Sordid Lives, Del Shores’ fourth play, opened in Los Angeles May 11, 1996 and ran 13 sold-out months. The critics raved – with 13 "Critic's Choice" selections. The play won 14 Drama-Logue Theatre Awards, including three to Shores for writing, directing and producing. He was also nominated for Robby, L.A. Weekly and GLAAD Awards for writing, directing and producing.  The stage play has been produced by over 300 theatre companies nationwide.

 

In 1999, Shores wrote and directed the film adaption of Sordid Lives, and it became a cult phenomenon winning many festival awards, including Best Film at the New York Independent Film & Video Festival, Atlanta Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival, South Beach Film Festival, Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Memphis International Film Festival and the San Diego International Film Festival and thirteen "Audience Awards."  20th Century Fox released the DVD/Video selling 300,000 units.  The film was re-released by Wolfe Video in 2014 available HERE as well as Netflix.

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Sordid Lives became the longest running film in the history of Palm Springs at the Camelot Theatres running for 96 straight weeks. The film also ran for a year in Laguna Beach and Provincetown and had long runs in Ft. Lauderdale – 37 weeks, Dallas – 29 weeks, Los Angeles – 26 weeks, Tampa – 18 weeks and San Francisco – 13 weeks.  The film stayed in limited release for nearly three years taking in nearly two million dollars at the box office.

 

In 2006, the play Sordid Lives was revived at the Zephyr Theatre in Hollywood for a six-week specialty engagement that was extended repeatedly to a six-month, sold-out run with many of the original cast and went on a national tour playing in theatres up to 1700 seats to sold-out audiences in Palm Springs, Dallas, St. Louis, Nashville, San Diego and Fort Lauderdale.

 

Sordid Lives: The Series, a twelve-episode TV series prequel to the Sordid Lives film, premiered on MTV’s LOGO network in  2008. Shores created, wrote, directed and executive produced all twelve episodes. The show was LOGO's biggest hit up to that time.  Sordid Lives: The Series was syndicated in 17 countries distributed by IMG.