OTR Workshop), Verité (OTR Workshop), A Charlie Brown Christmas (understudy), and The Eight: Reindeer Monologues.
Karen O’Hanlon
