Guillermo Reyes (Chile,1962) es uno de los dramaturgos latinos de teatro gay contemporáneos más importantes. Llegó a los Estados Unidos siendo un niño en 1971.
Obtuvo su Maestría en Dramaturgia en la Universidad de California, en San Diego, y actualmente es profesor en la Escuela de Teatro y Filme en la Universidad Estatal de Arizona (ASU). Reyes ha publicado constantemente en los últimos veinte años.
La mayoría de sus obras exploran las vidas de los emigrantes latinos y las tribulaciones emergentes de la homosexualidad. Algunas de sus obras más conocidas son Deporting the Divas, Chilean Holiday, The Hispanick Zone, Allende by Pinochet, Mother Lolita, y The Seductions of Johnny Diego.
Una de sus obras más renombradas es Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown, la cual se estrenó en junio de 1994 en el Celebration Theater en Los Ángeles, California.
La obra ganó el Theater L.A. Ovation Award for Best World Premier Play and Best Production en 1994, el Emerging Playwright Award en 1996 y el Outer Critics’ Circle Award en 1997.
En 2004 escribió Men on the Verge II: The Self-Esteem Files, una colección de personajes distintos a Men on the Verge of a His-panic Breakdown, pero con problemáticas igualmente actuales. Recientemente escribió también el libro autobiográfico Madre and I: A Memoir of Our Immigrant Lives (2010), en el cual habla sobre sus raíces chilenas y narra sus experiencias como emigrante en los Estados Unidos. En febrero de 2014 Reyes estrenó su nueva obra The Comic Hero en el Teatro Borderlands, en Tucson, Arizona. La historia está basada en Daniel Hernández, un hispano que auxilió a la ex-congresista demócrata Gabrielle Giffords durante el atentado que sufrió en Arizona en 2011 y donde murieron seis personas.
La entrevista fue realizada en Tempe, Arizona, el 7 de enero de 2014.
Abstract
Guillermo Reyes (Chile, 1962) is considered one of the most important contemporary Latinos dramatists. The playwright came to the U. S. in 1971 at the age of 9. He received his Master's Degree in Playwriting from the University of California, in San Diego, and is currently a Professor at the School of Theatre and Film at Arizona State University in Phoenix. Reyes has published substantially and nonstop for the last twenty years. The majority of his plays explore the lives of immigrants and the tribulations arising from homosexuality. Some of his well-known plays are Deporting the Divas, Chilean Holiday, The Hispanick Zone, Allende by Pinochet, Mother Lolita, The Seductions of Johnny Diego, and Men on the Verge II: The Self-Esteem Files (2004). One of his most acclaimed plays is Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown, which premiered in June 1994 at the Celebration Theater in L.A. The play won the Theater L.A. Ovation Award for Best World Premier Play and Best Production 1994. In 1996 Reyes won the Emerging Playwright Award and the Outer Critics’ Circle Award in 1997.
In 2004 Reyes wrote Men on the Verge II: The Self Esteem Files, a collection of characters distinct from Men on the Verge I, but who equally face present-day hardships and difficulties concerning homosexuality and immigration. Recently Reyes published the book Madre and I: A Memoir of Our Immigrant Lives (2010), in which he comes in contact with his Chilean roots and also narrates about his early life as an immigrant in Hollywood. In February 2014 his newest play, The Comic Hero, premiered at Borderlands Theater in Tucson, Arizona. The story is based on Daniel Hernandez, a hispanic man who helped former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords during her assassination attempt in Arizona in 2011, where six people died.
This interview was conducted on January 7th, 2014 in Tempe, Arizona.
