Feed Your Mind: THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY by Kristoffer Diaz

Winner! 2011 Obie Award for Best New American Play
Winner! 2008 National Latino Playwriting Award

“…the delicious crackle and pop of a galloping, honest-to-God, all-American satire.”
—New York Times

“…weighing in with a unique combo of vigorous physicality and wickedly intelligent humor…a vibrantly entertaining, insightful new play about — wait for it — professional wrestling.”—Variety

Saturday, April 11, 2015 @ 8pm | Sunday, April 12, 2015 @ 2pm
at the Ethnic Cultural Theatre

Featured: Eric Ray Anderson*, Marcel Davis*, David Natale*, Arvind Srinivasan and Jake Ynzunza

Behind Every Winner There’s a Great Loser. This 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist is a no-holds-barred satirical smackdown set in the larger-than-life world of professional wrestling. Tired of making other pro wrestlers look good, Macedonio “The Mace” Guerra recruits a smart-mouthed Indian kid to dethrone the current All-American champ, Chad Deity. When the rivalry is used to exploit racial stereotypes, this smart, hilarious powerslam of a play pins pop culture to the mat while throwing political correctness out of the ring. A moderated discussion with the audience and artists exploring the issues in more depth followed each performance. The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity considers how notions of race are manipulated, distorted and turned inside out in the name of entertainment in the United States.

*indicates a member of Actors Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

Mirror Stage gratefully acknowledges the support of 4Culture and the Posner-Wallace Foundation.

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Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright and educator living and working in Brooklyn. His full-length titles also include Welcome to Arroyo’s, Guernica, Fucking 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; and winner, 2011 OBIE Award, Best New American Play. 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. Diaz 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). He 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.