What the Constitution Means to Me: Positive Rights Are Active Rights

Wilbury Theatre Group presents Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me. Schreck is also a screenwriter and performer. As a teenager, she earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the country. Her semi-biographical play was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play, and also received two Tony Award nominations for Best Play and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. Directed by Wilbury’s resident artist Brien Lang, the production features Charlotte Kinder as Schreck at age 15, Legionnaire Ricky Waugh, and teen debaters Madison Donnelly and Hayley Pezza taking turns. On opening night, it was Donnelly who skillfully and maturely persuaded us with her intel.

According to Wilbury Theatre Group, “Since its premiere in 2019, Constitution has taken the theatrical world by storm, breathing new life into our Constitution by imagining how it will shape the next generation of Americans. In this hilarious, witty, and refreshingly honest play, she revisits her fifteen-year-old self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the lasting impact of the document that shaped their journey.”

Wilbury’s Artistic Director Josh Short says it’s no accident Wilbury chose this play during a contentious election season. “Questions about the rights of those who were left out of the Constitution are top of mind for many of us right now, and in this play and the subsequent plays of our 2024-2025 season, our audiences will undoubtedly recognize a recurring question that’s on my mind more than ever these days, ‘How do we build a world in which we want to belong?’ As we head into a historic election season, the personal and political ramifications of the Constitution are the forefront of everyone’s agenda. We’re eager for this opportunity to create space for those important conversations to happen with this moving work by one of America’s most exciting playwrights working in the field today.”

Yes, it’s very political, but don’t let that scare you off! Charlotte Kinder is a powerhouse as Schreck. It’s a wonder how she can go for 95 minutes without missing a beat. There are moments when she’s so wonderfully animated and unashamedly upbeat. You actually believe Kinder is 15! She’s also super funny. As the debate opens, she skillfully races against the clock while debating one point after another.

As the production evolves, she mounts her soapbox as an adult woman in a play, relaying real-life, sometimes gut-wrenching stories throughout America’s history. Let’s just say, you will learn a lot.

The action takes place in one room with no pieces moving — it’s all about the players. Scenic design by Monica Shinn gives us the look and feel of a typical American Legion post, where Ricky Waugh moderates yet gets stifled more often than not. That is, until he takes his initially tear-eliciting then comical monologue down memory lane. Bring tissues.

Keep those tissues handy — and consider this your content warning — as three quarters of the way in you will hear somber statistics and mention of such traumatizing issues as Battered Woman Syndrome, rape and molestation, teen pregnancy, abortion, depression, injustices by Justices, murder, and death (of a sock monkey; no worries, he gets a replacement).
  
There’s a fun Q&A at the end you’ll want to see! What the Constitution Means to Me runs through October 13. For more information, visit thewilburygroup.org.