Del Shores News

Long time DC actor/director/artistic director/singer, Jeffrey Johnson, prepares to leave the DC Metro area after calling it home for 22 years.

Debby Holiday, one of the most prolific dance artists of our time and Billboard® Dance Chart Topper will showcase her new single 'Waiting for a Lifetime' along with her 4-piece band known for her mega hits 'DIVE', 'I LIKE YOU', 'BRING IT ON', 'PIECE OF MY LOVE' and 'SURRENDER.' Ms. Holidaywill headline Halloween Palm Springs onWednesday, October 31 from 5:00-10:00p.m.  Bringing the beat to the street will be internationally re-known Phil B. who is undoubtedly one of the top DJ's on the U.S. and Europe Circuit today and was recently honored with DJ of the Year at the 10th Annual Just Circuit Awards! 

THE 6th ACT presents a unique and multi-cultural look at one of the great literary characters of all time in William Shakespeare's HAMLET, directed by Matthew Leavitt and featuring June Carryl, Desiree Mee Jung, Luke McClure, Matt Orduna and Jonathan Slavin, ALL as the Prince of Denmark. HAMLET will preview today, October 25 at 8pm; and will open on Friday, October 26 at 8pm and run through Sunday, November 18 at Theatre 68, 5112 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood.  

The Actors Fund and Fraser Entertainment are very proud to announce the 5th annual presentation of CABARET IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN LOS ANGELES.  Conceived by renowned director David Galligan, this fifth celebration of Cabaret in L.A. will take place as a series of 3 concerts over 3 evenings at 3 different Los Angeles venues, Friday, October 12, Saturday, October 13, and Sunday, October 14.  Proceeds from all 3 shows will benefit The Actors Fund.

THE 6th ACT presents a unique and multi-cultural look at one of the great literary characters of all time in William Shakespeare's HAMLET, directed by Matthew Leavitt and featuring June Carryl, Desiree Mee Jung, Luke McClure, Matt Orduna and Jonathan Slavin, ALL as the Prince of Denmark. HAMLET will preview on Thursday, October 25 at 8pm; and will open on Friday, October 26 at 8pm and run through Sunday, November 18 at Theatre 68, 5112 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood.  

A new tradition is coming to Circle Theatre in a holiday celebration show with an inspired twist. The audience sparks the scripts and performances based on their personal stories, ideas, or wishes.

CLago Productions has announced a four-performance engagement of Matthew Scott Montgomery's award-winning drama Dead Boys, running September 20-23 at the Arthur Newman Theatre in Palm Desert. Under the direction of Christopher James Raymond, the production will feature (in alphabetical order) playwright Montgomery and Andrew Puente.   

Celebration, under the artistic direction of Michael Michael A. Shepperd in Association with Beard/Collins/Shores Productions present a special return engagement of Del Shores first new play since his critically acclaimed Yellow, SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A PLAY, written and performed by Del Shores and directed by Emerson Collins.  SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A PLAYwill perform Thursday, September 27 through Sunday, September 30 at Celebration Theatre @ the Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave. in Los Angeles. 

Windy City Performs, Chicago's fastest-growing professional theatre and school, is pleased to announce its first Guest Artist-in-Residence this fall.

'One of my questions after reading the play was, 'Do you have to feel guilty in order to go to heaven, so you won't ever have to feel guilt again?' I think Del Shores grapples with that theme, so there is a lot of gut-wrenching guilt presented here.  Within the self-loathing there are opportunities for seeing irony, folly and some bits of joy.'

One of the most prolific dance artists of our time, Billboard® Dance Chart Topper Debby Holiday along with her 4-piece band known for her mega-hits 'DIVE', 'I LIKE YOU', 'BRING IT ON', 'PIECE OF MY LOVE' and 'SURRENDER' will headline Halloween Palm Springs Wednesday, October 31 from 5:00-10: 00 p.m. Bringing the beat to the street will be internationally re-known Phil B. who is undoubtedly one of the top DJ's on the U.S. and Europe Circuit today and was recently honored with DJ of the Year at the 10th Annual Just Circuit Awards!

'I really think this show is going to be something special, and a journey for the audience and the cast to undertake together. I can't wait to see what kind of relationships we get to build!'

Del Shores' SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES is hitting the stage at the Bartell Theatre from September 14 to September 22. 

Uptown Players and director Ann Nieman have cast an array of celebrity divas to star in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, running July 13-July 29, 2018. Jack Donahue and Blake McIver enthusiastically come to Dallas to make their Uptown debut, leading the cast alongside Dallasites Dana Harper and Kelly Groves, bringing a wide array of illustrious performance experience to the Kalita Humphreys Theater this summer.

Kentwood Players presents the drama DADDY'S DYIN' WHO'S GOT THE WILL, by Del Shores. Performance dates are July 13 through August 18 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 2:00pm. Performances take place at the Westchester Playhouse, located at 8301 Hindry Avenue in Westchester, CA 90045. There will be a complimentary pre-show champagne and dessert reception between 7:00-7:30pm for season subscribers and their guests attending the Saturday, July 14 performance.

Celebration Theatre has announced a limited engagement of Matthew Scott Montgomery's award-winning drama Dead Boys, set to run July 1-31 on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Under the direction of Christopher James Raymond, the production will feature (in alphabetical order) playwright Montgomery and Andrew Puente.

StageQ will present SOUTHERN BAPTIST SISSIES, running from September 14 to September 22. 

Texas-born writer, director, producer and actor Del Shores will once again bring his own brand of Southern humor to town when his new one-man show takes the stage at Terrific New Theatre. A special performance has been added on May 17 at 8PM. After the performance, the TNT audience will be treated to a meet-and-greet with the star.

Sordid Lives, a dark comedy by Del Shores, is playing at Out Front Theatre Company this month. BroadwayWorld caught up with T.K. Habtemariam, an Atlanta-based actor who plays Earl "Brother Boy" Ingram in Out Front's upcoming production, to talk about the show. I haven't seen this show before, but I've done a little bit of reading. So, it's about a woman named Peggy who trips over her lover's wooden legs in a hotel room and dies. Yeah. Exactly. And it's funny that her name is Peggy, too. It is? Yeah. I mean, because the fact that she dies because of the wooden legs. Peg-gy. That's really funny. I'm interested to know how your character figures into this story. Brother Boy…Earl Ingram… probably was a little bit before his time, and at the age of 18, he was kicked out of his household for being one big old queer boy. And he was actually put into a mental institution for wanting to either impersonate women or for liking someone of the same sex. And, essentially, back when I was 18, I had a friend named Wardell, and he found out that I had a crush on hi, and he beat me up to a bloody pulp, and my mother, Peggy, who ends up tripping over her lover's wooden legs, put me in a mental institution because she believes the world is not ready for me and my place in this world. But Wardell, 20 years later, ends up busting me out of the mental institution. This is kind of interesting because when I read about the show online, it sounded like a straight silly comedy, but now it sort of sounds like it tackles some real issues. Oh, it's definitely a black comedy, and it definitely tackles a lot of issues. It's traditionally an all-white cast, and we color-flipped the main family, and we've kind of found ourselves in a new definition of the kind of topics that it tackles It was written in the 90s, and it kind of reflects the Southern mentality form the 90s, but now that we're putting it in the context of a black family, there are so many other social issues that are underlying that wouldn't have been beforehand. That was one of the questions that I was going to ask was how the story has changed because of this casting. This is the first all-African-American cast ever, right? Yes. It is. And it's such an honor for me to say I'm the first African-American Brother Boy because Leslie Jordan originated the role, and I remember seeing this movie in high-school and revisiting, I was like "Oh, my goodness. I actually did see this movie." And it is definitely a fantasy in the sense of what anyone of color could get away with. If there was anyone who was queer and of color in a mental institution for being gay, I don't know if that person would still be alive. And Wardell, who busts into the mental institution, comes in with a gun and busts me out, and we both tell this white lady to get the hell out of this place. If that were to happen in the 90s in South Texas, I promise you they wouldn't be alive. And, you know, it does bring in the idea of the interracial relationship, but that's kind of at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to all of the other issues that we cover. Even though I would like to say that Brother Boy has access to mental healthcare and someone who's queer and of color…that's kind of like the last group of people who get healthcare. And also there are moments where black women talk back to white men. There are moments when a black woman tells off a white man. There are moments, when it comes to social diversity back then… You know, we think of period pieces like To Kill a Mockingbird where we are so used to saying, "Okay. Well, at this time, black people were called niggers, so we're just going to have to expect it, you know?" But when it comes to things like I'm a black male in a mental institution for fantasizing about country queens like Tammy Wynette, and I do believe that my character would probably identify as a trans person but back then "trans" wasn't in our vocabulary, so there's the interesting discussion there to happen. So, it just kind of flares up a lot of things that couldn't have happened back then, but today we're using theatre as a way to tell a story that probably wouldn't have ever happened to bring up discussions today. We've had lots of conversations as a team about what these things mean to us today, and a lot of things have to be dug up. For instance, there's a line where a character calls somebody a mulatto. When we think of a white-trash family, we kind of accept the fact that they're going to poke fum at somebody being mixed, but how does it look when a white person says that to a black person? There have been some modifications, of course, with the generosity of Del Shores, where we've kind of said, "Can you rework this or find a way to make this…" And he was into that? He was willing to make those changes? Oh, yeah! He had to think about the script and rework it and rewrite some lines. There are some lines where - I am a black person, and we have to take into consideration that I wouldn't just idolize Tammy Wynette, you know? There are so many other queens at that time. We found moments where I can bring up Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner because that would be reflective of the culture and of the time. When you first auditioned for the role, what was it about the role that really resonated with you? I think that number one is my character type. You always have to think about what kind of roles you are peaked for, in all honesty. I'm usually someone who's taking someone down or who is being taken down. My character-type is the "betrayer" or the "betrayed." And Brother Boy is that kind of character. And then, I do drag as a little side passion project here in Atlanta, and I work with a predominantly queer POC group called Southern Fried Queer Pride, and I've had opportunities to perform in drag, write drag shows, and the play is kind of an amalgamation of both theatre and drag. And it's a cult classic role! Why wouldn't I want to be a part of it? And once I started meeting my castmates and we had rehearsals and what not, the bigger picture started panning out and I stated to see, "Oh, okay. This is what this is really all about." Do you have any projects coming up this summer that we need to know about? There's a passion project that I'm working on. It's kind of like the second installation of it. It's called Weavestock, and it's going to be through Country Fried Queer Pride. It's going to be hopefully happening sometime in August, and it's a project that I'm writing, directing, and being a part of. It's kind of like a play on Woodstock and Wigstock, a phenomenon that happened in New York in the late 80s and early 90s. Lots of drag icons used to perform at Wigstock. Weavestock is basically a celebration of all-black drag. It moves like a jukebox musical where there are written scenes with drag performances. A lot of times, you know, you have to create your own opportunities. Right now, I'm working on cultivating my writing skills and my directing skills and just hoping to create more opportunities for myself herein Atlanta. Sounds like you're on the right track! Looking forward to seeing the show.

Texas-born writer, director, producer and actor Del Shores will once again bring his own brand of Southern humor to town when his new one-man show takes the stage at Terrific New Theatre. A special performance has been added on May 17 at 8PM. After the performance, the TNT audience will be treated to a meet-and-greet with the star.