Solo plays include Looking for Louie, Sifting Thru Ashes, and State of the Art, which have toured the US and abroad. As a performer, she has worked in television and film, on and Off-Broadway and in theatres throughout the US and abroad. Her new play The Dig: death, Genesis, and the double helix is preparing for premiere in 2011. In 2007, she appeared in the title role in the English-language premiere of Shmuel Hasfari’s Master of the House (Best Israeli play 2003) at Laguna Playhouse, directed by Richard Stein.

On the performance faculty of the University of Southern California School of Theatre, Chaiken is the founder of What’s the Story? Los Angeles, a workshop for writers and performers wrestling with personal story for the stage and the page. She has taught Master Classes in autobiographical story and performance at New York University, Bar Ilan, and Tel Aviv Universities. She recently finished a semester as Artist in Residence at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, teaching a seminar to advanced rabbinical students on personal midrash.

A Fulbright Senior Specialist Scholar in the field of Performance and Story, she has received funding from the Durfee Foundation, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, California Arts Council, USC Arts Initiative, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. She is an Affiliated Artist and Cultural Ambassador for the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, which originally commissioned and inspired

The Dig.

Chaiken is a member of the performance guilds, Pacific Resident Theatre, Venice, California, Association of Los Angeles Playwrights, and the Dramatists Guild of America.