What the Constitution Means to Me - 2019 Broadway History , Info & More
Hayes Theatre (Broadway)
240 West 44th St. New York, NY
Fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition money by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In her boundary-breaking new play, the Obie Award winner resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women in her own family and the founding document that dictated their rights and citizenship. This hilarious, hopeful and "achingly human" (Exeunt Magazine) exploration breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of American women.
What the Constitution Means to Me - 2019 - Broadway Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR What the Constitution Means to Me
What the Constitution Means to Me
10 / 10
The performance is itself an exercise in critical thinking. Schreck almost immediately goes 'over time' to talk about how the Constitution has both liberated and imprisoned women's bodies. She burrows into her own family's painful past of spousal abuse; in one section, about her grandma Betty, she has to read from notecards so that she can muscle through the text without crying. In two years of building the show, Schreck has crafted a powerful argument that uses everything at hand: legal analysis, a dive into history, a consuming rage at sexual-assault statistics and her own very personal reasoning. (There's a scary and hilarious audio recording of Supreme Court justices that's worth the price of admission.) When her own raw grief threatens to overwhelm her, she invites a young local debater-either Rosdely Ciprian or Thursday Williams-for a sparkling debate, which offers tangible hope for the future.
What the Constitution Means to Me review – a five star Broadway triumph
10 / 10
Shattering, galvanizing and very funny, Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me close reads an old text in new and breathlessly exciting ways. When Schreck, a longtime Off-Broadway actor and more recently a playwright, was a teenager, she traveled around American Legions Halls, winning money for college by delivering a speech called Casting Spells: The Crucible of the Constitution. In this mostly solo show (Schreck is joined by the actor Mike Iveson as a legionnaire and later by a teenage debater), Schreck, sunny in a daffodil blazer stands inside a re-creation of one of those halls. (The design is by Rachel Hauck.) Persuasively, she conjures both that brace-faced Patrick Swayze-swooning teenager, and the woman she became.
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What the Constitution Means to Me History
Other Productions of What the Constitution Means to Me
| 2017 | New York |
Heidi Schreck, What The Constitution Means To Me, Oliver Butler, True Love Productions New York |
| 2018 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 2019 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2020 | US Tour |
US National Tour US Tour |
What the Constitution Means to Me - 2019 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Heidi Schreck |
| 2019 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Heidi Schreck |
| 2019 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | What the Constitution Means to Me |
| 2019 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | What the Constitution Means to Me |
| 2019 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Heidi Schreck |
| 2019 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Heidi Schreck |
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