Breaking Glass Pictures
has tabbed Nov. 11 for the DVD debut of acclaimed writer/director Del Shores’
clever mix of a stage-and-film presentation of his Southern Baptist Sissies
stage play.
He could have simply shot
a straight-on version of his play (Tyler Perry has been cranking’em out left
and right), but Shores takes us from the moribund confines of the stage,
complete with audiences, to any empty theatre periodically and in doing so
breaks the pane of the stage play construct.
This use of the film process
moves his four protagonists from simply being characters to real people
(think: Shakespeare’s As
You Like It, “All the world‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely
players”).
Chief among the “story
tellers” is Mark (Emerson Collins — as Max in Del Shores’ Sordid Lives: The Series),
who provides the opening monologue and pretty much sums up his frustration, anger
and loneliness over being raised a Southern Baptist and yet ostracized, not for
anything he has done, but for what he is, gay.
Southern Baptist Sissies is drenched in irony, in that the four
protagonists feel trapped in where they are in their lives … a need for a
loving God; the words and deeds of Jesus are very much a part of their
make-up. And yet, there is that anger.
Ultimately Shores moves
through this and ends on a positive message.
If only the real world were so hopeful.
Bonus goodies include a
pair of music videos — “Stained Glass Window” and “Pass Me Not” — a
behind-the-scenes production featurette and newly-prepared cast interviews.
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