DAN GUERRERO began his multi-faceted career in New York where he moved from East Los Angeles at age twenty to pursue a life in musical theater. He performed off-Broadway, in regional theatre and summer stock. He also took bows in musical revues at Manhattan’s most fabled cabarets including the Bon Soir in Greenwich Village and Upstairs at the Downstairs on the upper Eastside. A Cole Porter revue in Washington, DC brought an invitation to perform it at the Nixon White House.
Guerrero later became a successful theatrical agent with clients in the original casts of countless Broadway musicals in the years from A Chorus Line to Cats, representing Tony Award winners and future Hollywood stars. He returned home to Los Angeles for an equally successful time as a casting director for stage and television before turning his talents to producing and directing.
Television producing credits include the PBS Concert of the Americas co-produced with Quincy Jones for the Clinton White House, the NBC Vida Awards, a ground-breaking bilingual talk show for comic Paul Rodriguez that aired internationally on Univision, the HBO Latino stand-up comedy series Loco Slam and Navidad en las Americas, a bilingual Christmas special for Buena Vista International that included a best-selling CD release with Ricky Martin, Jose Feliciano, Tito Puente and Celia Cruz among the celebrated artists.
Directing and staging live arts and culture events include multiple productions at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World in the Opera House, the AmericArtes Gala in the Concert Hall, ¡Viva Cesar Viva Kennedy! in the Eisenhower, Pablo Neruda: A Centenary Celebration in the Terrace Theatre, and Japan! Culture + Hyper Culture in the Rooftop Gallery.
Other live non-broadcast events; the world premiere of Concierto para Mendez for the Los Angeles Opera; the San Jose Mariachi & Mexican Heritage Festival for artistic director Linda Ronstadt, the mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge, The Maravilla Concert to inaugurate the Roy E. Disney Performing Arts Center at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, and the Concerte Chicano et Tex Mex at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, France.
Guerrero also produced Lalo Guerrero: The Original Chicano, an award-winning documentary on his late father, Chicano music legend Lalo Guerrero. The film aired nationally on PBS stations in the Voces series hosted by Edward James Olmos and included a DVD/CD release. It also screened at film festivals including the Turks & Caicos International Film Festival where the film garnered awards for Best Documentary, Best Director and Best Song. The Spanish-language subtitled version has screened in Latin America including record-breaking attendance in a nine-week run at the Cineteca Nacional in Mexico City.
At the same time, the renaissance man crossed the country with his critically acclaimed solo show ¡Gaytino! Made in America following the 2006 world premiere in Los Angeles produced by the Center Theatre Group. He performed the autobiographical play with music at venues that include the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, New York’s Zipper Theatre, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the historic Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe where his performance was introduced by Governor Bill Richardson. ¡Gaytino! was also a favorite on the university circuit, playing on campuses from Northwestern to North Dakota State, the University of Maryland, and at UCLA www.gaytino.com
The long-waited ¡Gaytino! film was shot in the fall of 2018 with a Hollywood A-list creative team and crew. Guerrero returned to his alma mater East Los Angeles College and their Performing Arts Center where his stage performance was captured on film with an audience. The 75-minute feature was highly acclaimed on the Film Festival circuit and other outlets including at Ebay Global Headquarters in San Jose, CA.
Guerrero is an influential activist, speaking out in print, television and radio interviews in English and Spanish on both Latino/Chicano and LGBTQ+ issues. He is a popular figure on the speaking circuit and has addressed groups and organizations including the Southern Arizona LULAC Youth Leadership Conference in Tucson, the California Teachers Association Conference in Palm Springs, the National Education Association conference in Washington, DC and at the Geffen Academy at UCLA among others.
His presentation, Activism & the Arts: A Life Journey has been hailed for its portrayal of the intersection of the Chicano and LGBTQ+ social and political movements and the interconnected lives of artists and activists who fueled the civil rights struggles of the past several decades. The talk has been presented at UCSB, UCLA, UT Austin, Cal State Northridge, the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix and at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. The Smithsonian Latino Center and the Human Rights Campaign teamed to bring it to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC for a special presentation.
He’s also established himself as an online presence through his popular live streamed zoom conversations on The Happy Hour for La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, the historic museum in downtown Los Angeles. Latinx luminaries including Edward James Olmos, Lucie Arnaz, Cheech Marin and Linda Ronstadt have all been in conversation with wit master Guerrero. Dan Guerrero’s The Happy Hour is available on YouTube.
Educator was added to his resume when accepting an invitation from the Cesar E. Chavez Chicana/o Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles to serve as a Distinguished Community Scholar. He created a course based on his solo show. and ¡Gaytino! Performance and the Power of One led to his appointment to serve as a UC Regents’ Lecturer jointly in the UCLA Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies and the LGBT Departments.
The Dan Guerrero Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts has been established in the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and The Dan Guerrero Research Collection is housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center that includes his oral history recorded for their LGBT and Mujeres Initiative project. The Dan Guerrero Gaytino collection is part of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries.
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/cema/danguerrero
http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/publications/lgbt-and-mujeres-initiative-oral-histories