Review: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME at Loretto-Hilton Center Steve Woolf Studio

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis’ 60th season continues with a star-spangled winner: What the Constitution Means to Me. Presented as the lead production in the company’s Steve Woolf Studio Series, the show explores the document and its meaning from its 1787 writing to today.

Staged amid social and political tumult, its arrival could not be more prescient. Directed by Nancy Bell and starring local treasure Michelle Hand, the production offers moments of nostalgia, anger, and rumination as it explores how a nation’s political landscape has changed over time and how it interprets the founding document.

Leaning heavily into what it means for Native Americans, women, and people of color, What the Constitution Means to Me also delves into the historical record of how its interpretation over time has hindered and helped those it was designed to serve. Set in an intimate setting and using soundbites of real Supreme Court arguments, Bell’s production brings audiences directly into the fray as the play’s characters argue the merits and drawbacks of America’s signature document.

Written by Heidi Schreck, What the Constitution Means to Me is an autobiographical memory play with swathes of social and political commentary that find the author framing the production through her narrative and reflections. Through her lens, we discover that when she was fifteen, she traveled around the country participating in various debate contests about the merits of the framework document. We also learn how the Constitution, particularly its Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments, shaped her worldview.  

Schreck mainly debated the document in American Legion halls; spaces mostly inhabited by white men. Through knowledge and perseverance, the Washington state native won enough money to pay for college. Now, an adult, she explains how the document still shapes her life.

Breaking the fourth wall, Heidi talks about the Constitution as it has applied to her life. Finding it both protective and oppressive, she recounts her childhood and how she fell in love with it. Mixing comedy and tragedy, she also explains how, over time, it became a conundrum for her as she recounts how history, human rights, and her upbringing have come together.

What the Constitution Means to Me also explores how this document created by a band of white, male slaveowners in the past clashes with a future filled with uncertainty. Bell and her team emphasize how its modern meaning extends beyond what the founding fathers could ever have intended.

Starring in What the Constitution Means to Me is local theater treasure Michelle Hand.  Giving audiences experiences in real time from Heidi’s life and her own experiences, she portrays a citizen who is knowledgeable, vulnerable, resilient, and determined to inform her fellow citizens.

Adeptly starring as Hedi, and later shedding the role and speaking as herself, Hand commands the stage. Offering moments of melancholy and hilarity, she carries the show on her back from start to finish in another career-defining performance.

Serving as her accomplice is Joel Moses, who plays both a fellow actor and a by-the-book legionnaire with a stern military bearing. Moses’ scenes with Hand are perfectly timed and quirky. Together, the duo makes for a thought-provoking production filled with civics and satire.

Abrogating the proceedings is a live debate where Moses and Hand get real by bringing in a ringer. Joined onstage by a local debate student, Hand takes a side of the issue of whether a new constitution should be made. Her challenger takes the other side, with a random audience member selected to choose the winner. The ensuing clash of ideologies is an enthralling example of how the Constitution applies to our everyday lives.

A frantic battle of opinion ensues with audiences fully engaged as each side presents their case. This live debate emphasizes the core of the play: that the Constitution, while at times outmoded, does illicit ideas that were revolutionary for its time.

Sharp and snarky, The Rep's What the Constitution Means to Me never shys away from confrontation. Nancy’s Bell’s sterling production is an exclamation point for individual rights and freedoms. This is theater as resistance in a harrowing time of injustice. It’s also a reminder of how the medium can inform, entertain, and motivate.