Del Shores’ play Sordid Lives has been a Palm Springs favorite since the movie premiered in 2000. Released in 1996, the play was first produced at Palm Canyon Theatre (PCT) in 2002, and has run nine times there, with another run scheduled for Jan. 19-28, 2024. But, fans do not have to wait until January to laugh and love on this cult classic!
The Del Shores Foundation is presenting a one-night-only event to tell stories, show clips and share memories of the lives well-lived of Sordid Lives cast members Carole Cook, Sarah Hunley, Leslie Jordan, Rue McClanahan and Olivia Newton-John. The celebration will be live-streamed as a benefit fundraiser on YouTube and Facebook on Sunday, July 23, at 4 p.m. Pacific. Proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit the Del Shores Foundation its writers search and writers festival as well as partner theatres, including PCT. The live-streamed event is produced and hosted by Emerson Collins and Del Shores.
“It’s been a difficult year for the Sordid Lives family, and for me personally, losing my best friend Leslie Jordan, Olivia Newton-John and Carole Cook,” explains Del Shores. “It’s been hard to process, but rather than have some sad in memoriam, I thought we’d gather the Sordid Lives family and mourn, in true Southern style, by telling all of our favorite stories.”
Sordid Lives is a black comedy about white trash as a gay actor struggles to come out to his eccentric, dysfunctional Texas family. When the family matriarch trips over the two wooden legs of her lover in a seedy motel room, her funeral brings three generations of the family back together in a story about learning to love the family you have as they are, not as you wish them to be.
The Sordid Lives reunion will feature appearances of cast members from the original 1996 play, the 2000 feature film, the 2008 TV series and the 2017 sequel (in alphabetical order): Newell Alexander (August: Osage County), Rosemary Alexander (Sordid Lives), Bonnie Bedelia (Designated Survivor, Parenthood), Beau Bridges (Homeland, Messiah), Emerson Collins (Rent on Fox, The People’s Couch), Dale Dickey (Unbelievable, Claws), Bobbie Eakes (The Bold And The Beautiful), Alec Mapa (Ugly Betty, Doom Patrol), Caroline Rhea (Sydney to The Max, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch), David Steen (Django Unchained) and Ann Walker (Sordid Lives).
The Del Shores Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to find and facilitate the development of unknown southern queer artistic voices. Donations can be made at www.delshoresfoundation.org.
This was submitted on behalf of Palm Canyon Theatre by Cara van Dijk.