THE COMPANY
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.
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 the Geffen Playhouse, 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.
Hilary Ward
Founding Member
Hilary Ward is an LA-based artist is an actor, producer and coach. Hilary, alongside five fellow UCSD alums, is a founding member of Chalk Repertory Theatre (Ovation-Best Intimate Theatre, LA Weekly-Best Gypsy Theatre). Regional: Detroit '67 at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Mother Courage and Her Children at La Jolla Playhouse and Journal of Ordinary Thought at The Phoenix Theatre. Other Theatre: Macbeth at Classical Theatre of Harlem and Biennale Bonn; Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night at Chalk Repertory Theatre; I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me By a Young Lady From Rwanda and Almost, Maine at The Aspen Fringe Festival. Off-Broadway: Macbeth, Medea and King Lear at Classical Theatre of Harlem. Film: All the Way (HBO), Other People, Like You Mean It and Caliginosity. Television: Five Points, The Fosters, Notorious, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Castle, NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI, Numb3rs and Brothers & Sisters. Additional Credits: Ward received her M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. She is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and The Television Academy. Upcoming: Hilary recurs opposite Amy Adams in HBO's upcoming limited series Sharp Objects and will make her debut at A Noise Within in their fall production of A Picture of Dorian Gray. For more information, please visit hilarywardofficial.com.
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.