THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY Now Playing at Victory Gardens Through 11/1

Macedonio Guerra is a middle rank pro wrestler who may have discovered his ticket to the big time: an impossibly charismatic, hip-hop-influenced Indian kid from Brooklyn. Their boss has the perfect concept for their in-ring alter egos: pair them as a team of terrorists.

THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY, currently playing at Victory Gardens in Chicago will play through November 1. This world premiere by Kristoffer Diaz is directed by Eddie Torres. This production of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity has been honored with a 2009 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award.

Diaz' smart, comic look at pro wrestling, geopolitics, and refrigerator crispers is a theatrical smack down of dazzling hip-hop language presented with a fresh, funny, high-octane flair. Set in the world of professional wrestling, Chad also raises pertinent questions about racial identity and pop culture in our society.

In addition to generating major buzz last summer at Ignition, Chad Deity was a finalist for the 2008 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, and subsequently won Arizona Theater Company's National Latino Playwriting Award. His other plays include Welcome to Arroyo's and Guernica, which have been produced and developed at American Theatre Company, The Orchard Project, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, Summer Play Festival, Donmar Warehouse, and South Coast Rep. Diaz also was one of the creators of Brink!, the apprentice anthology show at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is a 2009-2010 Jerome Fellow, and a new playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista.

The critics have hailed the piece:

"Mace is played --or more accurately set ablaze -- by Desmin Borges, in one of those breathtaking, out-of-nowhere star turns that has the audience eating out of his hand. It's a performance that should catapult him to instant fame."
- Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

"If Kristoffer Diaz's The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity does not become a hulking hit for Victory Gardens this fall, and rapidly move on to bigger matches beyond Chicago, you can come right over and kick me in the head and stomp on my stomach."
- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

"Outrageous, brilliantly written, astonishingly realized, altogether electric." - Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit Victory Gardens' website, www.victorygardens.org.

 

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