It's summer – hot, hot summer, as Latrelle might say in Sordid Lives –but it's also a Season of Shores.
Orientations
Ian McCann & Brandon Formby
Screenwriter, playwright and West Texas native Del Shores is taking the revival of two of his biggest hits – Lives and Southern Baptist Sissies –on the road. And that theatrical double whammy stops at the Majestic Theatre for Dallas Pride weekend Sept 16-17.
"It's much bigger than we ever anticipated," Shores says. "It's been a celebration of the collaboration I've had with all these great actors."
They include Delta Burke and Leslie Jordan in Southern Baptist Sissies and faces familiar from the Sordid Lives film such as Ann Walker (brassy LaVonda) and Sarah Hundley (barfly Juanita).
The tour grew out of the 50th anniversary celebration for Los Angeles' Zephyr Theatre, at which all six of Shores' plays were revived. Shores' husband and production partner, Jason Dottley, then suggested that they take Sissies and Sordid Lives across the country.
As if preparing for a stage tour wasn't enough, Shores also is working on a small screen version of Sordid Lives for the gay cable network Logo and a film adaptation of Sissies.
"It is a lot of work," he says. "It's also become an enormous amount of fun."
Ian and Brandon also laugh at their work, but they're the only ones who do. Send fan mail to imccann@quickdfw .com and bformby@quickdfw.com.
On Dallas: "I'm not from Dallas [Shores was born in Winters, between Abilene and San Angelo], but somehow they've adopted me. The last time we were down there, I took Jason to the Rose Room just to show him Cedar Springs and where so much of Sissies takes place." (Expect to see cameos by some of the Rose Room performers in the Sissies shows, by the way.)
On Logo's Sordid Lives: Recalling part of the pilot's script, he busts out laughing. "If you can't tell, I'm a fan of my work! ... It has a lot of big moments, starting the day Tammy Wynette dies."
On the cult success of Sordid Lives: "It started playing as a midnight movie some places. You've got people who dress up like the characters and shout out the lines. I never expected the craziness to happen."
Rosemary Alexander
Delta Burke and Newell Alexander from
Southern Baptist Sissies
What: Southern Baptist Sissies-Sordid Lives revival
When: Sept. 16-17
Where: Majestic Theatre, 1925 Elm St.
Showtimes: Southern Baptist Sissies, 3 and 8 p.m. Sept. 16; Sordid Lives, 3 and
8 p.m. Sept. 17.
Tickets: $26.50 to $101.50, through Ticketmaster
Call: 214-880-0137
On the Web: www.ticketmaster.com
