SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 11, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Playwright Heidi Schreck describes her 2017 play “What the Constitution Means to Me” as follows: “I usually say it’s a recreation of a contest I did as a 15-year-old girl, in which I go back and try and understand my life, and the lives of my female ancestors, through the lens of the Constitution.”
Indeed, a teenage Schreck earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions at American Legion halls across the country. She resurrects her teenage self in this production at Pioneer Theatre Company in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives.
Over the course of the play, Schreck addresses themes such as women’s rights, immigration, domestic abuse and the history of the United States. The show became a sensation off-Broadway before transferring to Broadway in 2019, where it received two Tony Award nominations among other accolades. Schreck also played herself during the New York runs.
The play starts with Schreck (played in this production by Laura Jordan) channelling her high-school self, taking the stage in an American Legion hall. She discusses amendments including the Ninth, which states basically that the rights of people are not limited to the rights listed in the Constitution. She also dissects the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States,” including formerly enslaved people, and provides all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” extending the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states. This leads her to speak of the flaws in the Constitution, which one could say was designed to protect the men that made it and their property — which was sometimes people — from the government.
Before you start thinking that the piece sounds rather dry, I should add, it absolutely isn’t. “The Constitution is a living document,” Jordan, playing Schreck, says. “That is what is so beautiful about it. It is a living, warm blooded, steamy document.” She also divulges that she was obsessed with Patrick Swayze and witchcraft when she began her debating career. It’s rather amusing that she describes the Constitution in the same way that she might describe why she loved the hunky actor. There are also multiple references to the iconic movie “Dirty Dancing,” which, if you’re a fan, are pretty hilarious.
The analysis of the Constitution then segues into some personal history, as Jordan tells the story of a great-great grandmother who was purchased as a bride from a catalog, and eventually died of melancholia in an institution at the age of only 36. She also speaks of her grandmother, whose second husband abused both her and her daughters, and describes an abortion she had at age 21, which I personally found to be the most moving and relatable part of the play. She also throws out a statistic: so far this century, more American women have been killed by their male partners than Americans have died in wars.
Jordan, who carries the bulk of the show on her shoulders, is a tour de force. The script is intended to sound chatty, at times improvised, and under the direction of Karen Azenberg, who is Pioneer Theater’s artistic director, Jordan achieves this flawlessly. I really felt as if she was making decisions about how to tell the various stories as she went, though obviously the show is scripted. Jordan has the challenging task of shifting from comedy to tragedy on a dime, and also from the macro to the micro and back again, as the script makes hairpin turns from political to personal. Jordan (who later in the show also plays herself) is also incredibly likeable, which prevents the play from becoming preachy. I particularly enjoyed a story she tells about temporarily losing her beloved tiny red-and-white stripe sock monkey, named George the Second’s Friend.
The lead actress is also nicely supported by two other characters; Ben Cherry, who plays a rather humorless Legionnaire and moderator of the debates who then transitions into the role of a friend of Shreck’s, Mike, who share his own experiences with his sexuality and masculinity. He speaks about the times he “refused to be boxed in gender-wise” when he was growing up as a nerdy gay kid, and his uncertainty about how to respond when asked to take part in crude locker-room talk about women. Thus, interestingly, the lead actress is always watched by a male presence; one man with a rather stern depiction of masculinity, the other warm and likeable. Because he is onstage a lot, but with far less lines than Jordan, Cherry really masters the art of active listening, as does Jordan in the parts when the focus shifts to the other actors. Later in the show, they are joined by a debater that is the same age as Schreck was when she started her journey, and they and Jordan debate whether the Constitution should be kept or abolished. An audience member votes on which is the winning argument. (On opening night, the audience member voted to keep the Constitution.) In the performance I saw, the debater was played by Taryn Bedore, who has a commanding presence and ably matches her elder’s debate skills.
The fourth character in the show is truly the audience. Towards the end of the play, we are encouraged to boo or cheer and to respond verbally, which on opening night the audience did, with an almost surprising gusto. In the performance I saw, individual audience members shouted out their thoughts, which shows how invested they were in the story and of course, means that one would see a slightly different show each time one attended. The debater is also played by four different young actors.
The production values are straightforward and effective. The set, by Jo Winiarski, depicts a bland American Legion hall, decorated with flags, photos of various white men, a podium, and a bulletin board. The costumes by Phillip R. Lowe are also totally simple; Jordan sports a sunny tangerine blazer with a striped shirt and gray pants, while Cherry is dressed in a Legionnaire’s outfit that he then removes the key pieces of when he becomes Schreck’s friend Mike. The lighting, by Brian Tovar, and sound design by Bryce Robinette is unobtrusive, but works well. It feels as if the production values are deliberately low key, which only highlights the intricate twists and turns of the story.
I’ve found that in the handful of days since I saw the show, it often returns to my thoughts. And this is why the play, and particularly the title, is so successful. I left the theater thinking that “What the Constitution Means to Me” refers Schreck’s relationship with the document. But in fact, it could equally mean what the Constitution represents to us; each individual audience member.
For tickets to the show, which plays through April 22, click here or call 801-581-6961.
