Chicago improv veteran Abby McEnany says her upcoming Showtime sitcom will cope with the problem that “permeates my life”: her gender standing.
The present, “Work in Progress,” will premiere on Dec. 8, the cable community stated Friday. Showtime describes the principle character as a “queer dyke from Chicago” — which is strictly how McEnany describes herself.
Production is to start later this summer season in Chicago.
Appearing earlier than TV critics on Friday, McEnany stated she continues to wrestle with dwelling as a gender-nonconforming individual, in response to a Deadline report. Even on the web site of the press occasion, the celebrated Beverly Hilton in California, she received a confused look from a lady within the women’ room.
“To be 51 and scared of using a public bathroom, confronted, stared at, it like permeates my life,” she stated. “It’s rough. It’s a bummer.”
Showtime picked up the sequence based mostly on a pilot McEnany and Mason introduced at this 12 months’s Sundance Film Festival, a flip of occasions McEnany described as “bonkers.”
“Work in Progress” is predicated on solo reveals she carried out at Chicago theaters. Her fellow government producers are also locals: improv and sketch actor Tim Mason (additionally the director) and filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, finest recognized for creating and directing, together with her sibling Lana, the three “Matrix” films and the Netflix sequence “Sense8.”
Wachowski, who got here out as a trans lady in 2016, is also contributing as a author. “I’ll just continue to be a back seat driver, which I’m excellent at,” she instructed the reporters.
The “Work in Progress” solid contains Chicago-trained actors Karin Anglin and Celeste Pechous. McEnany’s character embarks on a romance with a youthful trans man portrayed by part-time Chicagoan Theo Germaine.
Also within the solid is Julia Sweeney, the “Saturday Night Live” alum who lived for a decade in Wilmette. Sweeney’s basic ’90s “SNL” character Pat, a supply of fascination for folks unable to find out her intercourse, has been a supply of frustration for McEnany.
“I never disliked her,” McEnany stated. “I’ve been called Pat a lot, and in this storytelling show, one of the stories is that Julia Sweeney ruined my life. … I’m enamored and in awe of her, but yeah, Pat was really rough. I met her, she’s lovely and we talked a lot about Pat. I love her so much.”