Experimenting with boundaries of identity

The play, "The Barber of East L.A.," focuses on the stories of the gay Latino community in Los Angeles.

Discovering what it means to be a gay minority, while trying to find a place of belonging in the cultural minefield that is Los Angeles, is a theme that is explored in "The Barber of East L.A.," a performance that will be held at Ground Zero Coffeehouse tonight and Saturday night.

This play demonstrates the double marginalization of being gay and being Latino in Los Angeles and is performed by the dynamic trio of Butchlalis de Panochtitlan, a multimedia ensemble that got its start in 2002 as community activists.

"We basically crafted a story around this woman's trajectory, and the life she spent in the piece of the world that had her name on it: the barbershop she owned," said Raquel Gutierrez, a member of BdP and assistant director of the Center for Feminist Research.

In "The Barber of East L.A." and in many of its other sketch-driven performances, the overarching theme is experimenting with the boundaries of identity and creating visibility of gay and Latino experiences that are often brushed over in society's portrait of sexuality.

"As a queer performer, I've always been galvanized by queer performance. It made up for the fact I didn't see myself represented in the real world, and it called me to find my own voice," Gutierrez said. "The play is about the consequence of trying to be yourself in the places you are from and about not having to compromise who you are to satisfy the expectations of others."

"The Barber of East L.A." starts at 7 p.m. tonight and 6 p.m. Saturday night at Ground Zero Coffeehouse.

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