POTUS (or Behind Every Great Dumba** Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive)

Amidst the contentious and divided terrain of our present societal landscape, leave it to Pit & Balcony Community Theatre to bridge our differences through the common denominator of humor to help us through this tumultuous political season with a special After Dark production of Selina Fillinger’s  uproarious satire POTUS (or Behind Every Great Dumba** Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive), which will run for two special performances on Friday & Saturday, November 1 & 2^nd at 8:30 PM.

This brilliant, all-female farce first took Broadway by storm back in 2022, earning three Tony nominations for this fast-paced comedy about seven women in charge of the man in charge of the free world, as one four-letter word rocks 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, and the brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most end up risking life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble.

With many critics describing POTUS as an innovative synthesis of the riotous ensemble comedy developed by Saturday Night Live, the Capitol Steps comedy troupe, and the HBO series Veep, director Dominique Eisengruber is visibly excited to be directing this production.   “Because this play is very new, I was surprised we got the rights to perform it as soon as we did,” she reflects. “The playwright is from Northwestern University in Chicago, and I believe it just played at the Steppenwolf theatre in Chicago last year. It won many awards and is a brilliant play.”

When asked how she would distinguish POTUS from most political satire, Dominque references the numerous underlying topics that percolate beneath the theme. 

“First of all, I love that it’s a farce with seven women because you don’t usually get to see a lot of farces with strong female characters,” she notes. “All of these women have a backstory and character history, so in rehearsals we’ve been talking about the positions that already exist in these characters in terms of what does a real life Chief of Staff do, or what does a real life press secretary do, and the politics wrapped within those roles.”

Ironically, when it comes to Presidential scandals involving issues of fidelity, if one looks at Kennedy, Clinton, Epstein, and Trump, to name but a few, this is something both Republicans & Democrats both share in common. And according to Dominique, it’s through these ubiquitous scandals that POTUS derives much of its effectiveness.

“The narrative in POTUS is very balanced and really creative in the sense that it doesn’t really pick a side,” reflects Dominique. “It’s very much about how we’re all frustrated about the same things, so it uses these commonalities as a thread to unite us in the shared frustration all these women are experiencing.  The playwright even puts into the script notes how the action takes place in the present but it’s not about any particular president.”

Interestingly, the previous production Dominique directed for Pit & Balcony was also a farce, as last season she did an amazing job bringing the difficult intricacies of The Play That Goes Wrong to full fruition.

“Because it’s so new I hadn’t seen POTUS before, and this is the first I’ve heard of it being done in Michigan, so I’m super excited because I love farces. As an artist I like to do female empowerment pieces and this is a different type of farce because I don’t have to deal with sets falling apart; but the most difficult part of directing any farce involves the timing.”

“There’s a lot of themes regarding the middle man - or the person below everybody else in this production, so in many ways it’s about this frustration of constantly being the underdog, which is something that especially lower middle class people can really relate to,” she reflects.

“It’s about the staff who inherits and is left to deal with the mess. There’s a great line in the show where one of the characters says, ‘I don’t need to make the president look bad when he’s throwing feces at the wall!”  So it’s an amalgamation of anyone in that position.”

With seven characters in the cast consisting of the Chief of Staff, the Press Secretary, the Journalist, a dalliance of the President, his Secretary, the President’s sister, and his wife the First Lady, POTUS is also very much an ensemble piece with no lead character.

“That’s another reason I love this show so much,” notes Dominique. “It takes a well-oiled ensemble to get the funny out. And I can’t stress enough how the subject matter is a lot more intense than you’ll find on the mainstream stage, but that’s my favorite part about these After Dark productions - I think all the best realist stuff comes out when you’re able to bust a cap for it.”

“For me the hardest part of directing this production is because of all the frustrations surrounding the themes and plot of the show, it’s real easy for the actors to fall into yelling or laughing most of the time, so the trick is finding the balance between that moment where we’re ringing the bell and things are chaotic, to that moment where we need a breather and don’t need to yell. It’s about finding the structure of the ups and downs and in-betweens.  That’s why we’re going deep into character analysis, to show the audiences themselves in a way, which is another component that makes this piece so strong and hilarious. They’re not saying things to be funny or yell, but they have very real things going on throughout the play, and the way they deal with it is through humor - that’s the biggest thing to tackle with this show.”

“POTUS has a cast with different backgrounds and is very inclusive,” adds Dominique. “Even with our seven actors, all of them have diverse backgrounds and some have never done a show before, while  for others its’ their 100^th show. Some of the actors come all the way from Flint to rehearse, so this allows for a divergent interaction between the actors and  people should come to this production ready to laugh and enjoy themselves.”

In order of emotional proximity to POTUS (Closest to Furthest) the cast consists of Sandra Cline as Jean, the Chief of Staff; Willow Treece as the Press Secretary; Heather Koch as the Secretry; Rhea Treece as Dusty; Shvonne Harris as sister the sister Bernadette; Toysha Welch as the Journalist; and Marie L. VanHorn as the First Lady.

“One thing I would also like to address is the language barrier, because there’s a lot of 4-letter words that may offend some audience members,” concludes Dominique.  “Because we are dealing with politics I think it’s important for audiences  to look past that to see what the root cause of it is, so it’s not a question about the types of words happening but more a question of why are these words happening? 

“In my opinion It’s important to differentiate that, because especially with politics, sometimes only a 4-letter word can best describe and fit a particular situation.”

Pit & Balcony’s After Dark Production of ‘POTUS: or Behind Every Great Dumba** Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive) takes place on Friday & Saturday, November 1 & 2 at 8:30 PM. Tickets are only $15.00 and can be purchased by visiting PitandBalcony Theatre.com or calling the box office at 989.754.6587.  Pit & Balcony is located at 805. N. Hamilton Street in Old Town Saginaw.