If you’re perusing the archives, then you keep seeing the name Del Shores.
He is a writer and director that became an important part of my story early on. Most importantly, he has remained one of my dearest friends. In the summer of 2006, Del decided to tour his stage works. The “Season of Shores” featured revivals of all six Del Shores plays. In addition to Southern Baptist Sissies, the play that introduced me to Del, the series also included Cheatin, Daddy’s Dyin…Who’s Got the Will?, Daughters of the Lone Star State and The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife.
Season of Shores started at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, CA and then played five additional cities. Playing to 1000-1700 seat houses and starring Delta Burke and Leslie Jordan, we toured Dallas, Palm Springs, St. Louis, Nashville, and Ft. Lauderdale. I joined the cast to sing “Stained Glass Window” after every performance of Southern Baptist Sissies. (I began singing this song after every performance back in 2002 when I first saw the play and it had a huge impact on me. My inspiration was a particular monologue that the character Benny performs during the resolve of the play.)
A little scandal broke out during the tour when a Nashville talk show refused to interview Leslie Jordan because they felt that the content of Southern Baptists Sissies was unacceptable. Check out the article from Backstage.
Nashville Talk Show Cancels Del Shores Actors
By Lauren Horwitch | 11.17.06
TMZ.com reports a scheduled appearance by Southern Baptist Sissies actors Delta Burke and Leslie Jordan on a Nashville TV talk show was cancelled due to a producer’s concerns over the play’s content. In an email sent to Burke and Jordan, an unnamed producer of the show, Talk of the Town, wrote: “Sorry, but after closely reviewing the subject matter of the two plays written and directed by Del Shores, I have decided that it would not be in the best interest of Talk of the Town to [have] an actor come on the show to discuss the plays….We are dealing with a very conservative viewership who I feel would be offended by the show’s titles and their topics.”
The email was obtained by TMZ.com from a press release for the A Season of Shores tour.
Writer/producer/director of Southern Baptist Sissies, Del Shores, told TMZ.com, “Somehow I think that the people of Nashville are a little more diverse and open-minded than the producers of Talk of the Town are giving them credit for — at least that’s been my experience in one of my favorite cities.”
Emmy winner and Tennessee native Jordan called the cancellation a “major slap in the face.” He and (Delta) Burke were slated to appear on the show Nov. 10 to promote the run of the show and Shores’ Sordid Lives at Nashville’s Polk Theatre.
Southern Baptist Sissies, which follows the lives of four gay men raised in the church, opened at Los Angeles’ Zephyr Theatre in 2000 and returned to L.A. in 2006 for a revival of all six Shores play. The longest running show at the Zephyr, it has received awards from GLAAD, L.A.’s Ovation Awards, and Back Stage’s Garlands. A film version Southern Baptist and a TV series based on Sordid Lives are currently in development. Both plays are current playing at the Parker Playhouse in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Oh, and one side note that I conveniently forget.
I also played the role of “The Stripper” on this tour. I’ve yet to find a photo of me playing that role, but the first photo you see below is during rehearsal of that role.
2006 was a busy year with my first national tour, a summer headlining my first Pride Festivals, overwhelmed with production on my second album The Gospel According To Levi and opening for Cyndi Lauper at Wrigley Field during the 2006 Gay Games. I flew in to join the cast every chance I had and often arranged my own solo performances in whatever city I could.
Here I share with you a few photos of myself and the cast during the Season Of Shores Tour.
Scroll past the photos and you’ll find an archival video of my performance at Delta Burke’s 50th birthday party hosted by The Rose Room in Dallas, TX. And yes, that is Emerson Collins in drag introducing me.
This is the first live performance of a song I wrote and recorded called Bittersweet Salvation. Apparently, I was testing out new material because there were other songs from The Gospel According To Levi that I performed during the Season Of Shores Tour. The album wasn’t released until January 30th of the following year.
I always loved that song. I was proud of the lyrics – a rather bold statement of the hypocrisy inherent in what I like to call “religiosity”. Below the video, I have transcribed the lyrics for you.
“
You told me nothing good would I find inside
You told me of redemption for such a worm as I
I threw myself upon the body of your Christ
Abhorring all I was, and all I felt inside
I held a standard any saint had ever set
Three hours of daily prayer didn’t even clear my head
The Book of Law kept my young body trembling in it’s bed
Afraid to wake, to wake, to find my spirit dead
And you said He would save me
What now am I needing
Am I not what he made me
Where’s the love, where’s the love, where’s the love
Reach out to me
Somebody tell me where love is hiding
I now believe that there’s no truth in this
Bittersweet Salvation
I coveted the sorrow and death of every martyr made
Took this thorn into my side and bled in Yaweh’s name
Twenty years of faith and fear and still you say I falter
I’m laying all this dogma dead upon the alter
And you said He would save me
What now am I needing
Am I not what he made me
Where’s the love, where’s the love, where’s the love
Reach out to me
Somebody tell me where love is hiding
I now believe that there’s no truth in this
Bittersweet Salvation