"POTUS" brings comedy and chaos to the West Wing in new play
BOSTON - On stage at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston's South End, there is chaos in the West Wing.
In the SpeakEasy Stage production of "POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive," White House staffers work to keep a not-so smart president out of trouble. The comedy uses dozens of props and some hilarious fight scenes to help the story come alive.
Fight choreographer and intimacy director Angie Jepson said, "It is 100% a dance. Everything is choreographed so that the story is maintained and all the more importantly, that the actors are safe." Jepson worked with the cast for days to make the on-stage fights look real.
Actor Catia told us, "It's about making your muscles look like they're doing something that they're not doing."
And actor Laura Latreille says rehearsal doesn't stop once the play opens. "Every night before the show, we have a fight call," Latreille said. "So we come in a little early, and then we step through everything 25%, go through all the fight choreography and then we do it at show speed so that we're warmed up for that night."
The actors are also working with nearly 100 props in every show. Props designer Emme Shaw made many of the items used in the storytelling. "They're crazy. They're challenging. Every time somebody pulls something out, you think that's the craziest thing I've ever seen on stage, and then something else comes out," Shaw said.
Jepson said the crowd reaction is worth all of the hard work. "It's really fun to sit with an audience and remember what it's like to experience the story for the first time and to see what their reactions are to this crazy physicality that we've crafted in these fights," Jepson said.
You can catch "POTUS..." at the Calderwood Pavilion through Oct. 15.