Del Shores is proof that certain show business myths can be exploded. He's a successful film-and television writer-director-producer whose big breaks in those mediums derived directly from his work in Los Angeles 99-Seat theatre, dispelling oft-heard complaints that this is a dead-end path. And since he came out of the closet in 1995--in his life, as well as in his plays--he has never allowed his sexual orientation to hamper his career. Starting the new year on a high note, this self-assured and talented impresario is embarking on two ambitious ventures. He recently formed a film-television-theatre production entity to bring his pet projects to fruition, and this week at Hollywood's Zephyr Theatre he begins previews for a repertory season encompassing all six plays that he wrote and premiered in L.A. between 1984 and 2003.
One story Shores recounts from his early years in L.A. in the 1980s sounds like a scene from Mel Brooks' The Producers. The Texas-reared Shores, who calls himself "a big self-promoter," recalls: "I've always known that you have to get your work seen--you absolutely must. When I couldn't afford a publicist to promote my plays, I installed an extra phone line in my guest house in Sherman Oaks, and I created this alter ego named Jon Altheimer, who spoke with a gay affectation. I even had stationery for 'Jon' printed up. [The late] Polly Warfield [longtime editor for Drama-Logue and critic and writer for Back Stage West] called 'Jon' regularly. She had talked to 'Del' many times prior to that. She was doing an article about [my play] Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got the Will? and I believe, after a while, she began to catch on. Opening night, I even got a friend who was an actor to pretend to be 'Jon' and hand out press kits. Eventually I had 'Jon' move to New York. I had to get rid of him."
Opening New Doors
Shores is clearly a shrewd self-starter who has opened many doors in his career, but one chamber that remained firmly locked in the beginning was his homosexuality. When he came out, his innermost feelings also burst forth into his art. The son of a staunch Baptist preacher and a high school drama teacher, Shores settled in L.A. in the mid-1980s with a wife and two small children. He led a tormented secret life during the writing and production of his first three plays--Cheatin', Daddy's Dyin', and Daughters of the Lone Star State--a trilogy of satiric comedies set in a rural Texas burg. Initially focusing on an acting career, he landed jobs in commercials and a small recurring role in the daytime drama Days of Our Lives. But he quickly migrated to his natural calling: writing, a skill he had developed in high school and college. His plays became critical and box office successes, some running longer than a year and doing equally well in return engagements.
With the premiere of the seriocomic family-dysfunction saga Sordid Lives at Hollywood's Theatre/Theater in 1995, Shores came out of the closet personally and professionally in a big way. He says he had always written characters and situations inspired by types of people and social environments he grew up with and knew very well, but Sordid was the first time he turned inward to explore his long-suppressed sexual orientation through his plays. The years of repression had been fueled by the guilt imposed by his strict Bible-Belt upbringing. The hard-hitting themes and emotional journey depicted in Sordid coincided with what was happening to him offstage. He confessed his long-hidden feelings to his wife and divorced her, then steeled himself for the agonizing process of coming out to his family, with predictably unpleasant results.
In 2000, Shores delved even deeper into his inner demons for his play Southern Baptist Sissies, and, after this emotional purgation, he came full circle in 2003 with The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, a searing tragicomedy tackling spousal abuse--not based on his personal experiences. From the early period of farcical rural comedies inspired by his small-town upbringing, through the soul-baring Sordid and Sissies, to the lacerating social drama of Trailer Trash, Shores had enriched his craft by exploring a range of important themes. He had established himself as an artist who could create compelling works driven by his own life experiences as well as the emotional journeys of others.
During an interview with Back Stage before the Sissies premiere, Shores admitted that he didn't want his family to see it--that he believed they simply couldn't take it. "They couldn't even get past the title," he now adds. "My mother asked me why I couldn't just call it Nondenominational Sissies." His mother and father have since died, and his brother, a Baptist minister in Texas, remains largely estranged from Shores. To Shores' disappointment, his brother has seen none of his work, except for Daughters in 1993. Another family trauma inspired him to write Sissies. "I have a nephew in Texas, and I love him," Shores explains. "He's 22 now, and it used to be that I was his hero--Uncle Del in Hollywood. When I came out of the closet, it was devastating to him, and one day he made some comments to my mom. There was a bomb threat at the gay and lesbian center in San Antonio, and he said, 'Good, I hope they all die.' She told him, 'You know, your uncle is gay,' and he said, 'Yeah, I know,' and he walked out of the room. My mother felt she should tell me this, and I kept it stashed in my head and heart. I was very upset about it."
The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming was the next catalyst of Shores' inspiration. "When they showed one of the killers' trailers on the news, there was a big picture of Jesus on the wall, and I started wondering if the hate that was taught in the church had influenced this crime," says Shores. "How were the killers able to justify this heinous crime? I mean, for heaven's sake, they had a picture of Jesus--the epitome of love--hanging there. Yet they were able to kill this beautiful boy--string him up on a cross to die. That imagery was so powerful to me that I called my brother and started talking to him about it, and I said, 'I think that the church and you have taught hatred.' He said, 'No, I don't teach hatred. We teach our children to hate the sin, not the sinner.' I told him that I think at that age, they get confused. During these conversations, I heard a lot of stuff from him that's now in [the character] TJ's mouth in Sissies. My brother told me, 'We all have these demons. You must push them away. You pray them away.'"
Shores found it difficult to come face-to-face with these issues. "For years I thought I had dealt with all this shit--I really did," he says. "I've had a lot of therapy, let me tell you. But all of a sudden, all of that church stuff just started pouring into me and back out of me, and I started writing monologues, and I didn't know what it was. Then I started exploring [the character] Andrew more. He was much like me. I would read the monologues to Sharyn [Lane, Shores' producer, who died of pancreatic cancer in March], and she said, 'You are stumbling into your new play.' Then we got funding for the movie version of Sordid, and I put the play aside. We were busy going to film festivals, and one day Sharyn and I were on a plane, and she asked, 'When are you going to finish that play?' So I did. And it was painful; let me tell you, it was just so very hard. I would cry every time I wrote. It's still very difficult for me, as I noticed recently when I was watching auditions for this new production and once again experienced the journey of Andrew in the play."
Shores acknowledges the unique mixture of dramaturgic tones in his plays. Outrageously comic dialogue segues to the starkly tragic in a heartbeat. He says he wasn't initially aware of creating these juxtapositions, but the power of this style finally dawned on him. Early on a colleague told him that he was a much better writer than he acknowledged himself to be. He's open to criticism, but he admits that one critic bothered him a great deal. "Robert Kohler [formerly of the L.A. Times] has blasted me for years," says Shores. "I mean, he just doesn't stop. He did it as recently as Sordid, the movie [in 2002]; he had done theatre reviews previously." Shores hints that Kohler once led him into a trap: "Back in 1987, when Daddy's was a huge hit, he wrote this article, 'Why the Blockbuster?' in the Times. He had called me under the guise of writing an article about the success of the play, asking me how much it had grossed and questions like that. And then when the article came out, he wrote, 'I don't understand the success of this play.' But a good thing happened from that: A lot of people got mad and wrote letters to the paper. Due to that, we sold out for a few more months."
Close for Comfort
Shores is known for his fierce loyalty to an unofficial troupe of actors who work with him repeatedly. Several regular Shores players are reprising their roles in the current repertory slate. Among the best-known is actor-writer Leslie Jordan, frequently seen on TV (recurring roles on Will & Grace and Boston Public), as well as in the film adaptation of Sordid Lives. He received acclaim and multiple awards last year for his autographical solo show Like a Dog on Linoleum at Hollywood's Elephant Asylum Theatre. He and Shores speak with similar dramatic vocabularies; both grew up in the rural South and use this for source material. Jordan appeared in Shores' first play, Cheatin', and they subsequently worked together in several film and theatre projects. When Jordan read the script for Sissies, featuring a role crafted specifically for him--a bitchy, boozy barfly with a dark side--he was shocked at how closely Shores had modeled the character on him, especially on his battles with alcoholism. Jordan refused to do it at first, feeling it hit too close to home, but he eventually relented--a wise move. His powerhouse portrayal won every theatre award that exists in L.A. for a supporting performance. Shores, no stranger to awards himself, has seen his six plays net a total of 75 citations from the Ovations, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, the L.A. Weekly, GLAAD, the NAACP, and the Back Stage West Garlands.
In speaking of his frequent collaborator, Shores says, "Leslie I think is the funniest actor I've ever worked with. Some critic once wrote when he was playing Brother Boy [an institutionalized transvestite] in Sordid, 'Leslie Jordan approaches the brim and never spills over.' Nobody else could do what he does and get away with it. He knows exactly where to go and when to come back. He takes your breath away in Sissies. I'm so glad he's doing it again. He's not doing the entire run. He's doing Sordid and Sissies initially, but he's leaving on Feb. 19. He's going to do Linoleum in Atlanta. He's been taking that show all over. It's a huge hit."
Other noted actors have appeared in Shores plays more than once. Acclaimed film- and television actor Beth Grant, who earned rapturous reviews as the indomitable titular character in Trailer Trash Housewife--a working-class Medea--spoke with us before its opening in 2003. She rhapsodized about collaborating with Shores: "I'm so in love with this play; this experience with Del has been the highlight of my life. After over 45 roles, this one makes me feel like I've really made it." Among other Shores regulars are Ann Walker, of Shores' TV series Mr. and Mrs. Smith, who appeared in the original Sissies staging as Jordan's sloshed barroom buddy; the prolific Dale Dickey (My Name Is Earl, Christy); and Patrika Darbo (Days of Our Lives). Shores' in-laws from his marriage, Newell Alexander and Rosemary Alexander, are also mainstays of his performing pool. The film versions of Shores' plays (Daddy's Dyin' and Sordid) featured such stars as Olivia Newton-John, Bonnie Bedelia, Delta Burke, and Beau Bridges.
Shores explains why he decided to revive his stage oeuvre at this time. "Sharyn passed away in March. Shortly after that, Gary [Guidinger] and Linda [Toliver, who run the Zephyr Theatre] called me and told me that the theatre is turning 50. They said Sissies was their biggest hit ever, and they would love it if I would stage a revival to celebrate their occasion. I thought about it. That was Sharyn's favorite play of the work that we did together--it was her baby. We also are anxious to do the film version, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get investors. And honestly, I think the time is better now than it ever was for Sissies, because of what's going on in this country. It's crazy, crazy times. The religious right has decided to hate us more than ever."
Another revelation convinced Shores the timing was right: "A mutual friend of mine and Sharyn's, Joe Voci, called me and said, 'I ran into a kid in West Hollywood recently who said that Sissies saved his life.' The kid had been a preacher in the South. He was only about 26, 27, and he had an affair with a guy, and he was exposed and then was excommunicated from the church. His wife left him, and his family abandoned him. He had intended to kill himself, but he came out here to visit some friends. He went to see Sissies, and then he decided to move out here. He said he didn't feel alone after viewing the play. I didn't do Sissies to save the world; I kind of wrote it for me, but, for some reason, the universe allowed it to be other people's journey, as well. A new generation probably hasn't seen it. It felt right when I was approached about reviving it, and so my husband [and co-producer] Jason [Dottley] and I met with Gary and Linda. They brought up the idea of doing a season of Shores. We agreed to do it."
The ever-busy Shores is planning the repertory schedule so it is not too frantic for him and his associates. "I'm going to allow each play to run as long as it is drawing crowds," he says. "When one starts to peter out, I will start rehearsing another. I've surrounded myself with an incredible staff. Jason is producing. He's brilliant, has great ideas. He actually unofficially produced Trailer Trash with me, because Sharyn was diagnosed with her illness two weeks into rehearsal. I wanted to shut down, and she said, 'No, no, you can't.' So I went to Jason and said 'You've got to help me.' He learned quickly because he had to. So that's how it all happened."
After the rep season was a go, Dottley and Shores embarked on an even bigger undertaking: their as-yet-untitled company, in collaboration with Victoria Alonso (visual effects producer on Kingdom of Heaven, Big Fish, and 50 First Dates) and six-time Emmy-winning producer Alice West (Ally McBeal, L.A. Law, Picket Fences). Zephyr's A Season of Shores is the company's first venture. Other projects on the drawing board are film versions of Sissies and Trailer Trash; Shores' new screenplay, Tainted Love, and one he co-wrote with Jordan, Miss Fleeta Runs Amuck; and an Off-Broadway premiere for Trailer Trash. Shores is nearly bursting to reveal more about a project he believes is very close to fruition. "I am in negotiations with LOGO to develop Sordid Lives as a series. I'm very excited to return to these characters."
Despite the high-profile professional opportunities that he continues to land--which include writing the screenplay for The Last Game of the Season, an upcoming Mandalay Studios feature--he seems humble and grateful. For Shores and Jordan, many job offers came directly from producers coming to view their individual or joint theatre endeavors. Shores says, "My very first break was writing an episode of Family Ties. It resulted from the show's [executive] producer, Gary Goldberg, coming to see Daddy's Dyin'. Even though it ended up not being produced, because a strike started the day I turned it in, it opened doors for me." And the Showtime hit Queer As Folk, on which Shores was a writer and co-executive producer during its last few seasons, was offered to him after producers Dan Lipman and Ron Cowen saw Sissies. Meanwhile, the ever-respectful gentleman Shores wants to make sure he acknowledges the craftspeople whom he believes are crucial to his success: the actors. He enthuses about actors who will rejoin him in the repertory series, such as Karen Austin. He says, "There are people returning who I've worked with forever, and I'm so glad they're willing to do it again. It's like a family reunion. And Rebecca O'Brien, who I've never worked with, is going to work with me in Daddy's Dyin'. I've admired her work for years. I love actors. I love what they bring with them, and I always get so irritated when I hear people debasing them. They are the ones who make our words come alive and make our work fly."