In his new play, “The Other Americans,” John Leguizamo stars as Nelson Castro, a Colombian laundromat owner in Queens whose life begins to unravel as his family struggles to, as Leguizamo puts it, “survive the American dream.”
Most of his previous stage outings have been solo shows, like “Mambo Mouth” and “Spic-O-Rama,” but Leguizamo wrote this new play for an ensemble. He said a full cast was necessary to flesh out the strain in the Castro household, but he also wanted to write a Latino family drama that could stand next to the greats, to show that Latino writers can produce plays as good as those of Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill or David Mamet.
Leguizamo has called for more Latino representation in entertainment, including this year through a full-page ad in The New York Times in June and a speech at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards in September. “Turns out not complaining didn’t change anything,” he said during that speech. “So for the past few years, I’ve been complaining.”
While he praised the television industry for some progress, he told The Times he felt Latino representation in the theater world was “abysmal,” which was one reason he wanted to write “The Other Americans.”
The actress Luna Lauren Velez, who plays Castro’s wife, Patti, said of the play: “It made me realize just how little you see this kind of material for us.”
Leguizamo is also a producer of the Broadway-bound production of “Buena Vista Social Club,” a stage musical inspired by the making of the beloved album. It is to begin previews in February at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater.
In a recent phone interview, Leguizamo, 64, discussed the new play, which opened on Friday at Arena Stage in Washington, his speech at the Emmy Awards and the challenges facing Latinos in theater. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Tell me about “The Other Americans” and what you wanted to accomplish with this work.
One of them is having a canon of Latin classics, and to start that with showing Latin culture as we really exist. I don’t feel like I’ve ever seen us really existing anywhere in media.
You live in New York City and we’re equal to the white population, and yet we’re virtually invisible. When you look at The New York Times or New York Magazine or The New Yorker, why aren’t we on the cover? Why aren’t we the writers?
Broadway is shocking to me. How many stories about any Latinos? None. The only one that’s there is “Hamilton.” [“Hamilton” was created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is Latino, and features a multicultural cast, but the musical itself is not a Latino story.]
I’ve hit the quotas and the tokenism and the Plexiglas ceilings. No matter how talented you are — you could write like William Goldman or Arthur Miller or William Shakespeare — they’re not going to produce your content if it’s Latino content. I pitched for four decades to Hollywood, thinking that my writing was subpar, but I didn’t know that they were never going to greenlight a Latin content project.
What’s wild is people saying, my God, that looks like my aunt. That sounds like my brother. It’s an incredibly cathartic moment for people to see themselves reflected back, because what you’re saying is, your life has value. Your existence has value.
We’re used to seeing you in one-man shows. Why did you decide to make this story an ensemble piece?
I don’t feel like we [Latinos] get the credit we deserve for moving the culture in America, especially literature. I feel like my one-man shows were very instrumental in changing comedy in America. When I did “Mambo Mouth,” I brought back guys dressing as women. Then you had Martin Lawrence doing it and Jamie Foxx and Tyler Perry. When I did “Spic-O-Rama,” I played my whole entire family. Then you had [Eddie Murphy’s] “The Nutty Professor.” With “Freak,” I brought a lot of pain and real true dysfunction in families into American comedy. With “Ghetto Klown,” nobody was doing plays about young contemporary artists talking about their artistic growth. Now every play is about that. It was very difficult to pioneer that because people thought it was an egotistic vanity project, but it wasn’t. It was about showing to Latin people that if I can do it, they can do it.
What are your thoughts on the current state of Latino representation on the stage, both in terms of casting and the works themselves being staged?
Abysmal. What Latin story is on Broadway right now? And we’re equal to the population of white people in New York City.
That feels, to me, like cultural apartheid. That’s how I feel when I’m in New York City. I see Latin people everywhere in every aspect of life, and yet not in the marquees. Not when you look at the contributing editors to all the other magazines and newspapers. It becomes this messaging that we’re not good enough.
Your Emmys speech about the importance of representation in entertainment gained a lot of attention. What are some of the differences between Latino representation in Hollywood and the theater?
Hollywood is doing better, believe it or not. Streaming is doing better. We’re at about 6 percent of the leads in Hollywood. We’re 20 percent of the U.S. population. We add $3.6 trillion to the G.D.P. as Latinos. If we were our own country, it would be the fifth-largest economy in the world, bigger than Brazil, India, France, England. And yet what do we get for that?
That’s what my inner rage is about, the obvious lack of equality and opportunity. I’ve seen so many talented Latinos, their dreams dried up. I’ve seen those talents rotting.
Look at Rita Moreno. She’s an EGOT. If she had been white, she would have been in every movie, every play. But no. Because you’re Latino, there’s just a certain place for you.
When developing works like “The Other Americans,” how do you balance your activism with the crafting of an effective piece of theater?
Leguizamo the activist who is in shock at the situation in America for Latinos, that’s different than my playwriting. My playwriting is poetry. Every word is weighed with extreme caution and joy as well. The piece is what it is: The premise is the activist part of it, but not the storytelling.
What structural changes does the theater industry need to make to adequately represent Latinos?
The farms that form the future playwrights need to do outreach, need to greenlight more Latino talent. More Latino talent needs to be brought into the executive offices who are looking for talent, Latin talent that know where Latin talent is.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and myself and Matthew López can’t be the only three talented Latinos in New York City. I know we’re not.
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