Don't Miss POTUS at SpeakEasy Stage This September

SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the New England premiere of Selina Fillinger’s raucous Tony Award-nominated all-female farce POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.

POTUS is an outrageous comedy that centers on the women in the President’s inner circle who take increasingly desperate measures to save the country when his multiple scandals spark a global crisis. From an exasperated Chief of Staff and a scheming Press Secretary to a “so-over-it” First Lady, the script features an array of comedic roles that range from poised to over-the-top. Some of New England’s top women actors combine broad physical comedy with up-to-the-minute issues of gender power dynamics, the state of American affairs, and knee-jerk choices that change political gamesmanship in a split second.  

The cast (alpha order) is Marianna Bassham, Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda, Catia, Crystin Gilmore, Laura Latreille, Monique Ward Lonergan, and Lisa Yuen. Full bios on SpeakEasy’s POTUS page.

POTUS marks legendary Boston actress Paula Plum’s directing debut for SpeakEasy, where she has appeared numerous productions including The History Boys, The Savannah Disputation, The New Century, Reckless, Body Awareness, and The Children. Her other regional directing credits include: Waiting for Godot, Steel Magnolias, and Love, Loss, and What I Wore(HUB Theatre); Out of Sterno, The Last Schwartz, and I’m Not Rappaport (Gloucester Stage); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The School for Scandal (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); and The Baltimore Waltz (Lyric Stage). 

Angie Jepson serves as Fight Choreographer and Intimacy Director for this production. The SpeakEasy design team is Jenna McFarland Lord (scenic design); Rebecca Glick (costumes); Karen Perlow (lighting); Aubrey Dube (sound), and Emme Shaw (props). Lauren Burke is Production Stage Manager, and Kendyl Trott is Assistant Stage Manager.

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive runs five weeks, from Sep. 15 – Oct. 15, 2023, in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston.

Tickets start at $25, with discounts for students, seniors, and people 35 and under. Tickets and more information are available through BostonTheatreScene Audience Services at 617.933.8600 or online at SpeakEasyStage.com.  Estimated run time is 1 hour, 50 minutes including one intermission.

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive premiered on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on April 27, 2022. Directed by Susan Stroman, the production earned three Tony nominations including one for Lexington, Mass. native Rachel Dratch. 

About the Playwright

Selina Fillinger

(she/her) is an LA-based writer and performer. Original plays include The Collapse, Something Clean,Faceless, and The Armor Plays: Cinched/Strapped. POTUS was Ms. Fillinger’s Broadway debut. Her plays have been developed at Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Old Globe Theatre, Alley Theatre, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, and Northlight Theatre. She is currently commissioned at South Coast Repertory and Roundabout. She was a Hawthornden Fellow and a resident of McCarter’s Sallie B. Goodman Artists’ Retreat.  Something Cleanreceived the 2019 Laurents/Hatcher Award. Cinched/Strapped received the 2019 Williamstown Theatre Festival’s L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. POTUS was on the 2019 Kilroy’s List. Ms. Fillinger wrote for the third season of Apple TV’s The Morning Show (which debuts this September) and is developing both a feature film with Chernin/Netflix and a pilot with Hunting Lane/Hulu.  

About the Director

In addition to her acting and directing credits above, Paula Plum (director, she/her) also directed the Boston Pops celebration of Leonard Bernstein's 100th Birthday at Symphony Hall in 2018.  She served as Artistic Director of WGBH’s A Christmas Celtic Sojourn from 2003 - 2019 and as Interim Artistic Director for Gloucester Stage’s 2022 season. Ms. Plum is the recipient of the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, six IRNE awards, and four Norton Awards for Outstanding Actress. She was named the 2003 Distinguished Alumna of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. She is married to actor Richard Snee. Her website is paulaplum.com.

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