The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity is a dramatic comedy play by Kristoffer Diaz about a professional wrestler, "driven by narratives of the American dream and neoliberal capitalism.
Prompting his girlfriend to ask “Why are they rooting for the bad guy?”[2] The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity had its world premier at Chicago's Biograph Theater on September 25, 2009 in a Victory Gardens Theater production starring Usman Ally (Vigneshwar Paduar), Kamal Angelo Bolden (Chad Deity), Desmin Borges (Macedonio Guerra), Jim Krag (Everett K. Olson), and Christian Litke (Billy Heartland, Old Glory).
[3] Directed by Edward Torres, Designed by Brian Sidney Bembridge (scenery), Jesse Klug (lights), John Boesche (projections), and Christine Pascual (costumes)[4] Variety (magazine) published a positive review of the original production at the Biograph Theater, complimenting the "vigorous physicality and wickedly intelligent humor."
Critic Steve Oxman commented that "[Kristoffer] Diaz has found a vehicle to tell a much deeper narrative about how our culture digests racial identity, and how commerce, as well as commercial storytelling, is at its core about generating passion, with the exploitation of our baser instincts often the easiest means of doing so.
[19] The Los Angeles Times said the play "leaps out of the proscenium frame at every opportunity, exhorting, drop-kicking and body-slamming its way into an immediacy that is more familiar to sporting events and rap concerts than to a traditional night of theater.