THE COMPANY

Rebecca Bonebrake
Company Member

Rebecca is a Los Angeles based Lighting Designer for theatre, dance, events, and architectural projects. She has lit a number of Chalk Rep productions, as well as productions at East West Players, The Pasadena Playhouse, The Fountain Theatre, The Malibu Playhouse, and others. Rebecca also designs lighting for theme parks, aquariums, zoos, museums, and other architectural projects. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Lighting Design from the University of California, San Diego. For more information, visit www.rebeccabonebrake.com.

Jennifer Chang
Founding Member

Jennifer Chang (she/they) is a multi-hyphenate storyteller. 2019 LADCC Award in Direction, 2020 APAFT Award Outstanding Direction. She was the Assistant Director of Theresa Rebeck’s Bernhardt/Hamlet on Broadway starring Janet McTeer. Select directing credits: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (South Coast Rep) Hannah and the Dread Gazebo (The Fountain Theatre/EWP), Animals Out of Paper (East West Players – LA Times Critics Pick), Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Artists at Play – GLAAD Media Award, Stage Scene LA Award Best Director, Ovation Award Nominated), Our American Story and Residence Elsewhere (commissioned for the 75th Anniversary of Executive Order 9066) at the Japanese American National Museum. Head of Undergraduate Acting at UCSD’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Member of SDC, SAG-AFTRA, AEA, Drama League Director’s Council. Drama League Fellow 2018. More info at www.changinator.com.

Amy Ellenberger
Artistic Producing Director

Amy Ellenberger is a founding member of Chalk Rep and has performed with various theatre companies on the east and west coast including South Coast Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Contemporary American Theatre Co. in Columbus, OH, and Six Figures Theatre Company in NYC. In Los Angeles she has performed with the improv comedy group the Mutiny, starred in the web series Lost Angeles, and served as a co-host for the internet radio show, The Worst Show on the Web. She was recently featured in the Sega video game Rise of Nightmares and the short film The Callback Machine. Amy also works with underserved youth as a teaching artist through The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company and Art in the Park. She has a B.F.A from Otterbein College and an M.F.A. from UC San Diego.

Larissa Kokernot
Founding Member

Larissa is a Founding Member of Chalk Rep. For the company she has directed Three Sisters, Family Planning (Ovation Awards for Best Play in an Intimate Theatre and for Director), Stray and Full Disclosure. Regional directing credits include work with Eye of the Storm Theatre in Minneapolis where she served as Artistic Associate for six years, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Ten Thousand Things, The Children’s Theatre, Guthrie Theater, The Playwright’s Center, California Repertory Theatre, Watts Village Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she was the 2007 Phil Killian Directing Fellow. Larissa received her B.A. in Theater from Brown University and an M.F.A. in Directing from the University of California, San Diego. Larissa lives in Minneapolis with her husband, Karl Gajdusek, and their sons Kade and Nicholas.

Ruth McKee
Founding Member

Ruth is a Founding Member of Chalk Rep. Her plays for the company include Stray, Full Disclosure, Hell Money, In Case of Emergency, "Skins and Bones" in Gallery Secrets and "Evolution" in FLASH Fest 2012. Her plays have also been produced and developed by Abingdon Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alliance Theatre, Black Dahlia Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Cherry Lane Theatre (Mentor Project), Ensemble Studio Theatre, HB Playwrights Foundation, The Road Theatre, Six Figures Theatre Company, SPFNYC and Working Class Theatre, among others. As an educator she has taught playwriting at UCSD, Cypress College, Idyllwild Arts Academy, the California State Summer School of the Arts, and most recently spent a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Playwriting at Indiana University. BFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts, MFA: UCSD.

Teri Reeves
Founding Member

Teri Reeves appeared as Natasha in Chalk's inaugural production of Three Sisters, produced and starred as May in Fool for Love, played Olivia Twelfth Night, the Duchess of Berwick in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and Evie in Slither,. She studied acting in the MFA program at UC San Diego and the BFA program at UC Santa Barbara. Some of her favorite roles were as Bride in Blood Wedding and Indra's Daughter in Dream Play. On television she was series regular Dr. Hallie Thomas in the first season of NBC's Chicago Fire as well as series regular KJ Jameson on Hulu's first originally scripted series Battleground. Other TV credits include guest and recurring roles on Scandal, Castle, NCIS, NCIS: LA, and General Hospital, and a recurring role on Once Upon a Time.

Chad Smith
Company Member

Chad was first introduced to Chalk Rep as a set builder, where he helped build a rolling confessional for Diet of Worms. Since then, Chad has tried to attend every Writer’s Group and every Open Circle. He has served as a reader of new works and performed in the staged reading of David Myers’s play The World as It Should Be. Chad has worked in theatre in some capacity, or other, for 30 years. After getting his BFA from NYU, he held the Artistic Director position of The Annex Theater Co. in NYC. He was a Theater Jack for Blue Man Group for several years, worked as a Master Carpenter and Stage Hand for The Public Theater/NYSF. As an actor, Chad performed in many Off-off Broadway shows, but none better than Twelfth Night, in which he played Sir Toby Belch and was cast opposite the soon to be love of his life, Valerie Manahan. Chad now works as a Technical Director for Center Theatre Group, performs when he can, and is thrilled to be a member of this amazing company of artists.