The cast of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity
Director Alejandro Saucedo finds the drag of wrestling at Circle Theatre
RICH LOPEZ | Staff Writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
Pro wrestling is such a gateway for many queer or gay men. I mean, men with oiled up physiques grappling other men wearing very little. Everything was right there to trigger some feelings and at the same time, it was safe because it wasn’t gay or “It’s a sport.”
Queer director Alejandro Saucedo (he/they) bonded with his dad over wrestling. But now, in his new show, he sees it as having been more than what it was on the surface.
In The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Saucedo finds some deeper aspects in the sport of wrestling as he and his cast head into Friday’s opening night for the play. The show opened in previews on Thursday and runs through Oct. 28 at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth.
Also, the show is basically live wrestling — on stage.
“This is probably the most technical show I’ve worked on. We have live cameras at the entrances with screen projections and a wrestling ring,” the director said.
The show centers on Mace, a huge wrestling fan and jobber wrestler himself who teams up with VP to battle their way up the ranks in their world of wrestling. Mace is Puerto Rican and Vigneshar (VP) is of Indian descent and thus cast as terrorist personas in the ring.
The audiences love it, but what does that mean for these two Americans?
Playwright Kristoffer Diaz pushes boundaries beyond the ring by addressing issues such as racism and politics and their presence within mass media.
As Saucedo worked on the show, he was confronted with different notions that came with pro wrestling. “As the rehearsal process went on, I thought about the ultra-masculine-super macho aspect of it, but personally, I’m not interested in that,” he said. “My mindset has always bent toward the feminine.”
Which is how Saucedo saw the parallels between wrestling and drag.
For him, both are exaggerations toward opposite ends of the masculine/feminine spectrum. But he is fascinated by the dichotomy of it all: On one end, men who dress up as femme are ridiculed or made fun of; on the other end, men who wear far less and grapple with other men are glorified for their masculinity.
“Everything is a performance in wrestling. But in the sport, it all goes toward the masculine and it becomes this revered character,” Saucedo said. “Look at Hulk Hogan. Look at Donald Trump!”
He adds, though, that drag queens have a better handle on their personas and don’t often become the character they are onstage. Hulk Hogan, on the other hand, is always Hulk Hogan
Saucedo puts his own tricks into the mix. The characters in Chad Deity are all males with big personalities. And perhaps the biggest personality of them all is Everett K. Olson, or EKO. He’s the Vince McMahon of this world: an over-the-top business entrepreneur who runs this federation and who defines the wrestlers’ characters.
“This guy feels so evil, and he never really shows his own humanity,” Saucedo said. “So I cast a woman in this role. Brett Warner plays EKO, and having her inhabit these gendered stereotypes of power was interesting to me. Plus, it’s always a little bit in your brain that EKO’s personality is all a performance.”
In The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, it sounds like Saucedo has snap-suplexed the sport of wrestling into a vision that mixes queer and hetero perspectives with a full trust in his cast and crew.
“As the director, I thought I’d have to know everything, but giving over responsibility, freedom and ownership to the team as well as trust has turned into this community, and that’s been the best part.”
For tickets, visit CircleTheatre.com.