Del Shores

The Zephyr Theatre's season-long retrospective of plays by Del Shores features revivals in every sense. Hymns echo across scene changes, preachers of every stripe deliver their personal gospel and salvation (of flesh and spirit) is on everyone's wish list. So despite a promisingly sassy title, "Southern Baptist Sissies" (first staged in 2000) turns out to be more sermon than romp.

Del Shores, reared as a Southern Baptist in Texas, arrived in L.A. as a would-be actor in 1980 and soon joined the First Baptist Church of Beverly Hills--which is actually in West Hollywood, a block away from the 90210 city. One day, Shores said, the minister at that time called Shores into his office and asked him if he was gay. He denied it--which he thought was true: Although he had gay feelings, Shores says, he had never acted on them, and he believed it was wrong to make gay "choices."

Writer-director Del Shores adapts his play "The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife" for the screen in "Blues for Willadean" with the cast of the original 2003 stage production including Beth Grant, Dale Dickey, David Steen and (now newly minted Oscar winner) Octavia Spencer. The story focuses on Grant's character, Willadean, as she struggles to get out from under the thumb of her abusive husband (Steen) with support from a friend and neighbor (Spencer) and the intervention of a new arrival (Dickey)

Playwright Del Shores has long been an acclaimed mainstay of local theater--and a veteran TV writer as well. With their crowd-pleasing blend of wisdom and laughter, his plays--"Daddy's Dyin' . . . Who's Got the Will?," for example--have enjoyed long runs and won many awards. Shores adapted "Daddy's Dyin'," with Jack Fisk directing, to the screen in 1990 with mixed results, and now Shores has directed as well as adapted another film version of one of his hits, "Sordid Lives."

BETH GRANT is a strong, spiritual woman of the South, and if her drawl at times seems demure, the light in her eyes will set you straight. "A man would never hit me," she declares. "I'm not a victim. I said if I'm going to be the protagonist in this play, she has to be proactive. We can teach people how to treat us, and how to talk to us with respect."

Del Shores' best-known comedy, "Daddy's Dyin' . . . Who's Got the Will?" was abroad satire of life in the deep South among a family of what might be termed "trailer trash," even if they weren't living in a trailer. Shores' follow-up, "Daughters of the Lone Star State," features a somewhat snootier rung on the class ladder and brings in a bit of social consciousness. In the Plaza Players' current production, it's the (more or less) serious part that works best.

A benefit performance of "Sordid Lives," Del Shores' critically acclaimed comedy about a gay man coming out to himself and to his family, will be held tonight at 8 at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood. All proceeds will go to Project Nightlight, a volunteer, not-for-profit organization offering bedside comfort to those dying from AIDS. Tickets are $25-$150. Reservations: (213) 660-8587.

County Sheriff Sherman Block has announced that Del Rey Shores apartment complex in Marina del Rey has awarded a free month's rent to tenant Laura Stevenson, who reported a suspected burglary incident. The free rent is part of a crime-prevention effort sponsored by the management of the complex, he said.

The Garden Grove Community Theatre staged Del Shores' "Daddy's Dyin' (Who's Got the Will?)" a couple of years ago, so it makes good country sense that its latest show is Shores' earlier comedy, "Cheatin' "--also set on the baked back roads of Lowake, Tex. Both hayseed odes rely on the type of straight-shooting, vaguely screwball characters who populate a landscape right out of "The Last Picture Show," where the pace is slow but things are likely to get worked up in furious and funny ways.