POTUS: Or Behind Ever Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
by Selina Fillinger | Directed by Grace Herman
​Loyola University Chicago Directing Scenes Capstone
May 2025
For my directing capstone, I choose to direct Selina Fillinger's play POTUS: Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. I was drawn the farcical nature of the play, the strength of its female characters, it's political relevance, and the bitting critique of our collective complicity in white patriarchy. Over the course of the semester I did a deep dive into the play, preparing all the materials needed to direct a full production. At the end of the semester, I got to apply my preparatory work to a ten minute portion of the play. Presenting this as my final capstone.
Post Process Reflection
This was such a lovely project to end my college experience on. It felt like such an expression and a testament of all the skills I have learned in college as a dramaturg, actors, stager manager, designer, but most of all director. The director I was in the rehearsal room and the work I did on my production notebook is a representation of all the layers I’ve built up at Loyola. Everything I've learned, the people I've learned it from, the different versions of directors I've been, and the rooms I've lead.
There is so much I’m taking from this project, but something that stands out is a reflection my actor, CJ, shared on the project. In our last rehearsal we were doing an exercise to push big physical choices and we were all dying on laughter, CJ described this as being a magical moment of “out of body joy.”
That is why I do theatre. To find moments of out of body joy and to create rooms where that can happen.
Directors Production Notebook
Big Senior Capstone Paper! Check it out HERE
