When you read a quote from the New York Times that calls a play “not just the best play on Broadway, but also the most important,” you might be inclined to think you’re looking at the prospect of a play that is going to be like taking medicine. A title like What the Constitution Means to Me doesn’t help. But rest assured this play, which officially opens at the Mark Taper Forum on Friday, is not medicine and is not remotely as dry as its title might suggest.
Heidi Schreck, who wrote and was the original star of What the Constitution Means to Me when it opened on Broadway, participated in high school debate. She specifically was involved with Constitutional debate. She did so well that she earned the money to go to college.
In her play she revisits some of the same arguments she was making as a teenager, but with an adult perspective. That serves as a springboard for an examination of the lives of her mother, her grandmother and her great grandmother. More importantly she examines how their lives were shaped (and regarded) by not just the men who wrote the document that gives the play its name, but the men who were sworn to uphold it.
As she told Alexis Soloski in a 2019 interview for the New York Times, “I’ve realized I just don’t care about the Founding Fathers. I’m sick of worshiping them. And I’m tired of their stories. I’ve heard them a million times. I don’t care anymore. I want to hear other people’s stories.”
Maria Dizzia takes on the role Schreck played on Broadway. Original cast members Rosdely Ciprian and Mike Iveson are joined by Jocelyn Shek. Oliver Butler, who directed the Broadway production, directs.
What the Constitution Means to Me was awarded the Obie for Best New American Play. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle also named it Best American Play. Schreck was nominated for Best Play and Best Leading Actress at the Tony Awards. She was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2019.
Perhaps the highest praise comes from fellow playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) who, in an interview with Schreck for New York Magazine, started off by saying:
“I went back to see it three times and sent everybody I know to see it. Honestly, it’s one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen, which explains my going back a second time. But I think the third time I went back, I realized that I was getting something out of it beyond the absolutely magnificent writing and the extraordinary production.
“It’s such a terrible time right now — it’s frightening in ways that are really without parallel for anyone who’s conscious and, well, not a Republican. And you know, I’ve always been a little skeptical of the notion that there’s something sort of shamanistic or medicinal or restorative about theater in a kind of mysterious way, but I really felt that What the Constitution Means to Me was that. And every time I went back, I left feeling more hope about the survival of our democracy. Great art always does that to a certain extent — in the same way that a really terrible play can make you want to jump off a bridge.”
What the Constitution Means to Me runs approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. The production continues at the Mark Taper Forum through February 28th.
For tickets go here.
Update: This post has been updated to correct the opening night. It is Friday, January 17th, not Wednesday the 15th as previously posted.
Second Update: The run of the show has been extended at the Mark Taper Forum through February 28th. This post has been updated to reflect that. We are also now using a photograph from this production and not the original Broadway production with playwright Heidi Schreck in the role.
Photo of Heidi Schreck in the Broadway production of What the Constitution Means to Me by Joan Marcus