Firehouse Theatre Project Announces Cast & Creative Team for THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY

Body Slam, power drive, BAMM! Firehouse Theatre Project has announced the larger-than-life cast and creative team behind its next installment of its 20th Anniversary Season, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, by Kristoffer Diaz. Directed by Kerry McGee and proud participant of Richmond's annual Acts of Faith festival, this balls-out dramatic comedy will play 15 performances, February 6 - March 8. Opening Night is Friday, February 7th.

The cast of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity features Axle Burtness (POP!), two-time Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award winner Nicklas Aliff (Any Given Monday, The Rocky Horror Show), Josh Marin (The Wild Party), Mauricio Marcés (The Rocky Horror Show) and newcomer James Long.

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity features costume design by Starrene Foster, set design by Eddie Slipek, sound design by Joey Luck, light design by Geno Brantley, and projections design by Benjamin Burke.

A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and winner of the 2011 Obie Award, 2008 National Latino Playwriting Award, and 2011 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, Kristoffer Diaz's drop-kicking, body-slamming theatrical happening tells the story of the dramatic world of professional wrestling. Mace is a great professional wrestler, but he's no champion - that's the impossibly charismatic Chad Deity. When Mace discovers a young Indian-American Brooklyn kid whose charisma rivals that of the champ, Mace decides to get him a job in the company. Only problem is, the boss has a very specific plan for the duo: put them onscreen as terrorists. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is a kick-ass comedy for the Obama-age. In wrestling, as in life, it's tough to voice your own identity over the roar of the crowd.

Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright and educator living and working in Brooklyn. His full-length titles include The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (published by Samuel French), Welcome to Arroyo's, Guernica, f-ing Vigwan (or Swag), and #therevolution. Awards include 2011 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama; winner, 2011 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play; winner, 2011 OBIE Award, Best New American Play; and the inaugural Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowship from The Public Theater (2011). His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Theater Company, The Atlantic, InterAct, Mixed Blood, The Orchard Project, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, Summer Play Festival, Donmar Warehouse, and South Coast Repertory. He has written short work for the 24 Hour Musicals and the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. Kristoffer was one of the creators of Brink!, the apprentice anthology show at the 2009 Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is a playwright-in-residence at Teatro Vista; a resident playwright at New Dramatists; a co-founder of the Unit Collective (Minneapolis); and a recipient of the Jerome Fellowship, the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant, and the Van Lier Fellowship (New Dramatists). Kristoffer holds a BA from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, an MFA from NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing, and an MFA from Brooklyn College's Performing Arts Management program.

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