Written by
Terry Guest
Courtney Berringers would like to welcome you to her wake! But—make no mistake—this ain’t your grandma’s funeral. Loosely based on the life and death of playwright Terry Guest’s Uncle Anthony, At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen is a one-act, two-hander play set in 2004 that centers Blackness, southern queerness, and the fine art of drag. From African gods and goddesses to Trina and Whitney Houston, At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen thoughtfully uses storytelling, drama and drag to explore identity, illness, and the narratives we construct for ourselves. Come party at the wake. Bring your own heels!
| Terry Guest | Courtney / Anthony |
| Paul Michael Thomson | Vickie / Hunter |
| Ayanna Bria Bakari | Stage Directions |
The Story Theatre | Chicago, IL (2025)
"At The Wake of A Dead Drag Queen is a sequin studded, rose petal-raining ode to joy"
Chicago Sun Times
Terry Guest is a 3 time Jeff Award winning playwright, actor, director and teaching artist.
His play The Magnolia Ballet had its National New Play Network (NNPN) rolling world premiere in 2022 and has since gone on to win two Jeff Awards, the NNPN Best New American Play Award, and was featured on NPR.
Terry went on to direct his play Marie Antionette and the Magical Negros at The Story Theater which won three Jeff Awards (including Best Director and Best New Play for Terry).
Other works include:
As an actor Terry has worked at regional theaters including Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, Alliance Theatre, About Face Theatre and Actors Express.
He is a Governing Ensemble member at The Story Theatre, a Hermitage Fellow and a teaching artist at Jackalope, Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre and Chicago Children’s Theatre.
The Story Theatre | Chicago, IL (2025)
Paul Michael Thomson is an actor, playwright, producer, and PhD candidate based in Chicago. He is elated to welcome you to the wake!
As an actor, Paul Michael has worked regionally at Steppenwolf, Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare, Urbanite Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Southwest Shakespeare, and more, and his on-camera credits include All Happy Families, Drawn Back Home, Chicago Med, and Chicago Justice.
His plays have been produced around the country, including: brother sister cyborg space (Raven Theatre); Fremont Junior High Is NOT Doing Oklahoma! (Good Company Theatre, Live Theatre Workshop); What a Time to Be Alive (You Say That Every Time) (Great Plains Theatre Commons); Leave Me Alone! (The Story Theatre); The G.O.A.T., or Who Is Ximone? (Theatre L'Acadie, O'Neill Center NPC Finalist); and more.
Paul Michael is a PhD candidate in Afro-American Studies through the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his scholarly work has been published in Theatre History Studies, the Black Theatre Review, and Theatre Annual.
He is a proud co-founder and Governing Ensemble member of The Story Theatre and is represented by Gray Talent Group. paulmichaelthomson.com @paulmichaelt
The Story Theatre | Chicago, IL (2025)
We believe this play deserves a New York production. If you are excited about being a part of that, please contact the playwright.
The Story Theatre | Chicago, IL (2025)
"At The Wake of A Dead Drag Queen is alternately moving, hilarious, inspiring, and involving."
Sarasota Herald Tribune
Mikael Burke is a black queer director, deviser, and educator based in Chicago. A Princess Grace Award-winner and Jeff Award-winning director, he is an Assistant Professor of Theatre-Acting at the CCPA at Roosevelt University.
Credits include:
OAK by Terry Guest (Raven Theatre, Chicago, IL); PRIMARY TRUST by Eboni Booth (Forward Theater, Madison, WI); AT THE WAKE OF A DEAD DRAG QUEEN by Terry Guest (The Story Theatre, Chicago, IL); A TALE OF TWO CITIES, adapted by Brendan Pelsue (Shattered Globe Theatre, Chicago, IL); MILO IMAGINES THE WORLD by Christian Magby, Christian Albright, & Terry Guest (Rolling World Premiere, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Chicago, IL & Children’s Theatre Company, Minneapolis, MN); KING JAMES by Rajiv Joseph (Forward Theatre; OAK by Terry Guest (World Premiere, Urbanite Theatre, Sarasota, FL); OTHELLO by William Shakespeare (Theatreworks Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO); SHORT SHAKES! ROMEO & JULIET (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago, IL); NOTES FROM THE FIELD by Anna Deveare Smith (TimeLine Theatre, Chicago, IL); THE SALVAGERS by Harrison David Rivers (World Premiere, Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, CT); TAMBO & BONES by Dave Harris (Refracted Theatre Company, Chicago, IL, winner of 8 Joseph Jefferson Awards); BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY by Pearl Cleage (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, Chicago, IL); CLYDE’S by Lynn Nottage (Theaterworks Hartford, Hartford, CT, winner of 1 CCC Award); THE MAGNOLIA BALLET by Terry Guest (About Face Theatre, Chicago, IL, winner of 2 Joseph Jefferson Awards).
Mikael has also been recognized with a Black Theatre Alliance Award for Directing (2022), and as one of New City Magazine’s 50 Players of Chicago in 2023 & 2025.
Mikael is an Artistic Associate at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company in Chicago, as well as at About Face Theatre, where he previously served as Associate Artistic Director. He’s also an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University and Roosevelt University, and a proud member of SDC. MFA Directing, The Theatre School at DePaul University.
mklburke.com
Cooper Howell (they/them) is a New York City–based director, producer, playwright, and former actor, originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, determined to spearhead an audience revolution—creating high-voltage, avant-garde theater EVENTS where content rips open convention, art forms bend until it breaks, and unapologetically centers queer, trans, and POC voices. They are the Artistic Director of WILDEHAUS (“Wilde” as in Oscar, “Haus” as in down boots) a new production company championing America’s radical queer performance art. WILDEHAUS bridges the gap between the experimental and the commercial—introducing the New York theater industry to a new generation of visionary work and building community around the artists shaping its future. Cooper is the writer of LOOP, the world’s first silent disco play—an immersive adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde experienced entirely through headphones as audiences travel scene to scene. This spring, they make their Broadway debut as Associate Director of Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre (directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch), the acclaimed ballroom reimagining of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Other New York directing credits include Baldwin et Lucien (City Center), Little Kingdom by JC Pankratz (The Workshop Theater), and AriDy Nox’s Death Comes in Threes for the 2025 Breaking the Binary Festival starring Taylor Iman Jones and Samora La Perdida. They are a proud member of National Queer Theater’s artistic collective and an alum of the Theater Producers of Color (TPOC) 2025 Producing 101 program. Before shifting to directing, Cooper appeared Off-Broadway in six productions, including Emojiland the Musical (“Sunny”), Spamilton: An American Parody (“Hamilton”), and Penelope at York Theatre Company, where they can be heard on the original cast recording. All my love to Sawyer, my sweets.
Ayanna Bria Bakari is a governing ensemble member of The Story Theatre. Her theater credits include THE RAINMAKER at Peninsula Players, RELENTLESS at Timeline Theatre and Goodman Theatre, Too Heavy For Your Pocket at Timeline Theatre, How To Catch Creation at Goodman Theatre, AS YOU LIKE IT at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, THE ORIGINALIST at Indiana Repertory Theatre, Suddenly Last Summer at Raven Theatre, STICKFLY and THE NICETIES (Black Theater Alliance Award Recipient) at Writers Theatre. Television and film credits include Wu-Tang: An American Saga on HULU, The CHI on Showtime, Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Empire on FOX, 61st Street on AMC and Holiday Heist on BET.
Ayanna Bria graduated with a BFA in acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. She is represented by Stewart Talent.
BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Brenna is a founding Governing Ensemble member of The Story Theatre. Other credits from The Story include Marie Antoinette and the Magical Negroes (Marie Antoinette); Leave Me Alone! (Anna); Fires, Ohio (Elena); Artemis Books and the Well-Meaning Man (Emerson). On stage she has worked with Northlight Theatre, Remy Bumppo, and Arizona Theatre Company among others. On-screen credits include Night Sky (Amazon Studios/Legendary Television), Christmas...Again?! (Disney Channel), and Chicago Med (NBC), and Chicago Fire (NBC).Commercial and print work includes Humira, AAA, Frigo Cheese, Carmex, and Ace Hardware. She would like to thank her fellow Governing Ensemble members at The Story, and David Hagen for their love and rare artistry. Brenna is a member of SAG/AFTRA and proudly represented by Gray Talent Group.
Ethan Korvne is a composer and sound designer from Akron, OH and based in Chicago. Recent credits include: Taming of the Shrew at Court Theatre (composer), Oak at Raven Theatre, Infinity Burns at A Red Orchid Theatre (Incubator Series), Hamlet at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen at The Story Theatre, No Such Thing at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Coronation at Refracted Theatre Company (Joseph Jefferson Nomination – Best Sound Design), Short Shakes! Romeo & Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, and the Chicago premiere of Tambo & Bones at Refracted Theatre Company (2 Joseph Jefferson Awards – Original Music in a Play and Best Sound Design). Ethan graduated from The Theatre School at DePaul University with a BFA in Sound Design. He believes in theatre that draws a diverse audience, plays that challenge and thrill, and work that puts a spotlight on perspectives that don’t receive hardly enough attention. Listen to his work and more at: ethankorvne.com
The Story Theatre | Chicago, IL (2025)
We believe this play deserves a New York production. If you are excited about being a part of that, please contact the playwright.
The Story Theatre | Chicago, IL (2025)
"This is a show that could live long here in Chicago or even Off-Broadway"
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
The Story Theatre will pose questions, rather than provide answers. We develop and produce new work that is whimsical, melancholic, mythic in vision, and intimate in scale. We are run by a governing artistic ensemble, who ensures our work is actively dismantling racism and inequity, while cultivating community through activism and catharsis.
Governing Ensemble members Ayanna Bria Bakari, Brenna DiStasio, Terry Guest, and Paul Michael Thomson are honored to welcome you into our community, and we hope you'll stick around.