“POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Truing to Keep Him Alive" at Riverside Theatre -- October 4 through 20.
Friday, October 4, through Sunday, October 20
Riverside Theatre, 119 East College Street, Iowa City IA
A three-time Tony Award nominee also cited among the 2022 Drama League Award contenders for Outstanding Production of a Play, author Selina Fillinger's uproarious satire POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive enjoys its area debut at Iowa City's Riverside Theatre, its October 4 through 20 run sure to demonstrate why the New York Times' Jesse Green said the work "lets us experience the double-bind of exceptional women unmediated by the men who depend on their complicity."
In Fillinger's POTUS, one four-letter word is about to rock 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. With her acclaimed comedy arriving in Iowa City just in time for election season, Fillinger is an LA-based writer and performer whose original plays include The Collapse, Something Clean, and Faceless. Her works 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. Fillinger was a Hawthornden Fellow and a resident of McCarter’s Sallie B. Goodman Artist’s Retreat, her POTUS was on the 2019 Kilroys List, and the author also wrote for the third, Emmy-winning season of Apple TV's The Morning Show.
Directing POTUS for Riverside Theatre is Angie Toomsen, whose additional area credits include the Iowa City venue's presentations of The Flick and Relativity, as well as the Amana Colonies' Old Creamery Theatre's Lombardi. With Sophie Young serving as stage manager, additional members of Toomsen's creative team include: scenic designer Lucie Greene; costume designer Joni Sackett; lighting designer S. Benjamin Farrar; sound designer Tyler Salow; props designer Stephen Polchert; fight choreographer K. Michael Moore; intimacy director Carrie Pozdol; assistant stage manager Darya Acas; and board operator.
Seven gifted actors, meanwhile, compose the POTUS esemble: Jordan Arnold; Kristy Hartsgrove Mooers; Jay’na Johnson; HwaYoun Kang; Jessica Link; Christina Sullivan; and Enjoli Valentine. Rverside Theatre would like to advise potential patrons that POTUS is a comedy that contains very strong language and mature themes, including sexual references, drug use, and references to hot-button issues. The production is not appropriate for those under the age of 18.
POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive runs in Iowa City from Octber 4 through 20, with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Admission is $15-39, and more information and tickets are available by calling (319)259-7099 and visiting RiversideTheatre.org.
