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"Is this day about to become an oozing pustule on the anus of my week?"
Broadway Run:
April 27-August 14th, 2022
126 performances
Director: Susan Stroman
Cast:
Harriet............................Julie White
Jean......................Suzy Nakamura
Stephanie.............Rachel Dratch
Dusty....................Julianne Hough
Bernadette.................Lea DeLaria
Chris.................................Lilli Cooper
Margaret.......Vanessa Williams
Original Broadway Cast:
Photo Credit: Paul Kolnik
Link to Source: IBDB
About the Playwright
SELINA FILLINGER is an award-winning, internationally produced writer and performer. Her feminist farce, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, garnered three Tony nominations and made Fillinger, at 28, one of the youngest female playwrights ever produced on Broadway. Other plays include Baby, Under the Sill, The Collapse, Something Clean, Faceless, and The Armor Plays: Cinched/Strapped. Her work has been developed at Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, and Alley Theatre, among others. She is currently commissioned at Roundabout and South Coast Repertory. She has developed TV with AMC, Freeform, Hunting Lane, and Hulu, and a feature with Chernin/Netflix. She wrote for the third season of Apple TV’s The Morning Show. Fillinger was named to the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Hollywood/Entertainment.
Bio quoted from Fillinger's website.
What does the playwright want us to know about POTUS?
Why She Wrote the Play:
“I think the themes were building up in me over a lifetime, but the moment where I actually started to put pen to paper was with the pussy-grabbing tape was leaked. People didn’t know if they were allowed to say the word when they were covering it, so I think it was this moment where someone’s off-hand comment, said in private, affected the way language was being used from then on. Then, after Trump was elected and the stats came out about how many white women voted for him, I thought a lot about voting against interests and the ways in which we are complicit in our own subjugation and the subjugation of others. So that was when I think it really went from being a screed to more like a battle cry or manifesto.”
Source: The Washington Post
The Play is Non-Partisan:
“It was never about Trump for me. Yes, something that he said ended up being the inciting incident. But for me, it’s not even about electoral politics. I set it in the highest office in the land because it’s a farce and you want the stakes to be high, but it’s a story that you could put in any institution, any office, many homes. It’s about systems of oppression and systems of injustice. To me, it was never about a specific president. I find that when conservatives see the show, they think it’s about [Bill] Clinton. When liberals see the show, they think it’s about Trump. And everyone has a good time. I personally think it’s about neither.”
Source: The Washington Post
The Play is Not About the POTUS
“I never wanted to see him; I never wanted to write him. He wasn’t interesting to me. […] But I am fascinated at the ways we uphold patriarchy, even when a man’s body is not in the room.”
Source: Speakeasy Stage
There's A Bigger Point
“I see the world in terms of sexual politics; I see the world in terms of the ways in which capitalism divides us.”
Source: WWD
It's About the Women Behind the Men
“I was really fascinated by all the women around [Trump's] campaigns. […] They were in this loop of headlines about powerful men abusing their power. And I was really fascinated by the women in their orbit, who keeps these guys going day after day.”
Source: WWD
Profanity is Funny for a Reason
"I was just thinking about what was the silliest thing they could say, but also thinking really technically in terms of plosives, consonants, vowels. You’re setting it up so it can’t be too long. Otherwise, it’s not funny when it lands, right? Even the lowbrow stuff was crafted."
Source: WWD
Laughter is Powerful
“I just needed to laugh. I think it’s a coping mechanism, but it’s also a way of connecting with people. When you can make someone laugh, a bond is forming. There is a recognition of a shared absurdity in your reality, and whenever you recognize something is a shared absurdity, it can be incredible healing—and it can be incredibly threatening to people in power whose power depends on you accepting those absurdities as inevitable.”
Source: Playbill
Watch an Interview With Fillinger
Source: Virginia Repertory Theatre
From Laura Schellhardt,
(Fillinger's Playwriting Professor):
"Politics is theatre, and theatre is politics."
Source: Washington Post
Timing is Everything
“The difference between whether something works or not can come down to whether the door slams before the line or after the line. Or if the sentence has too many syllables. Or if someone is moving while they’re saying that line, it gets overshadowed and it’s not as funny."
Source: Washington Post
Women Need Intergenerational Dialogues About Feminism
"We can only build movements and coalitions when we debate, converse, and learn from each other. There is a false notion that solidarity and conflict are mutually exclusive. The goal should not be to avoid conflict, it should be to lovingly engage with differing beliefs and experiences so that everyone may bring their best self to the common cause.
Source: Speakeasy Stage
This is What She Hopes Audiences Will Do
"I hope they have a wonderful night of laughter and joy. Then I hope they wake up the next day and put their money, time, and votes towards equity and freedom for all."
Source: Stage West Theatre
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