Sindy Maldonado ’27
Contributing Writer for A&E
From Thursday, April 16 to Sunday, April 19, Rooke Theatre showcased its second production of the 2026 Spring semester. “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive” by Selina Fillinger was directed by film media theater major and music minor, Natalie Werthamer ’26. The cast includes seven main characters, such as the First Lady, Chief of Staff, Secretary, Press Secretary, and others who are all trying to solve the President’s latest PR scandal that has led to an even bigger problem.
Rehearsals took place over the course of three months, and the show did not fail to impress its audiences, receiving eruptions of laughter after almost every line. The show takes place over the course of a day at the White House, opening with a tense, yet humorous discussion between the Chief of Staff and the Press Secretary. The two are grappling with the fact that the President had publicly insulted the First Lady, Margaret, played by Noelle Gonzales Jackson ’29, who is introduced promptly in the next scene.
Gonzales Jackson, who is a first year and relatively new to the world of theater, met with Mount Holyoke News on April 16 to discuss her role as FLOTUS. Regarding the personality of her character, Gonzales Jackson said her character could come off as “easily frustrated,” due to her independence and mistrust in others. In studying the character, Gonzales Jackson found it’s because Margaret has “been undermined her whole life” and has “had to work a hundred times harder than everyone else,” and still is not viewed beyond more than just her marriage.
Regarding this fact, in response to the question of her favorite way to embody this character, Gonzales Jackson replied, “I tried to embody her in … the way I hold myself. She has a lot of tension on her shoulders.” One of the methods Werthamer used for the cast to let go of preconceived notions of their characters was having them all switch roles, and to this Gonzales Jackson replied with, “that was really fun.”
Every character in this show is intertwined with all of the others, from interview scenes to dance breaks in the bathroom. Audiences continue to be introduced to characters in the first act, including a notable character that ensues chaos, Bernadette, POTUS’ sister, played by Molly Malloy ’26.
Malloy an environmental studies and politics double major, who is “passionate about environmental activism and policy research” but just so happens to garner a love for theater as well. Meeting with Mount Holyoke News on April 12, they stated that although they’re not pursuing theater career-wise, they have a history attending theater camp throughout their childhood and participating in theater during high school. Malloy has felt fulfilled with the fact that non-FMT majors are able to participate in productions. They have been in other shows as well, such as “Marie Antoinette” and “As You Like It.” In order for them to get into character, they start off simple, highlighting their lines and searching for the ways their character is described by other characters. Other things they like to do are make playlists or build some backstory for their character.
It is worth mentioning that the POTUS is not a physical presence on stage.When asked what it felt like to work around a character that doesn't even exist, Malloy replied, “I think it really works to the show's advantage by completely centering the women in the show. The whole show's making a very clear commentary on how women are subjugated by powerful men. And if you had a physical person playing the president, I think that there would be a lot of attention given to that man and taken away from the women. And that is the antithesis of what we're getting at, you know?”
Malloy also referred to exercises conducted by Wethamer to prepare actors for their roles. More specifically, the director had the cast “walk around space as our characters, changing different things, seeing what really worked.”
Werthamer offered some insight to Mount Holyoke News via email, stating “for each new rehearsal, I encouraged them to discover or focus on one new thing — whether it was a relationship, a new physical choice, or a beat change.”
For Werthamer, the moment she read the show, “music was already playing and lights were shining.”
The physical set was complex, with walls that could turn, a plethora of props and fake intern badges for the crew. Werthamer wanted these transitions to feel natural, so she “incorporated actors into the transitions as well as crew in order to fuel that. Music was also huge in feeding the impulse of the previous or following scene.” Here, her passion in music shines, with “the preshow music being USA patriotic anthems, the intermission music being female rage rock anthems, and ending the show with ‘I have a woman inside my soul’ by Cornelia Murr.”
Werthamer’s true goal for this show? To bring people who don't usually go to the theater, out to the theater,” Werthamer stated.
From creating a special menu at the Frances Perk Cafe to taking opinions from peers, she said she wanted “something that would make people laugh, talk, and bring their friends back. What better way to do that than to put on a political comedy with seven kick ass imperfect women trying to save a man?”
Maeve McCorry ’28 contributed fact-checking.