For Reyes, the dress is the thing

Randy Reyes knows how to work a dress to maximum comic effect. At the Guthrie Theater, in a Shakespeare play no less, he's inciting riotous laughter nightly with his wickedly funny ways in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

In the romantic comedy, Reyes plays Francis Flute, one of a crew of Minnesota-style Rude Mechanicals tasked with putting on a wedding-themed play-within-a-play. Reyes' character, costumed up until then in a Boy Scout uniform, does a series of quick costume changes near the end of the show, donning a prep schoolgirl's getup, à la Britney Spears' "... Baby One More Time" video, complete with a lollipop. Reyes also wears a flowing dress and, in the final scene, a kimono.

"You have to admit that he's the best-looking gal on that stage," said director Joe Dowling. "Sometimes, you come in during a school matinee [of 'Midsummer'] and you think the roof is going to lift off. Randy has a kind of comic genius because his timing is so perfect. Plus, he's clearly having so much fun."

With Dowling and costume designer Paul Tazewell, Reyes developed a story for the dresses of Francis Flute, "who is at first shy, but when he commits, he commits to it fully," said Reyes. "The first dress he found in his sister's closet, the second in his mother's, then the kimono in his grandmother's."

"I feel really comfortable in dresses and skirts -- I feel really empowered by them," Reyes said on his day off last week. "I've talked with women about it. Especially a little skirt -- it's seductive, there's something there that you can't see but know is there, it's very powerful."

The resulting show stopper is even more remarkable because Reyes is surrounded by other Mechanicals -- including Sally Wingert, Jim Lichtscheidl and Richard Iglewski -- who have their own major comic chops.

Thriller from Manila

For Reyes, the journey to the Guthrie began in the Philippines, where he was born. His family immigrated to Los Angeles when he was 8.

He sang through junior high school, intending to audition for the famed Vienna Boys Choir. "When my voice changed, it seemed like it was all over," he said.

In high school, he studied with a drama teacher who had been a student of Ken Washington, now head of company development at the Guthrie, but at the time head of the acting program at the University of Utah. Reyes' teacher encouraged him to apply to Utah. He got in, but just before he could complete his degree, his father died. Reyes pulled away to reassess.

"I was at my lowest," he recalled. "Facing that, I could face anything." He applied to and was accepted at Juilliard, where Washington was teaching. After Juilliard, Washington invited Reyes to a summer acting program at the Guthrie. That's where Dowling saw him and first cast him in "A School for Scandal."

"It was a small, nonspeaking part, but he made it his own," said Washington. "You had to notice him, not because he was trying to steal any scene, but because he brought such a spirit, such loveliness to his character. That's it -- he really is a sincere, darling person, and all of that comes through his characters."

When he was younger, Reyes, who is 5 feet 4, idolized Prince. "He's a small man who has done amazing things," he said.

Because of Reyes' height and background, he realized that he would not be cast as a typical male lead. "So, I thought that I better be funny," he said.

Unlike Bobby Lee, the Korean-American comic actor on "Mad TV," Reyes' humor is not based in shtick or gag.

"He's an intelligent actor, but what sets him apart from other actors is that he really looks for the spirit of the character," said director and choreographer Marcela Lorca, who has mentored Reyes. "He finds and develops the soul of his characters, so the humor comes from the story."

Near the very end of "Midsummer," Reyes' Francis Flute gives a closing speech in a kimono, quieting the audience. For Dowling, that arc "is the mark of a great actor. To go from having people screaming with laughter, then two minutes later, having them feeling pathos from a sense of loss -- that's probably a first for a Francis Flute."

Male and female

Reyes, who works with Mu Performing Arts, in opera and with other companies, said one of the roles he would really love to do is the lead of David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly," a show that critiques the emasculation of Asian men.

"There's a perception that America is masculine and Asia is feminine," said Reyes. "Except for martial arts, there's nothing in the media to say that Asian men are strong or masculine. I guess I'm not helping that image at all with my dresses, but they empower me.

"You know, my father passed away in 1994, when I was 22," he said. "Going through the fear and pain of all that really changed the way I looked at life. I started to do things with less fear. And that's when I decided to go for it with everything I've got."

Just like his Francis Flute.

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390