"Mary Ann" Still Acting at 73

“I can’t go anywhere,” she says. “I can’t go to Beijing, I climbed with the gorillas in Rwanda. It’s ‘Mary Ann! Mary Ann!’ ”

Although Wells runs a film festival in Idaho, is working on a book (a conversation between Mary Ann and Dawn) and has two reality shows “in development,” she’ll take a short break from those projects to appear (starting Tuesday) in the Chicago run of “Love, Loss, and What I Wore.” The play centers on how items of clothing mark emotional moments in women’s lives.

While Wells, 73, has for years held on to a lucky green blouse, the most precious threads she owns are Mary Ann’s almost-belly shirt and leg-lengthening bun-huggers.

Custom-made and immediately recognizable, they’ve long been valuable collector’s items. Wells has been offered as much as $35,000 to sell the ensemble, but “I’m not ready yet.”