Life as a Gaytino
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 | admin
Everybody has a different coming out story or experience living as an LGBT person. This June, the Latino Cultural Center brings a fabulous one-man play to North Texas that wanders through decades of Chicano history and the gay experience from a unique and personal perspective.
¡Gaytino! was written and performed by Dan Guerrero and has been described by the Washington Post as a “disarming twist on the triumph-of-the-human-spirit theme.” From Mariachi to Merman, Sondheim to César Chávez, this remarkable life journey takes the audience from East L.A. in the 1950s to New York’s Great White Way in the 60s and 70s, and back to Hollywood.
A father/son relationship and a treasured boyhood friendship drive this 75-minute, autobiographical solo play with music. Touching, hilarious and absolutely one-of-a-kind, Guerrero brings his two disparate worlds together in one riveting show.
Originally from East L.A., Guerrero began his career in New York as a 20-year-old performer. He took his last bow in an Off-Broadway show in 1973 before moving to a successful career as a Broadway talent agent representing Tony Award winners and future Hollywood names in the years from A Chorus Line to Cats. Returning to his hometown L.A., the former talent agent became a “born-again Hispanic” fiercely working for more positive Latino images on the screen as a casting director, writer and, for the past 20 years, as a producer of diverse network and cable television programming in English and Spanish.
Guerrero helmed projects for NBC, HBO, Univision and PBS where he co-produced the Concert of the Americas with Quincy Jones among other PBS music specials. An award-winning documentary film he produced and wrote about his late father, Lalo Guerrero The Original Chicano, aired nationally on PBS stations. The elder Guerrero was widely recognized as the Father of Chicano Music and a National Medal of Arts recipient among other honors.
¡Gaytino! is coming to North Texas for the first time with two shows, June 10-11, 2011. Tickets can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com or at the Latino Cultural Center. For more information, visit www.dallasculture.org/latinocc.