Michael Kass's CEREMONY Comes to 2014 Chicago Fringe Festival, 8/30-9/1

Ceremony, an award winning, critically acclaimed solo show about love, fear and Ayahuasca, written & performed by Michael Kass & directed by Diana Wyenn, is coming to the Chicago Fringe Festival for three performances only: August 30 at 4 PM; August 31 at 10 PM; and September 1 at 7 PM.

With a colorful collection of plastic buckets, playful and poignant physicality, and an immersive sound design, Ceremony takes the audience from Los Angeles to Peru and back in just under an hour. Grappling with heart break and depression, Michael Kass quits his job in the midst of the Great Recession and finds himself in Peru drinking a noxious tea as a shaman looks on with a smile. How far is he willing to go to find transformation? And will he be able to find his way back?

CEREMONY premiered at the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival where it played to sold out houses and garnered rave reviews and awards including the Duende Distinction for Playwriting, a Best of Fringe Extension and a nomination for Best Solo Show. In July 2014, Ceremony received the award for Outstanding Solo Show at the San Diego International Fringe Festival.

Ceremony is Michael Kass' first full-length solo show. After graduating from Northwestern University with a MA in Theater, he lived in Chicago for seven years, working with companies like Stage Left, Lookingglass and Running With Scissors as well as artists including Mary Zimmerman and award-winning actor/director Harry J. Lennix. Since moving to Los Angeles 10 years ago, he has become a fixture in the city's storytelling community, having won multiple Moth StorySlams and appeared in shows including Spark Off Rose, Taboo Tales, I Love a Good Story and countless others. Michael's writing has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times and blogs including Thought Catalog and Fierce and Nerdy.

An incredible asset to the piece, director Diana Wyenn is a theater artist with a socially-driven practice who has collaborated as a director, choreographer, designer, producer, and performer on scores of productions with some of Los Angeles' most daring theater companies, including Evidence Room, Theatre Dybbuk, Open Fist Theatre Company, Theatre of Note, Sacred Fools, Son of Semele Ensemble, and Unknown Theater where she also served as Associate Artistic Director. She received her BFA in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

About the Chicago Fringe Festival - The Chicago Fringe Festival (CFF) unites daring theatregoers with emerging and boundary-pushing performing artists from around the world at an annual festival in Chicago. CFF also seeks to engage nontraditional audiences through a commitment to low ticket prices and outreach into artistically underserved communities.

All performances will be at the Lake Effect Stage, 5340 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago, IL 60630. Tickets available at www.chicagofringe.org or at the box office. Official Twitter: @ceremonytheshow. Facebook: facebook.com/lovefearayahuasca. For more information about the production, visit www.ceremonytheshow.com.

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