BLUE DRESS A New Queer Fantasy Play To Be Presented at Annoyance Theatre
Christopher Willumsen directs an eleven-person cast including Maya Paletta and Nora McCaughey at Chicago's Annoyance Theatre.
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Yas, And! Comedy opens its most ambitious production to date with the world premiere of Blue Dress, a new, queer, comedy-fantasy play running Fridays, June 5 through June 26, 2026 at the Annoyance Theatre (851 W. Belmont Ave.) for Pride. Curtain is at 7:30 PM. The show runs 90 minutes.
Blue Dress begins in the real world: two overworked ghostwriters, Sean and Colin, are handed an impossible assignment by their publisher: write a queer twisted fairytale for teens by Friday morning. As they race to meet the deadline, their fictional heroines, Dorothy and Alice, spring to life in a world where Oz and Wonderland co-exist.
What unfolds is a story told on two levels at once: a workplace comedy about two men who can barely stand each other, and an absurdist adventure about the characters they're creating who are figuring out who they are at the same time as their authors. The further Dorothy and Alice travel through "Wonderoz," the more Sean and Colin's writing process mirrors the journey they're writing.
The play is funny, strange, emotionally direct, and uses the logic of fairytales to ask real questions about identity, authorship, and what it means to write your own story. The production features a cast of eleven, original staging, and a set design built around wardrobe racks on wheels that transform the Annoyance stage into something genuinely inventive.
Thomas Beheler (Sean/Rabbit), Chloe Beth (Lisa/Hatter), Brianna Boyton (Tara/Caterpillar), Ella Carson (Ensemble), Natalie Freisinger (Patterson/Cheshire), Connor J. Hirsch (Colin/Toto), Sarah Johnson (Co-Pirate/Tiktok), Nora McCaughey (Alice), Maya Paletta (Dorothy), Emma Samson (Ensemble), and Zeke Seuser (Matt/Lurline). Directed by Christopher Willumsen.
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