Guillermo Reyes

Guillermo Reyes

GUILLERMO REYES has produced and published a variety of plays including the comedies, Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown and Mother Lolita as off-Broadway productions with Urban Stages, Chilean Holiday and Saints at the Rave at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the historical drama, Madison, at Premiere Stages, winner of the New Play Award 2008, among other plays. In 2010, he...
GUILLERMO REYES has produced and published a variety of plays including the comedies, Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown and Mother Lolita as off-Broadway productions with Urban Stages, Chilean Holiday and Saints at the Rave at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the historical drama, Madison, at Premiere Stages, winner of the New Play Award 2008, among other plays. In 2010, he published a memoir with the University of Wisconsin Press, entitled Madre and I: A Memoir of our Immigrant Lives, chronicling his immigration from Chile and growing up in the D.C. area and in Hollywood, CA. He’s a professor at Arizona State University in the School of Film, Dance and Theater. Recently, in 2013, his play, Deporting the Divas was published in a new Cambria Series anthology, Gay Drama Now edited by John Clum, and another play, We Lost it at the Movies, was published by the Bilingual Review Press in the anthology, Vaqueeros, Calacas and Hollywood.

Plays

  • Deporting the Divas
    A Border Patrolman, Michael, finds himself in an affair with an undocumented Mexican young man, making him question his various assumptions about masculinity and legality. The Divas that appear in his imagination are beautiful and fabulous and give him refuge from his life as a closeted, married bisexual man, also challenging him towards a new form thinking. A comedy for our times.


  • A SUMMER CHRISTMAS
    A nine year-old boy Nacho gets sent to a small town in southern (and rural) Chile to stay with his eccentric, lonely aunt. Together, they experience the southern-hemisphere summer Christmas as a lonely undertaker tries to woo Aunt Nati and Nacho falls in love with a lovely Roma girl next door. The divisive politics of Chile at the time threatens to undo everyone’s lives and romance. A poignant comedy-drama...
    A nine year-old boy Nacho gets sent to a small town in southern (and rural) Chile to stay with his eccentric, lonely aunt. Together, they experience the southern-hemisphere summer Christmas as a lonely undertaker tries to woo Aunt Nati and Nacho falls in love with a lovely Roma girl next door. The divisive politics of Chile at the time threatens to undo everyone’s lives and romance. A poignant comedy-drama of an era gone by with autobiographical elements.

  • Places to Touch Him
    A devoted, Latino immigration rights lawyer in Phoenix, AZ, seeks a seat on the city council until he meets a provocative, working class young man who introduces him to a more sensual side of life. The ramifications for his campaign as well as his private life are thrown aside, meeting resistance from his campaign manager who seeks to undo the damage.
  • The Sweet Life
    Nadia and her mother Teresa don’t get along and battle out their differences over the course of five years and that might seem “normal” except that both mother and daughter struggle with each other in a country that could potentially deport one or both of them back to Mexico at the same time. As national politics play out, this comedy depicts this mother/daughter struggle with comedic energy as their strong...
    Nadia and her mother Teresa don’t get along and battle out their differences over the course of five years and that might seem “normal” except that both mother and daughter struggle with each other in a country that could potentially deport one or both of them back to Mexico at the same time. As national politics play out, this comedy depicts this mother/daughter struggle with comedic energy as their strong wills and egos battle it out as they might normally do in any culture. A comedy of contemporary notions and personalities under the shadow of national events in the U.S. and Mexico.

    An excerpt of the play was included in the William Inge Festival in April 2022 and the full-length play was workshopped as part of the Process Series of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It's a work-in-progress.


  • Hit Music
    The Boy’s on the edge of seventeen, ready to sing, ready to write songs and grow up, but his father’s stuck on retro music and isn’t supportive of his goals. When the eccentric Italian father in this mixed Latino-Italian-American family in Los Angeles announces his imminent death, the boy brings together the family and a (not-so-beloved) niece to stage a final commemorative concert in 1996 at a North...
    The Boy’s on the edge of seventeen, ready to sing, ready to write songs and grow up, but his father’s stuck on retro music and isn’t supportive of his goals. When the eccentric Italian father in this mixed Latino-Italian-American family in Los Angeles announces his imminent death, the boy brings together the family and a (not-so-beloved) niece to stage a final commemorative concert in 1996 at a North Hollywood diner. But everything gets derailed by twists of fate, a romance, a heart break, and lots of funky singing in English, Italian and Spanish. A comedy with music for our times, or any time.

  • GRAVITAS
    A murder riles up the community of San Diego as it may involve a Latinx policewoman. In the course of the play, as the story unravels in the course of twenty years, we get to know Gwenn, from a prominent CIA Chilean-American family, and the reasons why and how she came to be seen as a suspect in a murder. A mystery without clear answers and plenty of strange humor and moments of revelation about a woman'...
    A murder riles up the community of San Diego as it may involve a Latinx policewoman. In the course of the play, as the story unravels in the course of twenty years, we get to know Gwenn, from a prominent CIA Chilean-American family, and the reasons why and how she came to be seen as a suspect in a murder. A mystery without clear answers and plenty of strange humor and moments of revelation about a woman's passions, sensuality and the potential for violence in a family with a history of violence.
  • ANDES
    Two young men from opposing class backgrounds are forced to work together to ensure their mutual survival as well as those of the people they seek to rescue in a plane accident in the Andes Mountains. While their youth can work in their favor—they’re athletic and strong—their emotional immaturity also works as an obstacle to cooperation and survival. They must desperately overcome petty jealousies and hatreds...
    Two young men from opposing class backgrounds are forced to work together to ensure their mutual survival as well as those of the people they seek to rescue in a plane accident in the Andes Mountains. While their youth can work in their favor—they’re athletic and strong—their emotional immaturity also works as an obstacle to cooperation and survival. They must desperately overcome petty jealousies and hatreds in order to survive and make it to their destination.
    (The events are a creative and fictionalized retelling of the true story of the Andes survival case, but not meant to be a “docudrama.”)
  • THAT DAY IN TUCSON
    Based on the events that led to the shooting of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the play depicts the experiences of the young Mexican-American intern, Daniel Hernandez Jr., who is credited with saving her life. It's also a docudrama of the effects of gun violence in a community, the state of mind of the shooter Jared Loughner, and the reactions of the media and politicians.
  • The Hispanick Zone
    A collection of comedic sketches on a variety of issues regarding Latinx life in the USA, including hilarious spoofs on the telenovela, a beauty contest (made up of macho Latinx men), the battle of the Latina Condoleeza vs. the traditional Mami and other "sisters who are doing it by themselves," and a couple of surprise issues including the Guatemalan immigrant who's learned English too well so...
    A collection of comedic sketches on a variety of issues regarding Latinx life in the USA, including hilarious spoofs on the telenovela, a beauty contest (made up of macho Latinx men), the battle of the Latina Condoleeza vs. the traditional Mami and other "sisters who are doing it by themselves," and a couple of surprise issues including the Guatemalan immigrant who's learned English too well so that Americans must get him to stop using multi-syllabic words. A comedy produced in various places and the last winner of the Nosotros Playwriting contest in Los Angeles before Nosotros shut down and left the playwright without the production they promised him (part of the backstage comedy of this irreverent show.)
  • We Lost It at the Movies (With a Special Appearance by Rock Hudson)
    A young mother, a Chilean immigrant in Hollywood, raises her son alone, and uses classic (mostly Hollywood) movies as a point of reference for herself and for her life, including conversations with an imaginary Rock Hudson. Her immigration to the United States requires her to make compromises, including marrying a man for papers (for him not her), and forces her to come to terms with her feelings as a woman....
    A young mother, a Chilean immigrant in Hollywood, raises her son alone, and uses classic (mostly Hollywood) movies as a point of reference for herself and for her life, including conversations with an imaginary Rock Hudson. Her immigration to the United States requires her to make compromises, including marrying a man for papers (for him not her), and forces her to come to terms with her feelings as a woman.
    Rosalinda’s growth from a conservative, loving single mother to a slightly more knowing romantically involved human being allows her to become a more fully realized woman.
  • BAD HOMBRES (DATE ME OR DEPORT ME)
    The play is a collection of comic monologues in which characters negotiate sexual identity and various Latino cultural (sometimes mixed) identities. Relationships and marriage, monogamy and sexual adventurism, legality vs. “illegality” all clash in a contemporary setting of American politics (with mostly a Southwestern focus.) One recurring character, Ulysses, starts off the play with his various dating...
    The play is a collection of comic monologues in which characters negotiate sexual identity and various Latino cultural (sometimes mixed) identities. Relationships and marriage, monogamy and sexual adventurism, legality vs. “illegality” all clash in a contemporary setting of American politics (with mostly a Southwestern focus.) One recurring character, Ulysses, starts off the play with his various dating misadventures and ends it on a high, hopeful note. In between, poignancy and tragedy highlight some other cultural struggles. This is not a traditional play with a complete linear form, but more of a collage play held together by common themes of contemporary political and social struggles surrounding a picturesque set of queer-identified characters.
  • Valentino and the Chilean Heiress
    A sensual journey into the early Valentino myth, as the immigrant from Italy arrives in the United States with hopes of becoming an actor and a dancer, and meets the tormented Blanca, a Chilean heiress married to an American industrialist from an equally wealthy family. The young Valentino attracts the attention of Blanca and her kid, Junior, both of whom become enamored of his dancing and his gentle nature....
    A sensual journey into the early Valentino myth, as the immigrant from Italy arrives in the United States with hopes of becoming an actor and a dancer, and meets the tormented Blanca, a Chilean heiress married to an American industrialist from an equally wealthy family. The young Valentino attracts the attention of Blanca and her kid, Junior, both of whom become enamored of his dancing and his gentle nature. Valentino leaves for Hollywood, Blanca shoots her husband to death, provoking a scandal in New York City society. Based on the true story of the young Valentino, this play integrates tango dancing as a form of choreographic integration into the drama.
  • MEN ON THE VERGE OF A HIS-PANIC BREAKDOWN
    MOVHB is a monologue play which has been done with one actor in L.A. and off-Broadway, but it's also been performed by teams of two, three, four, other numbers. The play is anchored by the humorous, neurotic gay immigrant, Federico, whose journey we follow in three separate monologues, arriving in the U.S., settling down and marrying a lesbian to get his papers. Along the way we also meet the aging kept...
    MOVHB is a monologue play which has been done with one actor in L.A. and off-Broadway, but it's also been performed by teams of two, three, four, other numbers. The play is anchored by the humorous, neurotic gay immigrant, Federico, whose journey we follow in three separate monologues, arriving in the U.S., settling down and marrying a lesbian to get his papers. Along the way we also meet the aging kept boy from Colombia, the sexually repressed ESL teacher who teaches English to even more downtrodden immigrants, the Cuban immigrant who's been exiled as a punishment to Phoenix, the Latino actor with multiple personalities who finally cracks, the Roommate from Hell who'll need to pay people to move in with him, and the martyr Drag Flamenco diva who represents the AIDS crisis in the early 90s. All of them create a kaleidoscopic view of a West Coast immigrant lifestyle with some flair, humor, and outrageousness.