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Contact: Amy Ellenberger 213-926-0348 press@chalkrep.com

Chalk Repertory Theatre Explores Life After Foster Care
in the World Premiere Comedy Hell Money by Ruth McKee
Opens April 1, 2011

Los Angeles, February 23, 2011 – The Ovation Award-Winning Chalk Repertory Theatre opens its 2011 season with the world premiere of Hell Money written by Chalk Rep founding member and award-winning playwright Ruth McKee. Hell Money will be performed in Chalk Rep’s signature, site-specific style at Agenda Loft in Downtown Los Angeles beginning April 1, 2011.

Hell Money is a comedy exploring the plight of two young women who have graduated from the foster care system trying to make a life for themselves in Los Angeles. The action unfolds in the girls’ downtown apartment over one roller coaster night when their luck turns to hell and all of their plans come crashing down around them.
• In Los Angeles, 50% of emancipated foster youth will be homeless within 6 months.
• 51% of the youth are unemployed within 2 to 4 years of emancipation.
• 1% to 5% of foster youth graduate from college.
“I wrote Hell Money after leading a playwriting workshop in a foster care group home. Whatever kind of home you come from, early adulthood, those first years out of the nest, are fraught with struggles as you fumble in the dark to figure out how to survive in an adult world. In the world of Hell Money, those struggles are both more absurd and higher-stakes, as the characters have no positive examples of what adulthood should look like.”
–Ruth McKee, Playwright & Chalk Rep Founding Member

Chalk Rep’s production of Hell Money is directed by Jennifer Bloom, known for her work as the performance-artist supervisor at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and features a cast of four including Chalk Rep founding member Jennifer Chang, Ovation Award Nominee Elia Saldana, Ewan Chung, and Burl Moseley. Chalk Rep produces the world premiere production of Hell Money, which has received several accolades including selection by David Hare as a runner-up for the 2009 Yale Drama Series Award.

Performances of Hell Money run Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm from April 1-24, 2011 at Agenda Loft located at 400 South Main Street, Studio 601, Los Angeles, CA 90013. Ticket information can be found on the Chalk Rep website at www.ChalkRep.com. Street parking is available in addition to pay lots on nearby

Chalk Repertory Theatre is dedicated to presenting classical and contemporary plays in unconventional spaces around Los Angeles County. The company’s inaugural 2009 season was critically acclaimed and recognized with two Ovation Awards for the production of Family Planning. Other past productions include the world premiere of Full Disclosure by Ruth McKee, Three Sisters and Twelfth Night at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the west coast premiere of The Debate over Courtney O’Connell of Columbus, Nebraska by Mat Smart, the Garland Nominated, World Premiere of Stray also by Ruth McKee, and the FLASH Festival of short plays.

For more information about Chalk Rep please visit us online at www.chalkrep.com.

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