Cast Set for Chicago Premiere of POTUS at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the nation’s premier ensemble theater company, is pleased continue its 48th season with the Chicago premiere of Selina Fillinger’s outrageous farce POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, a satirical, laugh-out-loud look at the women in charge of the man in charge, directed by ensemble member and Artistic Director Audrey Francis. POTUS will play October 26 – December 3, 2023 in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. The press opening is Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 6 pm.

POTUS will feature ensemble members Celeste M. Cooper, Sandra Marquez, Caroline Neff and Karen Rodriguez with Karen Aldridge, Chloe Baldwin and Meighan Gerachis.

Classic Memberships are now on sale for Steppenwolf’s 2023/24 season at steppenwolf.org/myseason. Single tickets for POTUS starting at $20 go on sale Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at steppenwolf.org or the Box Office at (312) 335-1650.

It’s just another (omg, wtf, lmfao) day at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. When a White House PR nightmare spins into a legit sh*tshow, seven brilliant and beleaguered women must risk life, liberty and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is a bawdy and irreverent look at sex, politics and the women in charge of the man in charge of the free world. Who knew that global crisis is always just a four-letter word away?

The creative team includes Regina García (Scenic Design), Raquel Adorno (Costume Design), Heather Gilbert (Lighting Design), Pornchanok Kanchanabanca (Sound Design), Patrick Zakem (Creative Producer), Tom Pearl (Producing Director), JC Clementz, CSA (Casting Director), Laura D. Glenn (Production Stage Manager) and Kathleen Barrett (Assistant Stage Manager). For full cast and creative team bios, click here.

Production Details:

Title: POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive

Playwright: Selina Fillinger

Director: Artistic Director Audrey Francis

Cast: Celeste M. Cooper (Chris) Sandra Marquez (Harriet), Caroline Neff (Stephanie) and Karen Rodriguez (Jean) with Karen Aldridge (Margaret),Chloe Baldwin (Dusty) and Meighan Gerachis (Bernadette).

Location: Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St., Chicago

Dates: Previews: Thursday, October 26 at 7:30 pm, Friday, October 27 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, October 28 at 3 pm, Sunday, October 29 at 3 pm, Wednesday, November 1 at 7:30 pm, Thursday, November 2 at 7:30 pm, Friday, November 3 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, November 4 at 3 pm & 7:30 pm.

Press performance/Opening: Sunday, November 5, 2023 at 6 pm

Regular run: Tuesday, November 7 – Sunday, December 3, 2023

Curtain Times: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays and Friday at 7:30 pm; Saturdays at 3 pm & 7:30 pm; and Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will be a 2 pm performance on Wednesday, November 22; there will not be at 7:30 pm performance on Wednesday, November 22, Thursday, November 23 (Thanksgiving) or Tuesday, November 28.

Tickets: Classic Memberships are now on sale for Steppenwolf’s 2023/24 season at steppenwolf.org/myseason featuring two world premieres and three Chicago premieres. Single tickets for POTUS ($20 - $114) go on sale Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at steppenwolf.org and the Box Office at (312) 335-1650.Steppenwolf Flex Memberships are also currently on sale: Black Card Memberships with six tickets for use any time for any production and RED Card Memberships for theatergoers under 30.

Accessible Performance Dates:

Audio-described and touch tour: Sunday, November 19 at 3 pm (1:30 pm touch tour, 3 pm curtain)

Open-captioned: Thursday, November 16 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, November 25 at 3 pm

ASL-interpreted: Friday, November 24 at 7:30 pm

Artist Biographies:

Selina Fillinger (Playwright) is an LA-based writer and performer. Original plays include The Collapse, Something Clean, Faceless and The Armor Plays: Cinched/Strapped. She recently made her Broadway debut with her seven-woman farce, POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. 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’s currently commissioned at South Coast Repertory and Roundabout. She was a Hawthornden Fellow and a resident of McCarter’s Sallie B. Goodman Artist’s Retreat; Something Clean is the recipient of the 2019 Laurents/Hatcher Award and Cinched/Strapped received the 2019 Williamstown Theatre Festival’s L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. POTUS was on the 2019 Kilroys List. Selina wrote for the third season of Apple TV’s The Morning Show; she’s developing a feature with Chernin/Netflix and a pilot with Hunting Lane/Hulu. 

Audrey Francis (Director) currently serves as Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre, alongside Glenn Davis, where she has been an Ensemble member since 2017. She is an actor, director, educator and coach. Recent Steppenwolf performing credits include The Herd, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Fundamentals, Doppelgänger (an International Farce) and Dance Nation. Recent TV credits include Justified: City Primevil, Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Empire. Recent film credits include Knives and Skin, Later Days, Distant Learners and the upcoming Perpetrator. She has taught acting in New York, LA, Toronto, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as at The University of Chicago, The Theatre School at DePaul and The School at Steppenwolf. Audrey is a professional acting coach for Showtime, NBC, Fox and Amazon, and is the co-founder of Black Box Acting.

Karen Aldridge (Margaret) Steppenwolf: Man From Nebraska, Clybourne Park, The Qualms. Chicago: proud ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre (Victims of Duty, The Moors, Is God Is), extensive work at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Goodman Theatre; as well as Writers’ Theatre and Next Theatre Company. She starred in the international tours of Battlefield and Le Costume (both directed by Peter Brook) and, originated the role of Mrs. Phelps in Matilda the Musical on Broadway. Television credits include recurring roles on: Severance (Apple TV+), Fargo (Season 4 of the FX series), The Get Down (Netflix, produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann), Chicago Fire and Chicago Med (NBC) and Golden Globe-winning series Boss (STARZ!) You may spot Karen in Ron Howard’s film The Dilemma and the upcoming feature film Mother’s Milk, starring Hilary Swank, directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte.

Chloe Baldwin (Dusty) Steppenwolf Theatre Company Debut. Chicago: The Winter’s Tale, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (Goodman Theatre), The Invisible Scarlet O’Neil (Babes With Blades Theatre Company). Regional: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (The Old Globe), As You Like It, Macbeth(Kingsmen Shakespeare Company). National Tour: The Woman In Black (Pasadena Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Royal George Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse). Film: Widows, Perpetrator, Morning is Broken. Television: Chicago Fire, Shining Girls, Utopia. Awards: Curious Elixirs Curious Creator Grant, Sarah Siddons Society Scholarship. Education: The Theatre School at DePaul. “Deepest thanks to my family and chosen family.” ChloeBaldwin.net @chloeglowyflowy

Celeste M. Cooper (Chris) is excited to celebrate her fifth year as an ensemble member and remains grateful for the incredible stories she has been blessed to tell at this home. Steppenwolf: BLKS, Doppelgänger, Familiar and A Doll’s House, Part 2, virtual show Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! (New York Times Critic pick); The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington. Chicago: Blues for an Alabama Sky (Court Theatre – Jeff Awards Best Production); Measure for Measure (Goodman Theatre); Stick Fly (Windy City Playhouse); Ruined (Eclipse Theatre). Regional: For Colored Girls… (Kansas City Repertory); Building The Wall (Curious Theatre in Denver); Mrs. Harrison (Indiana Repertory); What I Learned in Paris (South Coast Repertory); Confederates (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis). TV: recurring on Chicago PD, guest star role on 4400 and Sense8. Film: Spike Lee’s Chiraq, and a leading role in indie feature Range Runners currently streaming. Awards: Most Promising Actress (Black Theater Alliance); Best Actress – Range Runners (Twister Alley); NewCity Stage magazine listed her as “people who really perform for Chicago” in 2020 & 2023. She has a BA from Tennessee State University and MFA from The Theatre School at DePaul University. She is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency. IG @_be_that_light_

Meighan Gerachis (Bernadette) Steppenwolf Theatre Company: Domesticated, Our Town and The House on Mango Street. Chicago: The Malignant Ampersands, Small Mouth Sounds, Solstice (A Red Orchid Theater) Roe, The Wolves, A Christmas Carol, New Stages: Blue Skies Process and Graveyard Shift (Goodman Theatre); Admissions, Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (Theater Wit); MOTHERHOUSE, The Electric Baby, Precious Little, The Walls, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue, Indulgences at the Louisville Harem, Factory Girls, My Simple City, Wrens (Rivendell Theatre Ensemble); Measure for Measure (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Cloud Nine (About Face Theatre); Cigarettes and Moby Dick and Che Che Che (Latino Chicago); The Underpants (Noble Fool Theatricals). Regional: Charm (Mixed Blood Theatre); Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue (Stageworks). Film/TV: Somebody Somewhere, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, At Any Price, Virginia. Chicago P.D., Crisis, Bobby & Iza, Sirens and Battleground.

Sandra Marquez (Harriet) is an award-winning Chicago-based actor, director and educator. In 2016, she was the first Latinx artist to join the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble. Steppenwolf credits include: A Doll’s House Part 2, The Roommate, The Doppelgänger, Mary Page Marlowe, The Motherfu&*er with the Hat, Sonia Flew, A Streetcar Named Desire; Other credits: Mala Hierba (Second Stage Theatre); Electricidad, The Happiest Song Plays Last, Mariela in the Desert (Goodman Theatre); Massacre, The Sins of Sor Juana, Another Part of the House (Teatro Vista); Clytemnestra in Iphigenia in Aulis, Agamemnon and Electra (Court Theatre); Mojada and Anna in the Tropics (Victory Gardens Theater); Breakfast Lunch and Dinner (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). Marquez directed La Ruta by Isaac Gomez, marking the first all-Latina cast at Steppenwolf. More recently, she directed the critically acclaimed and sold-out world premiere of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter also at Steppenwolf. Jeff Awards: Best Supporting Actress in A View from the Bridge(Teatro Vista) Jeff Award nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role for 26 Miles (Teatro Vista & Rivendell Theater), Living Out (Teatro Vista). A longtime ensemble member at Teatro Vista, she served as the Associate Artistic Director alongside Artistic Director Edward Torres from 1998-2006. She is a member of the Northwestern University theater faculty where she enjoys teaching and mentoring young artists.

Caroline Neff (Stephanie) is a Steppenwolf ensemble member. At Steppenwolf, she was last seen in Another Marriage, Describe the Night, Seagull, Dance Nation, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, You Got Older, Linda Vista (also Taper Forum and Broadway), The Fundamentals, The Flick,Airline Highway (also Broadway), The Way West, Three Sisters, Annie Bosh is Missing and Where We’re Born. Select theatre credits include: Lettie (Jeff Award Best Actor; Victory Gardens Theater); Uncle Vanya (Goodman Theatre); A Brief History of Helen of Troy (Jeff Award for Best Actress), The Knowledge,Harper Regan, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Steep Theatre); The Downpour (Route 66 Theatre); Port (Griffin Theatre); 4000 Miles (Northlight Theatre);Moonshiner (Jackalope Theatre). Regional credits include: Peerless (Yale Repertory Theatre). Film and television credits include: The Red Line, Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Open Tables and Older Children. She can currently be seen in recurring roles in: Let the Right One In (Showtime), Three Women (Starz) and heard in multiple Audible Projects such as: Song of the Northwoods, Crowded Hours and Boar's Nest. She is a proud company member of Steep Theatre and holds her BA from Columbia College.

Karen Rodriguez (Jean) joined the Steppenwolf ensemble in 2018. She was most recently seen in The Seagull. Other Steppenwolf credits include:Steppenwolf for Young Adults’ critically acclaimed adaptation of I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and on the mainstage in Dance Nation, La Ruta, The Doppelgänger (an international farce) and The Rembrandt. Other selected Chicago credits include: The Way She Spoke (Greenhouse Theater Center),Breach (Victory Gardens Theater), The Displaced (Haven), Hookman (Steep Theatre), Blue Skies Process (Goodman Theatre). Television credits include: The Big Leap, Chicago Fire, Shining Girls and Swarm.

Accessibility

As a commitment to make the Steppenwolf experience accessible to everyone, performances featuring American Sign Language Interpretation, Open Captioning and Audio Description are offered during the run of each STC production (see dates above). Assistive listening devices and large-print programs are available for every performance and all our spaces are equipped with an induction hearing loop. Our building features wheelchair accessible seating and restrooms, push-button entrances, a courtesy wheelchair and all-gender restrooms, with accessible counter and table spaces at our bars. For additional information regarding accessibility, visit steppenwolf.org/plan-your-visit/accessibility/ or e-mail access@steppenwolf.org.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company

 is a Chicago theater that is home to America’s ensemble. The company began performing in the mid-1970s in the basement of a Highland Park, IL church—today Steppenwolf is the nation’s premier ensemble theater with 49 members who are among the top actors, playwrights and directors in the field. Deeply rooted in its ensemble ethos, the company is committed to equity, diversity, inclusion and making the Steppenwolf experience accessible to all. Groundbreaking productions from Balm in Gilead and August: Osage County to Downstate and Pass Over—and accolades that include the National Medal of Arts and 12 Tony® Awards—have made the theatre legendary. Artistic programming includes a membership series; a Steppenwolf for Young Adults season; and LookOut, a multi-genre performance series. The nationally recognized work of Steppenwolf Education engages more than 20,000 participants annually in Chicagoland communities promoting compassion, encouraging curiosity and inspiring action. While firmly grounded in the Chicago community, more than 40 original Steppenwolf productions have enjoyed success nationally and internationally, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, London, Sydney, Galway and Dublin. 2021 marked the opening of Steppenwolf’s landmark Lefkofsky Arts & Education Center—deepening the company’s commitment to Chicagoland teens and serving as a cultural nexus for Chicago. Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis are the Artistic Directors and E. Brooke Flanagan is Executive Director. Keating Crown is Chair of Steppenwolf’s Board of Trustees.

Steppenwolf’s Mission: Steppenwolf strives to create thrilling, courageous and provocative art in a thoughtful and inclusive environment. We succeed when we disrupt your routine with experiences that spark curiosity, empathy and joy. We invite you to join our ensemble as we navigate, together, our complex world. steppenwolf.org, facebook.com/steppenwolftheatre, twitter.com/steppenwolfthtr and instagram.com/steppenwolfthtr.

        

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