He has been touring the country in "Del Shores: The Storyteller," a chatty show featuring career reminiscences and guest stars, and in "Sordid Confessions," his solo standup showcase. Yet his most significant career turnaround came last June when he premiered "Yellow," his first new stage script in seven years, achieving what promises to be his biggest critical and commercial triumph. Shores says it's currently in negotiations for a Broadway run.
Recognizing the great year he had, the 2011 Back Stage Garland Awards, announced in this issue, bestow five citations on the seriocomic box-office bonanza "Yellow": for production, Shores' writing and direction, the ensemble cast, and actor Matthew Scott Montgomery. "Yellow" also netted major nominations from the Ovations, the LA Weekly Awards, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and has earned the pre-announced LADCC Ted Schmitt Award for a world-premiere script, including a $1,000 prize from Samuel French Inc., which offers to publish it.
To add to Shores' current good fortune, he recently received the green light from Kestrel Communications, which is producing a film adaptation of his award-winning 2003 play, "The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife," reuniting the complete original stage cast of Shores mainstays: Beth Grant, Dale Dickey, Octavia Spencer, David Steen, and Debby Holiday. Preproduction began in February in Atlanta.
'Sordid' Fallout
After its successful first season, Shores' 2008 Logo television show "Sordid Lives: The Series" was abruptly canceled. The series, written and directed by Shores and adapted from his 1996 play "Sordid Lives" and its 1999 film version, featured a stellar cast—including Grant, Dickey, Olivia Newton-John, the late Rue McClanahan, Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, Carolyn Rhea, Margaret Cho, and Shores' spouse, actor-producer-singer Jason Dottley. The cancellation led to prolonged legal battles.
According to Shores, he and his cast remain unpaid for substantial amounts for their services for the show's 12-episode season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Sordid Lives" producer Once Upon a Time Entertainment filed bankruptcy after the Writers Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists attempted to pressure the producer into paying. When asked for comment, Kenneth Suddelson, attorney for Once Upon a Time, told Back Stage, "Everyone was paid, and Mr. Shores got close to [$500,000]." Yet several of the series' actors continue to speak out against the producers, adamantly claiming to be unpaid. Shores says about $1.7 million is still owed.
Shores experienced professional disappointment and financial chaos that resulted in foreclosure on his West Hollywood home. "It just sort of crippled me," admits Shores. "I was busy writing the second season. I thought it was going to go forward, and I had devoted the prior four years of my life to the project. That's why there's such a gap between my plays. I was occupied getting the series set up, putting financing together and all that. So I just couldn't write, I really couldn't."
Shores frankly admits that his return to performing in his solo vehicles (which sometimes incorporate surprise appearances from his unofficial acting troupe, such as Rosemary Alexander, Newell Alexander, and Ann Walker) resulted from desperately needing the money. "I had to redefine how I was making a living. So my husband, Jason, said, 'Let's have a couple of glasses of wine, sit at the table, tell all those stories you always tell, and just write them down. We have so many fans.' We did that and went on the road with the material. It kind of healed me. Jason's first two dance singles had hit Billboard, and he was doing a club tour. I would perform like at 8 and he would perform till midnight, and then we'd sleep till noon. Then we'd hit the next city. I did 30 cities, and it did really well. The piece evolved, and I recently taped it during an appearance at the Renberg Theatre [in L.A.]. It became more and more scripted as it went along, but I always allowed there to be some interaction with the audience—the ad libbing that I like to do."
Shores finds his own penchant for spontaneity while performing ironic: "What's funny is I am so strict with my actors with their words, to the point where we have speed drills. In this show, I'm talking to the audience, and when somebody says something, I literally ask questions." While touring the country, he has realized what a strong following he has. He says, "My real fan base was fewer cities at first, but 'Sordid Lives,' the franchise, changed my life, due to its cult following. It's become bigger than I ever expected it to be. When the series became so successful, social networking became crazy for us. So we went to the pockets where we knew our biggest fan base was. Dallas and Atlanta are always fighting it out for No. 1 and No. 2, then it's L.A. and then any gay mecca—New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and a lot in Southern Nashville and Ft. Lauderdale."
How satisfying was Shores' return to performing? "I love it," he says. "I felt it had been a very long time since I commanded the stage. I certainly had never done anything like this. I was so inspired by my good buddy Leslie Jordan, who just got rave reviews in London" with his solo show, "My Trip Down the Pink Carpet." Shores' standup show "Confessions" grew out of his one-man "The Storyteller."
Actor's Director
Shores is known for his fierce loyalty to an unofficial troupe of actors, such as Jordan, who have worked with him repeatedly in different mediums and who are equally happy to accept roles from him. He has often written roles with his favorite collaborators in mind. Three actors repeating their stage roles in the film "Trailer Trash Housewife" described why they love to work with Shores. According to Spencer, "Brilliant writers like Del Shores make my job easier. All I have to do is just show up." Says Grant, "Del Shores is unlike anyone I have ever known. The son of a preacher, the brother of a preacher, and in his own way, a preacher himself, his congregation is the world and he shouts in the wilderness at bigotry and intolerance just like John the Baptist. He's like a raw nerve end; his genius, brutally honest, both as a writer and a director, is raw, earthy, unstoppable. He has affected the lives of so many and shows no signs of stopping or even slowing down." Dickey adds, "Because I'm close to Del, it's like a family member directing. He definitely knows what he wants very specifically, as most writers do. I've worked with a lot of writers, where sometimes they say it's best to step away from your work, but with Del, it's a collaboration, and there are certain things that are precious that he doesn't want to part with. He knows exactly what he wants. He trusts us. I love it."
Montgomery, a current LADCC nominee and Garland honoree for his role as a spirited gay teenager suppressed by a Bible-thumping mother in "Yellow," added to the kudos: " I thought I had acted before, and then I met Del Shores. I feel like 'Yellow' was the first project I worked on where I even began to understand my potential as an actor. People thought Kendall was written for me, but it was all Del. Every 'um' and 'anyway' and stutter were there on the page, and if I had any question about who this character was, it was there in the writing. Working with him as a director is so liberating. I was frustrated with a scene and asked him, 'Del, is this scene about this? Or is it about this?' and he said, 'Yes.' It was about both those things—and more. So much is happening to every character on so many different levels. He is constantly giving actors gifts like that."
Shores elaborates on the significance of "Yellow" in his personal and professional life: "I knew I had to get back to my [playwriting] roots. I wrote a play about betrayal, after I felt very betrayed—though not betrayal as it happens in the play, which is about a family." Shores feels he and his company were treated very unfairly by the "Sordid Lives: The Series'" producers. He continues: "I always tell actors, 'Embrace your damage, because that's what makes us good.' Look at 'Southern Baptist Sissies': If I had not grown up that way, that play would not exist." Shores' semiautobiographical plays—inspired by his angst-filled Texas Bible Belt upbringing, particularly "Sordid Lives" and "Southern Baptist Sissies"—have fostered a huge cult following with gay fans and beyond. Gays relate to his themes of fighting bigotry and oppression, while diverse audiences respond to his universal truths embracing love, faith, compassion, and dignity.
"So I went back to that, and I embraced that damage," Shores continues. "Writing about what I have experienced has provided a great ride for me. I was in my 20s when I was writing my first plays. I got writing deals at Warner Bros. and made a movie when I was 29 years old. I had no money problems for a long time. That gave me respect for the money I earned, and it gave me the power of standing up for myself and speaking out." Shores expresses pride for being openly vocal about the experiences he had with the "Sordid Lives" series, saying he didn't hesitate to defy threats of lawsuits for publicly "telling the truth" on blogs and websites. "I knew that I was right and they were wrong. I said what I did because my fans deserve to know why 'Sordid' went away."
Adventures of a Southern Boy
Shores has enjoyed myriad career triumphs since he moved during the mid-1980s from Winters, Texas, to Los Angeles, where he quickly landed acting roles on daytime dramas and tried his hand as a fledgling writer, moving between theater and television. Following his early focus on outrageous rural comedies, his plays have become increasingly bittersweet, beginning with "Southern Baptist Sissies" (2000), which juggled humor and heart-wrenching drama. In "Trailer Trash Housewife," Shores' frequent themes involving homosexuality had all but vanished in this searing tragicomedy about spousal abuse. "Yellow," which incorporates gay themes but primarily focuses on crises befalling a seemingly idyllic suburban family, is clearly a milestone in Shores' creative growth. The Back Stage review summed up the play's importance in the Shores canon: "In place of the bawdy, bucolic humor and outrageous characters of his past plays, Shores has fashioned a realistic domestic drama in a traditional vein, eloquently exploring the power of forgiveness, the true definition of family, and the thorny compromises of love....This powerfully moving work points to exciting new creative directions for a gifted playwright."
Shores says he was taken aback when someone from a gay organization recently commented that in "Yellow," he was "abandoning us." Shores asserts, " I can be gay and tell stories that aren't all gay. 'Yellow' won't be known as a gay play. I am openly proud of being gay, but it's part of me, not all of me. I'm thrilled that I've been able to embrace that part of me, and will continue to do so." He jokes, "I might just write one of those naked-boys plays and get everyone there. Though I don't like gratuitous nudity, I really don't. Well, not in plays anyway."
What's next for this perpetually ambitious self-starter? Besides a possible film version of "Southern Baptist Sissies" and a return visit with his zany "Sordid Lives" characters—perhaps in a feature film—Shores says, "I've got the DVD of my solo show coming up. It's being edited and will be available around April. I will be directing 'Trailer Trash' in Atlanta and then editing that with my team. I'm still going on tour with my solo show. I did New York and Dallas, and I'm doing Atlanta. It's pure standup: 75 minutes, no guest stars, and it's really dirty. And I have a new play I have started. It's called 'This Side of Crazy,' and the characters are all women. I've been told I write well for women. I was watching YouTube, and I saw a children's gospel group—three little girls singing—and they were so good. I started thinking. I love gospel music; it's part of my fabric, my growing up. I started imagining these three little girls growing up and what if their mother was their manager-songwriter. I remembered this gospel singer named Dottie Rambo. So in my play, the mother of the young girls will be honored for her 50 years in gospel music, and the three girls are sought out to perform together again. It's about the week leading up to performance, and one of them is in a mental institution. Mother has covered up a lot of scandals."
Shores seems particularly proud that his works have become a part of the cultural landscape. He frequently hears catch phrases and famous lines of dialogue from his plays and films. Each year he sees Halloween costumes inspired by "Sordid Lives" characters, such as Jordan's Brother Boy (an institutionalized drag queen who thinks he's Tammy Wynette) and Grant's neurotic, chain-smoking Sissy. Shores' professional journey started with good-natured ribbing of the "sordid" lives of characters inspired by his small-town upbringing. Yet thanks to the playwright's ironclad will, dedication to his craft, and affinity with his collaborative artists, Shores' own life has been irresistibly sweet.
OUTTAKES
– In 1987, his play "Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got the Will?" debuted at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood, running for two years.
– In 1990, "Daddy's Dyin'..." became his first play adapted into a film—starring Beau Bridges, Tess Harper, Judge Reinhold, and Beverly D'Angelo.
– "Sordid Lives" (1999) became the longest-running film in Palm Springs' history, running for 96 weeks.
– "Southern Baptist Sissies" (2000) received 20 L.A. theater awards, and Leslie Jordan swept all local awards in the featured actor category.
– Among his television writing and producing credits: "Touched by an Angel," "Family Ties," "Dharma & Greg," "Queer as Folk," and "Sordid Lives: The Series"
– Has twice won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle's Ted Schmitt Award for a world-premiere play: for "The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife" (2003) and "Yellow" (2010)