With Plant Medicine in The Spotlight, New Play Explores Ayahuasca’s Transformative Journey

Ayahuasca Inside Out Premieres at the 2025 NYC Fringe Festival, April 14-20

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With growing mainstream interest in plant medicine—including recent coverage from Oprah, major news networks, and top podcasts—a bold new play brings the conversation to the stage. Ayahuasca Inside Out, a transformative, campy, and deeply moving production, will debut at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival. The show runs April 14-20 at The Chain Mainstage Theater (312 W. 36th St., 4th Fl, NYC).

It’s the shaman’s birthday, and you’re invited! AYAHUASCA INSIDE OUT follows a Brooklyn-born soul’s wild journey to becoming a master Shaman. With wild characters like Joy, Grief, and a mischievous Alter Ego, this campy, heart-filled, and immersive production bridges spirit and reality, inviting audiences to experience a visionary, unforgettable ride.

The female-led creative team includes Loren Crea Abbate, Kacey Cardin, and Anthony Hidalgo, with direction by Abbate and Cardin. The cast features James Kyson*, Luis Villabon*, and James Eden*, alongside Kacey Cardin, Piper Crawford, and Kizzmet Pringle. This is an Equity-approved Showcase.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
The Chain Mainstage Theater (312 W. 36th St., 4th Fl, NYC)
Performances:

• Mon, April 14 | 7:40 PM (Sold out)
• Wed, April 16 | 9:20 PM (Sold Out)
• Fri, April 18 | 6:00 PM
• Sat, April 19 | 10:20 PM
• Sun, April 20 | 7:00 PM

Tickets ($33) are available at www.frigid.nyc. Run time: 50 minutes. Limited press passes are available, contact: [e-mail] to make your request.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Playwrights:

Loren Crea Abbate | Visionary Artist & Transformational Storyteller

Loren *Crea* Abbate is a visionary artist, experience catalyst, creativity doula, world traveler, and transformation guide. Growing up in North New Jersey, dance lessons began at 2 years old and the pile of crayons were an arms length away. She studied Art/Psychology at Northeastern University and went on to get her masters degree in Art Education at the School of Visual Arts. Loren Crea has developed bodies of art and exhibited her collections in various publications, museums and galleries. She has been awarded residencies and grants to create her art around the world. Currently, her art is represented by Deep Space Gallery in Jersey City. The original script writer of Ayahuasca: The Musical, she held the vision of bringing Ayahuasca to the stage for ten years before it became a reality. In Ayahuasca Inside Out, an adapted version, she will be playing the role of Creation, guiding the audience along the journey as the narrator and storyteller. While Crea has experience as a set and prop designer for theatre productions, this will be her first experience producing and developing a story for the stage. She is the founder of Wild Indigo Arts, a program designed to awaken the Creative Spirit for events, groups and individuals. She is a ceremonialist, an integration guide and an Akashic Art consultant. She is passionate about sharing the wisdom of ceremonial arts, sacred plant medicines and the wave of healing that is available and emerging for humanity. For more information about Crea's art or her Wild Indigo Arts programming visit www.lorenabbate.com or www.wildindigoarts.org.

Kacey Cardin | Multi-Hyphenate Creator & Boundary-Pushing Performer

Kacey is a producer, writer, and director who has also performed around the world as a versatile singer-actress hailed as an artist of "…remarkable stage presence and unfettered emotional expression.” An enthusiastic proponent of contemporary opera, Kacey starred in the world’s first virtual reality opera: The Parksville Murders (Kamala Sankaram, distributed by SamsungVR), and originated roles in two world premiere opera electronicas by renowned librettist Royce Vavreck. Her alter ego performed all over NYC and Europe with the Hot Box Girls’ international sensation L’Opera Burlesque. Writer and co-producer: Knockers, Off-Broadway musical that premiered at NYC’s Elektra Theater in 2016. Writer, co-producer, and director: jazz musical Follies Noir at NYC’s The Cutting Room and on tour at Jones Hall in Houston, TX. 2014 Quarterfinalist and 2015 “Peaple’s Choice” Winner, American Traditions Competition. In 2015, Kacey played Violetta in Arbor Opera’s groundbreaking La Traviata, in conjunction with the National Network of Depression Centers and a PBS documentary about the production. Encore Michigan called the edgy production “a risk worth taking”, noting that “Ms. Cardin’s soprano vocals evoked just the right mix of moods and emotions…. Off-Broadway and touring cast: Girls Night, 2010-2023. She has sung with the Center for Contemporary Opera, Syracuse Opera, Nashville Opera, on America’s Got Talent, and onstage at the Grand Ol’ Opry. She was briefly on Married at First Sight, and is now happily married to a man she did not meet on television. She is the founder of EnQ: Energetic Intelligence, a boutique leadership development firm that intersects coaching with psychedelics and plant medicine. Visit www.kaceycardin.com or www.enqleadership.com for more.

Anthony Hidalgo | Healer, Visionary, & Advocate for Spiritual Transformation

For more than 25 years, Anthony has been a conduit for connection—first as a telecommunications executive, building digital infrastructure that harnessed the power of light to connect people through fiber optics, and later as an indigenously trained healer, guiding others toward self-love and transformation. Anthony has spent over a decade studying and practicing ancestral healing traditions, drawing from extensive training with Peruvian and Brazilian indigenous lineages. His work integrates ancient wisdom with modern approaches to wellness, blending multiple modalities to support deep healing and personal evolution. As a co-founder of Centered Medical Center, Anthony helped bridge the gap between natural medicine and Western medical practices, shaping a holistic approach to behavioral health and wellness. While no longer active in the organization, he continues to forge meaningful connections between spiritual and medical communities, advocating for integrative healing practices that honor both science and tradition. Through his shamanic training, deep insights into indigenous healing, and unwavering commitment to self-care as a pathway to transformation, Anthony remains dedicated to helping individuals and practitioners embrace a more expansive, love-centered approach to healing.

Wild Indigo Arts is a progressive and transformative arts education, therapeutic and sacred healing arts modality to awaken creativity in all aspects of life. Offering enriching workshops, inspiring classes and creativity counseling sessions. Deepening a sense of purpose through the cultivation of imagination, expression and celebration of the arts.

Kotillion Productions has been creating experimental and immersive theater productions since 2009, primarily in the operatic and musical theater realm. The Kotillion team has been behind the scenes of innovative, sight-specific productions, as well as recorded albums and transformational events from weddings to retreats.

New York City Fringe Festival is an open lottery-based theatre festival presented by FRIGID New York, which gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of the Indie Theater Community, 100% of box office proceeds go directly to the artists whose work is being presented. FRIGID New York is here to chill out the New York independent theatre scene’s ideas of what a theatre festival can be! www.frigid.nyc

Follow us on Instagram @ayainsideout

*These actors are appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.