Santa Monica Playhouse Presents The West Coast Premiere of LOCKED AND LOADED, Opens 2/18

Santa Monica Playhouse presents
The West Coast Premiere of Todd Susman's
"Locked and Loaded" an irreverent dramedy about life, death and... life

The Year's Best!" - New York's Daily Journal. "An extraordinary piece of theatre!" - The Record-Review. Santa Monica Playhouse presents Todd Susman's edgy, biting, bitter bash, celebrating the comic side of suicide, prostitution and God, opening February 18, 2011 in The Other Space at Santa Monica Playhouse for eight weeks.

Santa Monica Playhouse, currently celebrating its 50th year of innovative, ground-breaking theatre, pushes the edge of the envelope yet again with Locked and Loaded, arguably an entirely new genre of theatre that The New York Time calls "a play that doesn't look or sound like anything you've ever seen before."

"Locked and Loaded" calls life to question and gives voice to fear as it scoops you up like a backhoe, buffets you about like a roller coaster and spills you into an acid washed swimming pool, blanched, renewed and grinning at the next drop of rain.

Written by Todd Susman (The Taking of Pelham 123, You Don't Know Jack, Hairspray - First National Tour and subsequent year on Broadway, Jerry Mayer's Almost Perfect, Radio's The Man from Mitsubishi).

Featuring (in alphabetical order): Paul Linke (CHiPS, Parenthood, K-PAX, the Ace Cable Award-nominated Time Flies When You're Alive); Andrew Parks (Murder She Wrote, Summer Run, the cult-classic The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, Spoon River Anthology); Tarina Pouncy (Lie to Me, Tom Hanks' Larry Crowne, Second City, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom); Terasa Sciortino (Talkshow with Spike Feresten, Split Ends, Three Things - Cannes Short Film Corner, The Taming of the Shrew); Sandra Thigpen (The Ring, Quentin Tarantino's Curdled, Grey's Anatomy, The Children's Hour).

Directed by Chris DeCarlo (Aspirin and Elephants, Stephen King and Robert Parker's RAGE, Picon Pie, Love in Bloom).

Incidental music by four-time Grammy-nominee John Forster and costumes by award-winning designer Ashley Hayes.

"Locked and Loaded: is produced by Santa Monica Playhouse (Evelyn Rudie and Chris DeCarlo Artistic Directors) as part of its 50th anniversary celebration of theatre. It plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 3:30 pm, February 18 through April 16. Tickets are $26 on Fridays and Saturdays and $21 for Sunday matinees. Discounts are available for students, seniors, teachers, member of the military and groups of eight or more. Rated R for strong language and sexual references. Reservations are required. For tickets and group sales, please call The Playhouse Box Office at (310) 394-9779 ext. 1.

Santa Monica Playhouse (http://www.SantaMonicaPlayhouse.com) is located at 1211 4th Street in the heart of downtown Santa Monica. Convenient parking is located across the street in city lot #1. By public transportation take LA Metro Rapid 720 or the Santa Monica Blue Bus, exit 4th and Wilshire.