Program Director

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Emerson Collins is an actor, producer and TV personality who starred in four seasons of BRAVO’s hit social series The People’s Couch and appeared as "Steve" in RENT on FOX. He recently directed Del Shores' new one man play, Six Characters In Search Of An Author, as a play and film.  Emerson has produced with and acted for Del Shores in 17 major projects and countless smaller events in theatre, film, television and radio.

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Emerson has been honored as a member of the OUT 100 and regularly appears on panels and as a speaker and moderator for discussions of film and theatre production, pop culture, and queer representation in media. Emerson hosted The Del & Emerson Show for three years, UBN radio's number one weekly radio show and wrote regularly as a contributor to the Dallas Voice.

 

Emerson produced and starred in A Very Sordid Wedding, the sequel to Del Shores' cult-classic Sordid Lives through his company Beard Collins Shores Productions.  It opened in 60 cities with Emerson appearing in 45 cities for opening night events, PRIDES, charity benefits and film festivals.  The film is distributed by Gravitas Ventures and available in all formats.

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Emerson starred in the first regional theatre production of Jonathan Tolins' one-man show Buyer & Cellar with Coyote StageWorks in Palm Springs, CA winning the Desert Theatre League Award for Best Actor in a Comedy.  He returned to the role to close the 95th season of the historic Laguna Beach Playhouse.

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Emerson produced and starred in Southern Baptist Sissies, the film of the play by Del Shores.  The film played 28 film festivals, winning 15 awards including 9 Audience Awards and one for Emerson as "Best Actor in a Feature Film" from the Red Dirt International Film Festival.

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As an actor, Emerson is also known for his work as “Max” in Del Shores' Sordid Lives: The Series.  Emerson co-produced the twelve-episode television series for domestic distribution with LOGO and IMG International for distribution and successful syndication in seventeen foreign markets. 

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Emerson produced Blues For Willadean, the independent film adaptation of the NAACP award-winning play The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife by Del Shores starring Beth Grant, Dale Dickey and Octavia Spencer.  The film won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the Birmingham SHOUT Film Festival.

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Emerson joined Del Shores Productions as Vice-President of Development and began as a producer on the revivals of Sordid Lives and The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife while appearing onstage in Southern Baptist Sissies running in repertory as "A Season of Shores".  At the end of the successful eight-month run, he was instrumental as a producer in launching the national tour of Sordid Lives and Southern Baptist Sissies while still performing onstage in Sissies.

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Emerson also produced the world premiere production of Del Shores' most recent play Yellow, selected as "Critic’s Choice" by the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and Backstage and winner of the LA Drama Critic’s Circle Award for Best Production.  Emerson directed and produced the DVD live tapings of Del Shores' one man shows Del Shores: My Sordid Life, Del Shores: Sordid Confessions and Del Shores: Naked. Sordid. Reality.