June 10, 2014
Del Shores: My Sordid Best Benefits AID Atlanta
Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
On June 11 and June 12, Del Shores will come to Atlanta for two benefit performances for the AIDS Service Organization AID Atlanta. Louise H. Beard, his two-time Tony Award-nominated producer, will be joining him.
"The censors will be absent, the language will be crude, the stories will be raw and if you are offended, that's your choice," warned Shores.
On Wednesday, June 11, Shores and Beard will hold a benefit screening of "Southern Baptist Sissies" at 7:30 p.m. at the Plaza Atlanta Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Avenue.
It's a film of the theatrical experience of writer/director Shores' GLAAD Award-winning play about four gay boys growing up in the Southern Baptist Church. It explores the conflict between the caustic rhetoric of dogmatic religion and the fragile development of adolescent homosexuality while challenging hypocrisy, exposing damage and offering hope. The intimate experience of theatre on the film screen reveals the complicated emotions from all sides: the confused child, the struggling adolescent and the angry and damaged adult.
The film's roles include many of Shores' well-known actors including Leslie Jordan, Emerson Collins (also a producer on the film, with Beard and Shores), Dale Dickey, Newell Alexander, Rosemary Alexander and Ann Walker. New to Shores' work is Willam Belli, star of "RuPaul's Drag Race" and internet parody sensation (This Boy Is A Bottom).
"Southern Baptist Sissies" sold out three screening at last fall's Out on Film festival in Atlanta.
On Thursday, June 12 at Lips Atlanta, 3011 Buford Hwy. NE in Atlanta, Shores will hold court at "Del Shores: My Sordid Best." The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with a VIP reception. At 7 p.m., enjoy dinner and a show, all to raise funds for charity.
At Lips Atlanta, Shores' tart tongue will lash all his favorite subjects from his eccentric family, his feelings about church growing up, people he meets crisscrossing the country and the amazingly stupid people he finds on the internet, in this laugh-packed show.
Both events, including the VIP reception, will raise funds for AID Atlanta, Inc., a group that has been saving and transforming lives since its inception in 1982. The agency was founded as a "grass-roots" response to the devastating and fatal impact HIV/AIDS was having on the Atlanta community. AID Atlanta quickly began expanding to offer a broad range of services and has since grown to be the Southeast's oldest, largest, most comprehensive AIDS Service Organization.
The mission of AID Atlanta is to reduce new HIV infections and improve the quality of life of its members and the community by breaking barriers and building community. Client programs and services account for 86 percent of our organizational expenses. AID Atlanta has proven itself the leader in the fight against the AIDS epidemic in metro Atlanta.
For tickets and information, call Lips Atlanta at 404-315-7711 or visit https://www.aidatlanta.org/southernbaptistsissies
Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
