GetOut Magazine

Guillermo Reyes touches with ‘Places to Touch Him’
By MAX McQUEEN
Get Out
Sept. 15, 2002

We keep thinking Guillermo Reyes has a great play in him. Places To Touch Him is not that milestone piece, but it finds the head of Arizona State Universitys play-writing program moving in the right direction of a landmark, definitive work.

Curiously, Saturdays world premiere for Teatro Bravo finds Reyes covering ground hes strutted across in Deporting the Divas and Men on the Verge of a His-panic Breakdown. Namely, what it means to be gay and Latino in modern-day America.

In his body of work to date, Reyes has more or less played with the conflicting images of being hyper-homosexual in a super-macho culture. With Places to Touch Him, the Chilean-American playwright gets serious. For the first time locally, he fleshes out stage characters who seem made of real skin and bone.

Not one to whitewash his favorite subjects, Reyes draws on negative and positive stereotypes from the gay and Latino communities. In so doing, he presents three lead characters who seem to be genuine people with real and highly flawed lives. That Reyes sets the play in Phoenix during election time makes it particularly relevant during this election year.

Reyes stage alter ego, Andres Alcala, returns as Cesar, a lawyer whos not timid about Latino issues but who is excessively guarded about his sexuality. When hes urged to run for city council, Cesar has to confront who he is as he decides what side or sides of himself to reveal to voters.

Two men are only too happy to help Cesar find himself. One is Matt, a longtime pal and peer and Cesars likely campaign manager. Matt is a self-appointed conscience not only of Cesars every political move but his sexual life, too. Bisk Consoli is totally at home in this role, giving his most comfortable performance to date. This despite the fact that, for the most part, Matt is very unlikable.

Distracting Cesar from his passion for social justice is Domingo, a hunk of a young man with more one-night stands than he can count. Matt knows Domingos bad reputation and does all within his power to keep the stud muffin away from Cesar. But its to no avail. As they say, opposite attracts.

As Domingo, Alonso Minjarez readily mines the substance in a role that could easily be dismissed as a male bimbo. But surprise, Reyes has something up his sleeve with the plays resident hustler. The young man turns out be the mouthpiece for a subject dear to Reyes heart: hard-working, undocumented Latinos. Indeed, Domingo even gives a sermonette inspired by the millions of Latinos who work jobs no one else wants in America.

Newcomer Minjarez couldnt be more hot-tempered and hot-blooded as an uneducated Don Juan working the system to his advantage. He could walk away with this well-written piece were it not for Alcalas confidence in the inner strength of his milquetoast lawyer. Alcala finds the flesh-and-blood human beneath his characters seemingly thin skin, resulting in a man with a conscience a rare bird in contemporary plays.

Saturdays performance was sold out. That unusual feat itself suggests the word is out that Reyes has found his stride, both as a writer and director. Make no mistake, Places to Touch Him will be best received and best appreciated by the gay community. Judging from Saturdays extremely receptive crowd, Reyes hit home with his target audience.

Places to Touch Him
Who: Teatro Bravo
When: 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Sept. 28.
Where: Playhouse in the Park, VIAD Building, 1850 N. Central Ave., Phoenix
Cost: $12-$15
Info:
Grade: B+