AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

¡Gaytino!, written and performed by Dan Guerrero, will have its Off-Broadway premiere at the Zipper Factory Theater for two nights only: Saturday, January 10th (8pm) and Sunday, January 11th (7pm). Diane Rodriguez directs what the Washington Post called “a disarming twist on the triumph-of-the-human-spirit theme.”

¡Gaytino! was originally produced by the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, where it premiered in 2006. Since then, it has toured to more than a dozen cities around the country, including Santa Fe where his performance was introduced by Governor Bill Richardson. Mark Sendroff, Carl D. White and David Gersten present this NYC debut.

From Mariachi to Merman. Sondheim to César Chávez: Guerrero's play takes audiences from East LA in the 1950s to New York’s Great White Way in the ’60s & ’70s, and back to Hollywood. A father/son relationship and a treasured boyhood friendship drive this 75-minute, autobiographical solo play with music. through decades of Chicano history and the gay experience from a unique and personal perspective.

Originally from East LA, Guerrero moved to NYC at age twenty to perform in musicals, working Off-Broadway, in regional theater, summer stock, and countless cabaret revues including one that took him to the Nixon White House. He later became a successful Broadway talent agent representing Tony winners and future Hollywood stars including an eleven-year old Sarah Jessica Parker. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Guerrero became a ‘born-again Hispanic’ fiercely working for more positive Latino images on the screen as a casting director, writer and, for the past fifteen years, as a producer and director. Hispanic Magazine recognized him as “one of the 25 most powerful Latinos in Hollywood.”

Director Rodriguez is a nationally recognized Obie-winning actor, writer, and director. She is currently Associate Producer/Director of New Play Production at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles.. She won an Obie for Performance in 2007 for playing multiply characters in Heather Woodbury’s Tale of Two Cities. She received the National Endowment for the Arts/Theatre Communications Group Award for directing in 1998 and was nominated for the TCG Alan Schneider Director Award by David Emmes/Artistic Director of South Coast Repertory for her work on Octavio Solis’ Posada Majica. She has developed and directed the works of numerous writers including Nilo Cruz’s Hortensia and the Museum of Dreams and Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation at Sundance Theatre Lab.

Tickets can be purchased at www.thezipperfactory.com or at the box office 1 hour before each performance. For more information, visit http://www.gaytino.com.