Theatre Of The Real And Embracing The Politics Of The Current Moment: Heidi Schreck’s "What The Constitution Means To Me"

The Theatre Times: In March, after an extremely well-reviewed Off-Broadway run, Heidi Schreck’s play What The Constitution Means To Me will make its Broadway premiere in The Hayes Theatre. As this breathtakingly vulnerable and informative piece of autobiographical theatre moves to a larger stage and on to the radar of a larger New York theatre-going audience, it is crucial to look at why this play is so important in the current socio-political and artistic moment. The play is a (nearly) one-woman account of an adolescent––now Obie winning actress, television writer, and producer––Schreck’s participation in speech competitions on the United States Constitution in American Legion Halls across the country; a feat she undertook as a result of her mother being a high school debate coach. Schreck was so dominant that she was able to pay her entire college tuition with the money she won from the competitions.