ABSTRACT
Men on the Verge of a His-panic Breakdown was a hit at the Celebration Theater in Los Angeles and won two Ovation Awards: Best Writing of a World Premiere and Best Play Production in a Smaller Theater. In Men on the Verge of a His-panic Breakdown Reyes gives a gallery of gay Hispanic men. All of them are "out" as gay men but have trouble living as Hispanics in the American West. In some cases the character sees his gayness as his entree into American society and the good life. All of Reyes's characters are survivors. All have tried to assimilate to America from pasts of poverty or political exile and must survive in a capitalist system that sees them as dispensable. Reyes's characters are at the end of their ropes, on the verge of a His-panic breakdown, which Reyes defines as "the extreme of transcultural shock." Reyes's monologues are funny and sad, but they offer a catalog of fighters.
