OH, BUDDY to Open at Trap Door Theatre
The dark comedy explores how binary gender affects workplace roles, featuring Jack Bowes, Haven Crawley, Mackenzie Jones, Shail Modi, and Dustin Valenta.
Trap Door Theatre will continue its 33rd season with a Chicago Premiere of Oh, Buddy, written by Hal Cosentino and directed by Jeremy Ohringer. Oh, Buddy will play November 12th – December 19th, 2026 at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland St. in Chicago.
The cast includes Jack Bowes, Haven Crawley, Mackenzie Jones, Shail Modi, and Dustin Valenta.
It's hard to be the New Guy in the world's most generic office. It's even harder to be the New Guy when you're the New Guy because you came out as transgender. And has anybody noticed that the boss is a Big Furry Monster? OH, BUDDY is a dark, absurdist comedy about how the bizarre demands of binary gender affect the way we take on roles in the workplace and beyond.
The production team includes Oskar Westbridge (Stage Manager and Sound Designer), Finnegan Chu (Costume Designer), Karen Wallace (Lighting Designer), Saskia Baker (Puppet Design), Jeremy Ohringer/David Lovejoy (Set Designers), and Genevieve Corkery, David Lovejoy, Forest Walden, and James Wheeler (Understudies).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Hal Cosentino (Playwright) (he/him) is a playwright, performer, and educator who splits his time between Arkansas and New York. He writes to investigate his own discomforts with gender, seeking flaws and gaps to turn vulnerability into humor, connection, and revelation. A finalist for the 2023 and 2024 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and a finalist for the 2025 Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, he is also published in the 2025 Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays Volume 2. Hal teaches at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas as the Murphy Fellow in Theatre, and holds a BS in Theater from Skidmore College and an MFA in Playwriting from UT Austin. He often makes plays with his art/life partner Ellenor Riley-Condit under the name Double Text (double-text.com).
Jeremy Ohringer (Director) (he/him) is stoked to return to Trap Door to work on Hal's play. Chicago directing credits include Eelpout (Shattered Globe), Briefly Breathless (Steppenwolf LookOut), A Devil Comes to Town (Trap Door), Who Walked All Night (Rhino Fest), and Sad Songs for Bad People (Rough House Theater). At The Theater School at DePaul University (where he is also an Adjunct Professor) he directed The Moors, Monica, and Stupid F#@%ing Bird. He has also directed several performances at North Central College including Everybody Thrashing, Ride the Cyclone, Tristan and Iseult, Constellations, and The Importance of Being Earnest. He is a graduate of Skidmore College and holds an MFA in directing from Boston University. You can find out more at jeremyohringer.com.
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