Spokane Civic Theatre’s ‘POTUS’ highlights the women who save the president from himself

As the saying goes, “Behind every great man is a great woman.”

But who’s behind the not-so-great men? The ones who always seem to be one move away from personal and/or professional disaster?

According to playwright Selena Fillinger, maintaining that type of man requires seven women.

In her play “POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumba** are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive,” Fillinger takes audiences to the White House, where the day seems to be starting as it usually does until a PR nightmare threatens to grow into something much worse.

A team of seven women, all brilliant yet beleaguered, will have to risk “life, liberty and the pursuit of sanity” to keep the president out of trouble.

Spokane Civic Theatre’s production of “POTUS,” directed by Chelsea DuVall, stars Melody Deatherage, as Harriet, the president’s chief of staff; Lani Call as Jean, the press secretary; Sarah Plumb as Stephanie, the president’s personal secretary; Delaney Kahler as Dusty, the president’s mistress; Jamie Sciarrio as Bernadette, the president’s sister; Rachae Thomas as Chris, a White House reporter; and Nicole Hicks-Wedge as Margaret, the First Lady.

“They all create this web that really catches this man,’ DuVall said. “They all provide this net that basically catches this man every time he makes a failure, which is interesting, because we are currently in a leadership that has a lot of public-facing behavior that people find problematic … He just put a picture of the Obamas’ faces on primates. That’s been all over the news the past couple days, and these women are talking about that very thing, which is this man makes a decision, this man lights a fire, and we have to put it out.”

The play runs Friday through March 8.

This production comes after two reader’s theater presentations of “POTUS,” which featured the same cast as this full production. In neither the reader’s theater nor full productions does the audience see an actor playing the president, which keeps the show politically neutral.

DuVall worked to find neutrality in the design as well, telling scenic designer Peter Rossing and his team if they were to use a blue or red, it would have to be more navy or plum. That continued with the costumes as well; the First Lady’s outfit, for example, is navy in the first act and maroon in the second.

“This is any president, anybody. It doesn’t matter,” DuVall said. “It’s really the patriarchy more than it’s actually this role.”

Through her research of the White House, DuVall took inspiration from a room that is painted green, a color which feels non-political to her, as well as from some of the pastoral wallpaper in the White House.

“I think (scenic designer Peter Rossing) and I really found a balance of representing the style of the White House, and still landing in a place that is somewhat dynamic, because the other thing about it is it’s not just one room in a White House,” she said. “It’s a hall and an office and a room, so we had to create something that had a lot of dynamic possibility to change location.”

Because of the short rehearsal period for a reader’s theater production, DuVall said she and the cast have only really gotten the chance to put their “fingers down in the dirt and plant something with much deeper roots” after they began work on the full production.

Those deeper roots have included discussions about things like the extra work women do in professional environments and the masking they do, which is amplified for women of color.

Looking back to when she said yes to directing the first reader’s theater production in spring 2024, DuVall said she had no idea how desperately she would need to be in a room with women laughing.

The second reader’s theater, in fall 2024, came when Kamala Harris was campaigning for president and many were feeling energized and hopeful. That energy transferred to the reader’s theater production.

At that time, DuVall felt she could relate to “POTUS” as a woman and as a woman in leadership roles, both educationally and artistically. Now, the connection feels more abstract, which she said was more emotionally gratifying and, in a way, escapist.

But no matter the world outside, there is laughter in the theater.

“The sanctity of laughter and the sanctity of being together with one another has become a very precious thing. It’s been such a gift for me personally … ,” she said. “Now this thing that I totally did understand and relate to and could be passionate about, now my passions are so exhausted from the world that we live in, but they’re not too exhausted to laugh and to commune and to be present and lift up these women in the cast, so it has been an interesting journey.”

Though she is more worried about how people will react to some of the language in the show, DuVall knows that audience members are going to bring their own feelings about the president, past or present, to “POTUS.”

She wants to let the cast know that there may be people walking out of the show, though she also knows that audiences who attend shows in the studio theater expect to see edgier material.

“I’m going to do my job to let my cast know that if people are offended, it’s not because of anything that they’ve done, and that we have no control over people’s responses,” she said. “Just as it is important that we do this play and that these views are communicated, it’s just as important that people have space to react organically in the way that they need to.”