Del Shores
Writer/Director/Producer/Actor/Stand-Up Comedian
“Del Shores is a master of the Texas comedy.” Los Angeles Times
Del Shores has written, directed and produced successfully across studio and independent film, network and cable television and regional and national touring theatre. Shores’ career took off with the play Daddy’s Dyin’ (Who’s Got The Will?) in 1987, which ran two years, w
inning many Los Angeles theatre awards, including LA Weekly’s Best Production and Best Writing. The play has subsequently been produced in over 2,500 theatres worldwide. A movie version of Daddy’s Dyin’ was released in 1990 by MGM starring Beau Bridges, Tess Harper, Judge Reinhold, Keith Carradine and Beverly D’Angelo. Shores wrote the screenplay and executive produced the film. Sordid Lives, his fourth play, opened in Los Angeles in 1996 and ran 13 sold-out months. The play went on to win 14 Drama-Logue Theatre Awards, including three for Shores for wring, directing and producing. There have since been over 300 additional stage productions of the play. In 1999, Shores wrote and directed the film version of Sordid Lives starring Beau Bridges, Delta Burke, Olivia Newton-John, Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan and Beth Grant along with most of the cast from the play. Opening in only eight theatres across the country, the little film that could took in nearly two million dollars in its limited release. The movie became a cult phenomenon and became the longest running film in the history of Palm Springs with a record ninety-six weeks. The movie won many festival awards including Best Film at the New York Independent Film & Video Festival, Atlanta Gay & Le***an International Film Festival, Austin Gay & Le***an International Film Festival, South Beach Film Festival, Memphis International Film Festival and the San Diego International Film Festival and won a total of thirteen “Audience Awards.” In 2002 Twentieth Century Fox released the DVD/Video, which has now sold over 300,000 units. His play Southern Baptist Sissies followed, and it enjoyed a ten-month sold-out run in Los Angeles in 2000. Revived in 2002, Sissies had another six month sold-out run. Shores received the LA Weekly, Robby and Maddy for Best Direction and the Backstage West Garland, Robby and Maddy for Best Writing. The play was also awarded the prestigious GLAAD Award for Outstanding Production of the Year. In 2003, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife became Shores’ most critically acclaimed play. After a six-month sold-out run in Los Angeles, Shores won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Ted Schmitt Award for Best World Premiere of an Outstanding New Play. The Circle also awarded the play Best Production and Best Lead Performance to Beth Grant. Trials also won five Back Stage West Garland Awards, two NAACP Awards, an LA Stage Alliance Ovation and three LA Weekly Awards. In 2006, Shores revived three of his plays (Sordid Lives, Southern Baptist Sissies, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife) in Los Angeles before taking to the road for a successful six city national tour, starring Delta Burke and Leslie Jordan, which played in 1000-1700 seat houses. Sordid Lives: The Series, a television series prequel to the film, premiered on Viacom’s LOGO network in 2008 starring Olivia Newton-John, Rue McClanahan, Leslie Jordan, Beth Grant, Caroline Rhea and many of the original stage and film cast. Shores created, wrote, directed and executive produced all twelve episodes. The series became LOGO’s biggest hit to date, and was distributed internationally through IMG worldwide in syndication in seventeen countries. In addition to Sordid Lives: The Series, in television Shores has written and produced for many shows including Dharma and Greg and the last three seasons of the ground-breaking Showtime series Q***r as Folk. He also wrote, directed and produced the Showtime movie The Wilde Girls, starring Olivia Newton-John and Swoosie Kurtz. In 2009, Shores hit the road and played 34 cities to sold-out houses with his one-man show Del Shores: My Sordid Life. The DVD was filmed and released in 2012 by Breaking Glass Pictures. He also performed stand-up with various Sordid Lives stars including Rue McClanahan, Caroline Rhea and Leslie Jordan in A Sordid Affair, playing large theatres in Dallas, Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale and Raleigh as well as four nights at Comix in New York City. The world premiere of Shores’ newest play, Yellow, opened June 11, 2010 to rave reviews and ran six sold-out months. Yellow followed in the unmatched footsteps of Shores’ six previous world premiere productions that have run collectively for over eight years and won over one hundred Los Angeles theatre awards. The production swept various Los Angeles theatre awards including Best World Premiere, Best Production, Best Direction for Del Shores himself (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Backstage Garland, LA Weekly, Broadway World.) The play became Shores’ seventh Samuel French published play and just played to sold-out houses for Uptown Players in Dallas at the historic Kalita Humpheys. Shores wrote, directed and produced the film version of his play The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife with the entire original stage cast: Beth Grant (Sordid Lives, Little Miss Sunshine, No Country For Old Men) Octavia Spencer (Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG Award Winner “Minnie” in The Help), Dale Dickey (Spirit Award Winner, Best Supporting Actress Winter’s Bone), David Steen (Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained) and top 10 Billboard dance artist Debby Holiday. The film adaption is entitled Blues For Willadean and was released in select theatres in late 2012. It is now available on iTunes and other pay per view services. In the summer of 2011, Shores took to the road again, selling out his new stand-up show Del Shores: Sordid Confessions in 40 cities. Shores returned to his home state of Texas in January of 2012 to film the show at the famous Rose Room in Dallas. Breaking Glass Pictures released the DVD to rave reviews. His stand-up career continued to explode and he launched his third national tour in 2012 with Del Shores: Naked.Sordid.Reality. The tour became his most successful and he will return to the Rose Room to film the show in March 2013 and will have performed Naked over fifty times. Shores latest project is filming his play Southern Baptist Sissies in January 2013. The film will be hitting the film festival circuit this summer and stars Emerson Collins, Willam Belli, Matthew Scott Montgomery, Luke Stratte-McClure, Newell Alexander, Rosemary Alexander, Bobbie Eakes, Ann Walker, Joe Patrick Ward, Johna Myers, T. Ashanti Mozelle, Anthony Cherry with Dale Dickey and Leslie Jordan. Shores also recently returned to acting and completed principal photography, co-starring in the independent feature Cry, due in film festivals and theatres in 2013. Del is represented by Bradley Glenn at The Kaplan-Stahler Agency as a writer-director, by Linda McAlister Talent as an actor and is managed by Michael Warwick for personal appearances. His publisher for all of his plays is Samuel French, Inc. Follow him on Twitter and visit his fan page @ http://www.facebook.com/delshoresfanclub.
“Del Shores is the grand master of Southern lowlife sensibilities.”
Daily Variety
