POTUS the focus of Theatre and Dance production

The Department of Theatre and Dance will introduce some levity into an otherwise intense political season with its production of “45 Plays for 45 Presidents” Nov. 7-11 in the Black Box Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The cast and crew for “45 Plays for 45 Presidents” are all students at UB.

An irreverent comical insight into the lives of every POTUS, “45 Presidents” features 45 vignettes spotlighting each president and his wives, mistresses, political opponents and others.

Director Lindsay Brandon Hunter, assistant professor of theatre, says she’s excited to take on this challenging production. “It might be madness, but it’s also a lot of fun. The ensemble who devised “45 Presidents,” the Neo-Futurists, is a group of exceptionally nimble and courageous theater-makers, and they’ve crafted a show that demands those qualities from its performers,” Hunter says. “The ensemble has a sort of make-it-work aesthetic that’s evident in the script. This is a piece of performance that’s about attempting the impossible and having a really good time in the process.”

The Neo-Futurists’ first production of the play, “43 Plays for 43 Presidents,” was released in 2004, and since then the play has undergone many rewrites and iterations to stay current. Prior to the 2016 election, the play featured an ending in which the audience voted for the next commander in chief.

And for all of the satirical comedy highlighting absurdly true facts and quotes from each POTUS, there are also very poignant moments as well, regarding controversies, assassinations and other incidents.

The Neo-Futurists maintain a mission of producing works that “fuse sport, poetry and living-newspaper” through non-illusory interactive performances. Hunter aims to maintain this particular style in the upcoming performance. 

“The actors won’t be playing characters so much as illustrating the presidencies, using everything from traditional dialogue to celebrity roasts to musical numbers,” she says. “Audiences should expect a whirlwind of styles and forms, and some very talented performers who play dozens of different parts in the course of the evening.

“What the presidency means, how it functions, what the populace thinks of it — all of this is under fierce debate right now,” Hunter adds. “We’re in the midst of unprecedented turmoil when it comes to the relationship between the office and the people.

“I hope that taking a look — even one that’s often irreverent — at the history of the presidency offers a chance to think through the beliefs and expectations we hold, both for the office and for the nation itself: who we are, who we want to be.”

In conjunction with the production, the Department of Theatre and Dance hosted a visit earlier this month by Chloe Johnston, associate professor of theater at Lake Forest College, a longtime member of the Chicago Neo-Futurists and a creator of “45 Presidents.”

While at UB, Johnston gave a talk sponsored by the UB Humanities Institute’s Performance Research Workshop, attended two rehearsals of the production and worked with the cast.

Tickets for “45 Plays for 45 Presidents” are $20 for general admission and $10 for students and seniors, and are available at the Center for the Arts box office and through Ticketfly.com.