Don is a multi-talented actor, director, producer and author who has award-winning scripts, television shows, and theatrical productions in his bag of credits.  Formally with NBC in New York, where he also performed at Carnegie Hall in Tom Booth’s opera “Gentlemen In Waiting”, he announced on air for WNBC and was part of “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.

For five years he was a resident performer at Casa Manana Musicals in Ft. Worth and has appeared as an actor in theatres across the country.  He and Geno Galantay wrote the musical “A Thorn In The Thicket”, selected for presentation in New York at the ASCAP Outstanding New Musical Showcase and produced twice in Dallas. 

Locally, his “Heritage Park CC” won the Crystal Award in 1988 as The Outstanding Drama on Public Television.  He has appeared on local television as host of “The Don Shook Show” and “Southwest Showcase” and as a reporter on “The Stock Market Observer”.  Working with such stars as Dick Clark, Cybil Shepherd, Debbie Reynolds, John Gary, Betty Buckley and Sid Caesar, he has performed in theatre, film, and television across the country.  Recently he was a producer and featured actor in the film “Scandalous Behavior” with Shannon Tweed and James Hong, and was a featured soloist in the musical “Follies” with the Lyric Theater in Irving, Texas. Having been named to the National Jaycees list of  “Outstanding Young Men in America”, he also taught music and drama at Texas A&M at Commerce, Duncanville High School, Temple Jr. College, Greenville Junior High and Brookhaven College in Dallas.  His Actors Workshop has fostered talent for television shows such as “All My Children”, “Family Law”, “The Drew Carey Show”, and “The Bold And The Beautiful”.  He also worked with Mari Lyn Henry in Southwest Casting for ABC Daytime Television.  Mr. Shook has written three novels, four screenplays and over a dozen teleplays and was principal writer for the “Mrs. America Contest” at the Plano Arts Center. His compilation of various short scenes and one-act plays “Women And Other Strange Beings” was produced recently at KD Studio Theatre in Dallas.  He is currently working with Merrill Osmond, of The Osmond Family, on the development of a number of television and live productions.  Recently, he wrote, directed and produced three shows, “Tatiana”, “Murder In The Ozarks”, and “Ozark Shotgun Wedding” at three different theaters in Branson, Missouri. 

 

During the drought-stricken Texas summer of '55, Don and Pete, two fifteen-year old boys, spent almost as much time trying to catch "The Monster" of Bluehole, as they did pursuing their alluring classmate, Dawn Ferguson. But unknown to them, she was in the thrall of Dee Garrison, an older man with a criminal record and even worse reputation. Even though they had survived an earlier, frightening encounter with him, they never expected that he and his demented younger brother, David, would go on a rampage which included rape, kidnapping, and murder...or that they and their faithful canine companions, Fuzzy and Jeff, would be forced to attempt Dawn's rescue. Thwarted in this attempt, they are held hostage with her in the deserted wilderness of Ten Mile Creek. After discovering Dawn's involvement with Dee in a dark subculture and his intention to kill them all, the boys, in the midst of a violent thunderstorm, escape with Dawn ...only to be pursued by the evil brothers. After a harrowing chase, they are finally forced into defending their lives in a brutal showdown on the banks of the mysterious body of water known as Bluehole.