By Ramy Eletreby

An exclusive INterview with playwright Del Shores about the upcoming productions of his entire theatrical repertoire.

At only 48 years old, Del Shores' name is already being whispered around town as a candidate for a lifetime achievement award. As one of L.A.'s most prolific playwrights, multi-award winner Shores will see his entire repertoire produced in A Season of Shores at the Zephyr Theatre in Hollywood starting Jan. 6 to coincide with the theater's 50th anniversary.

Shores has built his reputation as a witty, sardonic, and topical writer with all of his plays set in the "trailer trash" South, using his childhood growing up as a Southern Baptist in Texas as inspiration. Shores' plays to be produced are Cheatin', Daddy's Dyin ... Who's Got the Will?, Daughters of the Lone Star State, Sordid Lives, Southern Baptist Sissies, and The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife. These pieces are considered comedies though they all tackle heavy themes such as fidelity, greed, racism, homophobia, religion, and domestic abuse. With writing gigs for such hit television shows as Dharma and Greg and Queer as Folk under his belt, Shores' uproarious dialogue has the rare ability to make light of the darkest situations while still keeping it sincere.

While his first three plays earned him mass critical acclaim, it was Shores' fourth, Sordid Lives, that turned him into a cult sensation. The 1996 semi-autobiographical piece stems directly from his personal drama the previous year when he came out to his wife of nine years, Kelley Alexander, and two daughters after he began an affair with a man over e-mail. Sordid Lives illustrates the turmoil that occurs within a family when a son comes out as gay. Interestingly, Shores cast his real life in-laws, actors Newell and Rosemary Alexander, as semi-nude gay-bashers in the original production of the play. Sordid Lives was such a hit that it sparked a film version starring Olivia Newton-John, Beau Bridges, and Delta Burke, which became a cult favorite in small movie theaters all across the country. Southern Baptist Sissies, his most personal piece to date, deals with four men struggling with their gay identities as they grow up in the oppressive Texas Southern Baptist community. The Zephyr enjoyed a 10-month, sold-out run of Sissies when it premiered in 2000, the theater's most successful production in its 50-year history.

IN Los Angeles caught up with Del Shores at the Zephyr Theatre during a break in rehearsal for Sissies, the first Shores play in the season.

IN: Congratulations on A Season of Shores. How did this celebration of your work come about?

DS: Well, it's [The Zephyr Theatre's] 50th anniversary starting Jan. 5. So they looked back and they said Southern Baptist Sissies was their most successful play in 50 years, so they asked me to come back. My producing partner, Sharyn Lane, who passed away last year, had always talked to them about doing a whole season of the plays, so they asked me, 'What about doing a whole season of your plays?' And I think I may have been drinking when I said yes [chuckles] because it's a lot of work.

Southern Baptist Sissies speaks volumes to everybody.

Yeah, I was looking through my files yesterday because we're trying to put together some history of each play and I found a file full of letters. It was amazing how many people, the first time around, just wrote me. [They were] gut-wrenching, sad, and healing -- all kinds of letters. And not just gay boys who were raised in the church. Sharyn Lane always said about this play that it's about anybody who has felt different -- anyone who has felt ostracized for being gay.

In Sissies, you take on a subject matter that most gay men tend to repress: religion and being gay. Why did you choose to speak about something so private and personal?

You know what? I read this quote one time of Oscar Wilde's, "To be understood is to be exposed," and I felt like to understand the journey I went through to get where I am, it all needed to be exposed. What I tried to do with Sissies when I wrote it back in 2000, I did it almost like my own therapy. Then I realized that it wasn't just my voice but a lot of people's voices, especially when it opened. I do believe that with this new incarnation, it's much more timely now. I got so pissed off when I was watching the Kennedy Center Honors a few nights ago and there are the Bushes sitting next to Robert Redford, the most liberal man in Hollywood, and on stage is Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, and Queen Latifah. And I'm thinking, "God, they must be so pissed off." Here, [President Bush] is trying to pass an amendment that makes sure that we never have the rights that are a possibility now. In all of that, I'm glad that with a piece like Sissies, there is a voice for that.

Three of the plays presented in this upcoming season you wrote before you came out. Yet, you're referred to as a gay playwright.

I don't like that term, honestly. I am so proud of being gay. I don't know how I existed without being gay before. I really love being gay. But, I don't like that it's the only thing that defines you. I mean, when they go "openly-gay playwright Del Shores," there are so many other pieces of me besides that. I did write plays before I came out and then when I wrote Trailer Trash Housewife, I remember standing there on Melrose and there was a member of the GLAAD committee and he goes, "I understand your new play is not gay. So you basically abandoned us?" and I said, "No, I don't feel that at all. But there are stories that need to be told that are not necessarily gay." It really bothers me sometimes. I'm so grateful to the gay community. You get those fans, man, and they're there until the day you die. They are loyal. I'm very appreciative, but there's more to our work than just that.

The movie version of Sordid Lives was a huge hit in Palm Springs, specifically. Why do you think the film became a cult phenomenon?

It had the biggest following in Palm Springs, but it also played in Provincetown for eight months. It played in Ft. Lauderdale for a year. It played in Dallas for six months and it played in Laguna Beach for seven months. It did have pockets all over. And then the DVD has been very successful because more of the gay audience has found it. I think some of the reasons it didn't do as well in other places is just marketing. In Palm Springs, the theater owner let it sit there and the audience found it and word of mouth started. But, honestly, I still don't understand the crazy phenomenon that happened with Sordid Lives. I mean, I can sit in a restaurant and I hear someone quoting my lines. There's just so much of the piece that they love. People are flying in from everywhere to see this upcoming production. We have people flying from Mississippi, Nashville, San Francisco, Dallas, St. Louis. It's crazy. It's all because of the obsession with the film.

A Season of Shores begins with Southern Baptist Sissies opening Jan. 13 (previews begin Jan. 6) and Sordid Lives opening Feb. 3 (previews begin Jan. 27). Both plays are set for limited eight-week engagements. The plays will run in repertory with performances Tuesday-Friday 8 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday 3 p.m., and 7 p.m. 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 will follow. For tickets, call (800) 595-4TIX (4849) or see www.seasonofshores.com.