Biography
Writer, Director, Producer, Actor, and Stand-Up Comedian Del Shores is hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "master of Texas comedy."
Del Shores has achieved success as a writer, director, and producer across studio and independent films, network and cable television, and regional and national touring theatre.
His breakthrough came with the 1987 play Daddy's Dyin' (Who's Got The Will?), which ran for two years and garnered numerous Los Angeles theatre awards, including LA Weekly's Best Production and Best Writing. The play has since been staged in over 2,500 theatres globally. In 1990, MGM released a film adaptation starring Beau Bridges, Tess Harper, Judge Reinhold, Keith Carradine, and Beverly D'Angelo, with Shores as the screenwriter and executive producer.
Shores' fourth play, Sordid Lives, premiered in Los Angeles in 1996, enjoying 13 sold-out months. It won 14 Drama-Logue Theatre Awards, including three for Shores in writing, directing, and producing. The play has since seen over 300 productions.
In 1999, Shores wrote and directed the film adaptation of Sordid Lives, featuring Beau Bridges, Delta Burke, Olivia Newton-John, Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, Beth Grant, and many original cast members. Despite opening in only eight theatres nationwide, the film grossed nearly two million dollars during its limited release, becoming a cult classic and the longest-running film in Palm Springs history with a record 96 weeks. The movie won numerous festival awards, including Best Film at the New York Independent Film & Video Festival, Atlanta Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, South Beach Film Festival, Memphis International Film Festival, and the San Diego International Film Festival, along with thirteen Audience Awards. Twentieth Century Fox released the DVD in 2002, which has sold over 300,000 copies.
His play Southern Baptist Sissies followed, enjoying a ten-month sold-out run in Los Angeles in 2000 and a six-month sold-out revival in 2002. Shores received the LA Weekly, Robby, and Maddy awards for Best Direction and the Backstage West Garland, Robby, and Maddy awards for Best Writing. The play also earned 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 Los Angeles run, Shores won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Ted Schmitt Award for Best World Premiere of an Outstanding New Play. The production also earned Best Production and Best Lead Performance awards for Beth Grant from the Circle. Additionally, it garnered 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, and The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife—in Los Angeles before embarking on a successful six-city national tour starring Delta Burke and Leslie Jordan, performing in venues seating between 1,000 and 1,700.
Sordid Lives: The Series, a television prequel to the film, premiered on Viacom's LOGO network in 2008 with Olivia Newton-John, Rue McClanahan, Leslie Jordan, Beth Grant, Caroline Rhea, and many original cast members. Shores created, wrote, directed, and executive produced all twelve episodes. The series became LOGO's most successful show to date and was internationally distributed by IMG worldwide, syndicated in seventeen countries.
Beyond Sordid Lives: The Series, Shores has written and produced for numerous television shows, including Dharma and Greg and the final three seasons of Showtime's groundbreaking Queer as Folk. He also wrote, directed, and produced the Showtime movie The Wilde Girls, starring Olivia Newton-John and Swoosie Kurtz.
In 2009, Shores toured 34 cities with his one-man show Del Shores: My Sordid Life, performing to sold-out audiences. The DVD was filmed and released in 2012 by Breaking Glass Pictures. He also performed stand-up alongside Sordid Lives stars Rue McClanahan, Caroline Rhea, and Leslie Jordan in A Sordid Affair, playing major venues in Dallas, Atlanta, Ft. Lauderdale, Raleigh, and four nights at Comix in New York City.
His newest play, Yellow, premiered on June 11, 2010, to rave reviews and ran for six sold-out months. Yellow continued the success of Shores' previous six world premieres, which collectively ran over eight years and won more than one hundred Los Angeles theatre awards. The production swept multiple Los Angeles theatre awards, including Best World Premiere, Best Production, and Best Direction for Shores (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Backstage Garland, LA Weekly, Broadway World). Yellow became Shores' seventh play published by Samuel French and enjoyed sold-out performances at Uptown Players in Dallas at the historic Kalita Humphreys Theatre, which Shores also directed.
Shores wrote, directed, and produced the film adaptation of his play The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife, titled Blues For Willadean. Featuring the entire original stage cast, including Beth Grant, Octavia Spencer (Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG Award winner for The Help), Dale Dickey (Spirit Award winner for Winter's Bone), David Steen (known from Django Unchained), and top 10 Billboard dance artist Debby Holiday, the film was released in select theaters in late 2012 and is now available on iTunes and other pay-per-view platforms.
In summer 2011, Shores toured 40 cities with his new stand-up show Del Shores: Sordid Confessions, selling out venues nationwide. He returned to Texas in January 2012 to film the show at Dallas' renowned Rose Room; Breaking Glass Pictures released the DVD to critical acclaim. His stand-up career continued to flourish with a third national tour in 2012, Del Shores: Naked.Sordid.Reality, performed over fifty times and filmed at The Rose Room. Shores' fourth stand-up tour, Del Shores: SINgularly Sordid, addresses his sudden single life in his fifties, featuring stories, political rants, and his signature P.S. F.U. letters.
In 2013, Shores' film adaptation of Southern Baptist Sissies gained momentum on the festival circuit, winning ten major awards, including several for Shores. The film stars Emerson Collins, Willam Belli, Matthew Scott Montgomery, Luke Stratte-McClure, Newell Alexander, Rosemary Alexander, Bobbie Eakes, Ann Walker, Dale Dickey, and Leslie Jordan.
That same year, Shores returned to acting with a co-starring role in the independent feature Cry.
The final installment of Shores' Sordid Lives franchise, A Very Sordid Wedding, received rave reviews, holds an 83% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 96% Audience Score. The film sold out in most cities upon release and is available on DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, iTunes, and other platforms. It was Gravitas Ventures' top-selling title of 2017 and Amazon's number one LGBT title for fifteen weeks. Featuring many Sordid Lives veterans, including Bonnie Bedelia, Leslie Jordan, Caroline Rhea, Dale Dickey, and Ann Walker, with cameos from Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Mapa, and Carole Cook, the story advances the characters seventeen years, exploring the impact of marriage equality in Winters, Texas. The film premiered in Palm Springs on March 10, 2017, winning nine film festival awards.
In 2018, Shores returned to the stage with his new one-man play Six Characters In Search Of A Play, touring nationwide to enthusiastic reviews.
Del Shores is represented as a writer-director by Cindy Mintz at The Kaplan-Stahler Agency, by Linda McAlister Talent as an actor, and managed by Michael Warwick for personal appearances. His plays are published by Samuel French, Inc. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @DelShores and visit his fan page on Facebook at delshoresfanclub.
