POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive Extended at Steppenwolf

 Steppenwolf Theatre Company will present a second extension of its wildly popular production of POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, Selina Fillinger's outrageous farce, directed by Artistic Director Audrey Francis. This laugh-out-loud Chicago premiere has added a second and final week of performances to its initial run, now playing through Sunday, December 17, 2023 in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. Single tickets beginning at $20 are now on sale for all performances at steppenwolf.org and the Box Office at (312) 335-1650.

 

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

 

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 POTUS creative team includes Regina García (Scenic Design), Raquel Adorno (Costume Design), Heather Gilbert (Lighting Design), Pornchanok Kanchanabanca (Sound Design and Composition), Almanya Narula (Fight Choreographer), Maya Vinice Prentiss (Intimacy Choreographer), Kate DeVore (Vocal Coach), 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 – Saturday, November 4 at 3 pm & 7:30 pm.

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

Regular run: Tuesday, November 7 – Sunday, December 17, 2023

Curtain Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 pm; Saturdays at 3 pm & 7:30 pm; and Sundays at 3 pm. Please note: there will be added performances on Wednesday, November 22 at 2 pm and Sunday, December 17 at 7:30 pm; there will not be a 7:30 pm performance on Wednesday, November 22, Thursday, November 23, Tuesday, November 28 or Tuesday, December 12.

 

Tickets: Single tickets for POTUS ($20 - $114) are now on sale 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:

 

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

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

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

 

Artist Biographies:

 

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 inMatilda 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 Miles Joris-Peyrafitte's feature film The Good Mother starring Hilary Swank, and in The Creator directed by Gareth Edwards.

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, World Premiere), Macbeth, Christmas Comes But Once A Year (Oak Park Festival Theatre, World Premiere). Regional: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (The Old Globe), As You Like It, Macbeth, Othello, Two Noble Kinsmen (Kingsmen Shakespeare Company). National Tour: The Woman In Black (Pasadena Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Royal George Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse). Film:Widows, Perpetrator, Morning is Broken (& Executive Producer – Best Fantasy Film at GenCon, Second Place at SIFF’s SFFSFF). Television: Chicago Fire, Shining Girls, Utopia, Brujos, Code Switched, Like What You Like. Awards: Jeff Nominee for Best Ensemble, Curious Elixirs Curious Creator Grant, Sarah Siddons Society Scholarship, Aaron Gold Memorial Endowed Scholarship. Education: BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul, Second City, Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is represented by Stewart Talent Chicago, Eris Talent (LA), and Apollo Management. Baldwin is also an award-winning filmmaker and fight choreographer. “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 her home. Steppenwolf: BLKS, The Doppelgänger, Familiar and A Doll’s House, Part 2, virtual show Duchess! Duchess! Duchess! (New York TimesCritic’s Pick); The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington. Chicago: Blues for an Alabama Sky (Court Theatre – Jeff Award for 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 a Chicago-based actor, director and educator. A longtime ensemble member at Teatro Vista she served as the Associate Artistic Director alongside Artistic Director Edward Torres for many years. Ms. Marquez was the first self-identified Latine ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theater Company. She directed the first all-Latina cast at Steppenwolf in the world premiere of La Ruta by Isaac Gomez, as well as the world premiere of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, which was adapted from Erika Sanchez’s best-selling book. She recently co-directed (with Alice DaCunha) Teatro Vista’s production of The Dream King by Marvin Quijada which received 8 Jeff Awards including Best Production.

Selected acting credits: Seagull, A Doll’s House Part 2, The Roommate, The Doppelgänger (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); 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 at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Mala Hierba at Second Stage Theatre, New York. Selected Film/TV credits: national commercials, Prison Break, Chicago Justice, Boss, Timer and Night Sky.

Ms. Marquez is a recipient of a Sor Juana Award from the National Museum of Mexican Art, for her contribution to the Arts and Latinx Community; a Jeff Award for Best Supporting Actress at Teatro Vista; the Clarence Simon Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring at Northwestern University; and several ALTA Awards (Alliance of Latinx Theater Artists) including a Migdalia Cruz Mentorship Award. She is an Associate Professor of Acting and Directing for the M.F.A. in Acting Program at Northwestern University. Finding and helping to create an artistic home at Teatro Vista has made everything else possible.

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, Denali and Boar's Nest. She is a proud company member of Steep Theatre and holds her BA from Columbia College.

Karen Rodriguez (Jean) is an accomplished actor hailing from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. She is a proud Steppenwolf ensemble member. On the Steppenwolf mainstage, she was most recently seen in Seagull, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Dance Nation, La Ruta, The Doppelgänger (an international farce) and The Rembrandt. Select theatre credits include I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Seattle Rep), The Way She Spoke (Greenhouse Theater Center), Breach (Victory Gardens Theater), The Displaced (Haven Theatre), Hookman (Steep Theatre), Blue Skies Process (Goodman Theatre). Television credits include Chicago Fire and Chicago Justice. She can currently be seen in recurring roles on SWARM (Amazon Prime) created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover, The Big Leap (FOX), Shining Girls (Apple TV+) with Elisabeth Moss and Jamie Bell, and season 2 of Power Book IV: Force (STARZ). Instagram: xkarenxrodriguez.

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, The Doppelgänger (an International Farce) and Dance Nation. Recent TV credits include Justified: City Primevil, Chicago Med, Chicago Fireand 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.

 

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.

 

Sponsor Information 

United Airlines is the Official and Exclusive Airline of Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf is also grateful for the significant season support from Allstate Insurance Company, Northern Trust, Amazon, ArentFox Schiff, Conagra Brands Foundation, PNC, and Vinci Restaurant. Steppenwolf also acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. This project is partially supported by a CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events.

 

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.

        

Photo credit: Michael Brosilow

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