Out of the Closet onto the Stage—An Anthology of Contemporary Mexican Gay and Lesbian Theater

This anthology brings together seven contemporary Mexican plays with homosexual themes. The dramatists are interested in the gay and lesbian being exactly as the term says—“being”—someone who is profoundly human. This means a human being who knows how to love and to suffer, who has hopes, who wants to have a family, who needs a job, who hates, who is passionate, who gets scared, who has ideals, and who even lives or dies for them. These plays are easily staged and are now available to independent, university-oriented, and semi-professional theater groups in the English-speaking world as well as to all other groups or organizations who may not have much financial support but who do have worlds of talent. With this anthology, Dr. Loisel presents a compilation of works that is as thematically rich as it is varied. The result is a collection that challenges monolithic definitions of being, writing, and ‘acting gay’ in contemporary Mexico.Kathy Fox, Associate Professor, Spanish, St. Ambrose University Collected, these plays act as a prism, each a facet that offers a bold color in the spectrum that is gay and lesbian life in Mexico City and Mexico. There are dramas of regret and betrayal, of violence and passion, of laughter and heartbreak, and most of all, of love. Michael Downs, Assistant Professor, Creative Writing, Towson UniversityAuthor of House of Good Hope In chronological order, Dr. Loisel has compiled seven clear translations that introduce us to lesbian and gay theater in Mexico, but, more importantly perhaps, to some of the finest Mexican dramatists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The interviews with several playwrights cogently identify cultural reference points for the general reader as well as the scholarly community, not to mention stage actors and directors. Robert Stone, Associate Professor, Spanish, Naval Academy Clary Loisel, Ph.D. obtained his doctorate in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Florida. He is currently a Professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at The University of Montana in Missoula.