“Southern Baptist Sissies,” the new movie from writer/director Del Shores, may be set in Dallas, but West Hollywood is really its home.
The comedic drama, about four teenage choirboys in a Southern Baptist church struggling to reconcile their homosexuality with the church’s fiercely anti-gay teaching, debuted as a stage play in West Hollywood and the movie version of the play was also filmed in West Hollywood. Now, that movie will have its world premier screening in the West Hollywood area – Monday night at Outfest, the annual LGBT film festival.
“I got so many letters from people who’d seen the play saying it was their story,” explained the 55-year-old Shores. “So many people identified with those characters, I felt like I had to get it seen by more people.”
The stage production of “Sissies” features many characters talking directly to the audience and simultaneous action happening on two different parts of the stage. As a result, Shores felt it would be difficult, and expensive, to open it up as a movie. So, he decided to simply film the staged version.
“My goal was for the film audience to feel as if they’re part of the theatre audience,” said Shores, a native of Winters, Texas. “You see the audience from time to time and you hear them laugh. But other times, you forget you’re watching a film of a play. There are plenty of close-up shots of the intimate scenes.”
Shores shot the movie in 10 days in January 2013 at the Macha Theater on Kings Road, beside Hugo’s restaurant, on a $180,000 budget — $115,000 of which was raised from fans via IndieGoGo.com (a Kickstarter-like funding company).
“It was an exhausting shoot, but extremely rewarding,” said producer and star Emerson Collins. “This is exactly the film that Del and I wanted to make.”
Shores says the “Sissies” story is very much his own.
“My father was a Southern Baptist preacher and my mama was a high school drama teacher, so I was surrounded by theatrics on all sides,” said Shores, who attended Baylor University, a private Southern Baptist college in Waco, Texas. “The anti-gay messages were all around me.”
Collins, who plays the lead role of Mark, is also a Texas native and Baylor graduate. Consequently, he didn’t have to do too much preparation to play the role.
“That Southern Baptist world is very familiar,” said Collins, who met Shores after playing the character of Benny in a Dallas production of “Sissies.” “Accessing the pain and heartbreak and frustration, while emotionally challenging, it was not difficult to conceive where that comes from and what causes all of that. I grew up all around it.”
Much of the cast of the original “Sissies” stage production, which ran for almost a year in 2000-2001 at the Zephyr Theatre on Melrose Avenue, returned for the movie, including Leslie Jordan, best known for playing Beverly Leslie on TV’s “Will & Grace” and Dale Dickey, best known for playing Martha Bozeman on TV’s “True Blood.”
“We were fortunate to get so many of them back for the movie,” said Shores, who is known for inspiring fierce loyalty among his actors.
Shores is glad to be back doing a film after a bitter experience connected with the “Sordid Lives” TV series. Based on his stage play about an extended, poor-white-trash Texas family, “Sordid Lives” was made into a 2000 movie which developed a cult following. In 2007, the Logo gay cable channel commissioned a 13-episode TV series.
Leslie Jordan starred in that series as the Tammy Wynette-loving, cross-dressing “Brother Boy,” along with Rue McClanahan, Olivia Newton-John, Bonnie Bedelia, Beth Grant and Shores’ then husband, Jason Dottley (the two are now divorced).
While the “Sordid Lives” series got good ratings and critical raves, the cast and crew never got fully paid. The production company filed for bankruptcy before paying the $2.7 million in residuals and interest owned.
“Many people misunderstood and thought that Logo was responsible for the demise of that series, but that’s not true,” said Shores, who lost his house in Laurel Canyon to foreclosure as a result of not being paid. “Logo actually ordered a second season. It was Stan Brooks and Once Upon a Time Films who ultimately cost us that series, not Logo. Logo has really stepped up and done the right thing with some of the residuals that were owed. They were able to go around and paid us some of those residuals. I’m good with Logo. They certainly did the right thing. I’m very grateful.”
As far as “Southern Baptist Sissies” goes, Shores and Collins will be taking it to 15 different LGBT film festivals around the country in the coming moths. Several distributors have expressed interest in the film, but no deal has been finalized yet.
“Southern Baptist Sissies” plays Monday at 9:30 p.m. at the Directors Guild of America theater, 7920 Sunset Blvd. at Hayworth. The movie is sold out, but stand-by tickets may be available.
