A collective gasp echoes across the room in one of the most high-profile homes in the U.S., the White House.

Diplomats’ jaws drop. Journalists raise their recorders. Some of the nation’s top officials begin whispering amongst themselves. 

“Did he really just say that?”

He, being the country’s president.

And just like that, the women behind the White House’s closed doors enter panic mode in Springs Ensemble Theatre’s “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.”

What starts as one inappropriate comment snowballs into press disasters and personal scandals that unfold in “a hilarious comedy that’ll leave you gasping for breath,” producer and actor Sarah Sheppard Shaver said.

That spiraling political disaster will take place at Studio West Mulliken Black Box at the Pikes Peak State College Downtown Campus at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, June 4-20. 

At the center of the chaos are seven women whose jobs and intentions greatly affect the president, and possibly the country itself: a chief of staff, a press secretary, a journalist, the first lady, the president’s personal secretary, his criminal sister and his mistress.

“The diplomats are angry, the press is upset and all these disasters are escalating,” said Sheppard Shaver, portraying press secretary Jean. “So the team of women who are trying to keep things going is scrambling to cover up, smooth it over and make someone who’s really difficult look good.”

As the political fallout worsens throughout the single-day storyline, the women also juggle their own relationships, careers, children and personal sacrifices.

“Every woman in the workplace is a working mom, wife or someone who’s accommodating and covering up for the mediocre men who are leading them,” Sheppard Shaver said. “We’re puppeteers behind the throne, but also sort of complicit. It’s like, if I make him look good, but he’s not a good person, what does that make me?”

For director Jenny Maloney, that moral tug-of-war forces both the characters and audience to examine who really keeps institutions running behind the scenes, she said.

“They’re very smart, intelligent people, so each time their boss misrepresents what they’re trying to do, it costs them,” Maloney said. “It costs them in their own professional lives and time in their personal lives. At one point, Jean mentions how many dates she’s missed and babysitters she’s gone through. So if they’re doing this, are they doing it for the right reasons and the right person?” 

Ironically, the commander-in-chief who’s causing all the commotion never fully takes center stage, reduced to a pair of moving legs while the women around him clean up the political train wreck. 

“He doesn’t need to be present to cause chaos,” Maloney said, a sentiment she said many Americans may find familiar.

“If you sit back and look at each individual problem, you’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s from the Clinton administration, the Obama administration, Bush or Trump,’” Maloney said. “You can find many presidents represented through here and many of the women who surround them in the situations that have popped up both professionally and personally.”

This production also marks the company’s first performance since announcing its new partnership with Pikes Peak State College, allowing students to collaborate with the professional theatre.

Tickets start at $25, with opening weekend audiences receiving a $5 discount. Whether viewers lean left, right or back in their chair laughing, Maloney said there’s something in this political satire for everyone to enjoy. 

“The cast is an assemblage of some of the strongest women I know,” Maloney said in a press release. “They are all forces of nature themselves and the best voices to explore this story of chaos, competence and survival. By the end of the night, audiences will be laughing and relating to every word, regardless of personal politics.”

IF YOU GO

What: “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive”

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, June 4-20, with a pay-what-you-will performance at 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 15

Where: Studio West Mulliken Black Box at Pikes Peak State College Downtown Campus, 22 N. Sierra Madre St.

Price: $25, springsensembletheatre.org