Dezart Performs presents the award-winning play 'What the Constitution Means to Me'
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What do you remember about studying the U.S. Constitution in school? Was it a dull recitation of the Bill of Rights that you had to memorize for a test? Or was it an exciting exploration of a document that has impacted the life of every American since it was ratified in 1788?
In “What the Constitution Means to Me,” a teenager earns college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. Written and performed on Broadway by playwright Heidi Schreck, the play is the personal story tracing the relationships across four generations of the women in her family and the document that has shaped their lives: past, present and future.
The winner of Obie, New York Drama Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, the dramatic comedy was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The critically-acclaimed play will have its Coachella Valley premiere at Dezart Performs Jan. 19-28.
A date with destiny
Actor Robyn Cohen attended a performance of “What the Constitution Means to Me” in Los Angeles just before the pandemic.
“It stayed with me so deeply,” she said.
Six months ago, Cohen was performing with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. when she saw the audition notice for the Dezart Performs production. After submitting an audition tape, she was invited to an in-person callback on the West Coast, but was still performing in Washington. Between shows, she raced to historic sites to record a monologue for her callback.
“I was in front of the Capitol and the Washington Monument, and I delivered this speech about the United States Constitution and specifically the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas,” she said. “And there's the Supreme Court right in the background.”
A few months later, she was invited to take part in a video call with Dezart Performs Artistic Director Michael Shaw and the production’s director Craig Wells.
“We had this almost hour-long callback/interview/conversation about this play, and how our lives are entwined with the ideas of this play, and about our personal stories and connections with various laws and amendments that have passed and that have not passed,” she said. “And it was just this incredible dialogue, which led to an offer to do the play.”
To Cohen, it felt like “a date with destiny.”
She was so excited that she began memorizing the play even before she accepted the demanding role. The play is performed without an intermission. The actor portraying Heidi never leaves the stage.
Keeping up with history
The play was written in 2017 and performed on Broadway in 2019, before the overturning of Roe v. Wade and current debates about the 14th Amendment. For theaters producing the play now, that raises questions about updating the script.
In October 2023, Cohen attended a production of the play at Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Playwright Heidi Schreck had flown in to see the production and took part in a question-and-answer session.
“It was an amazing, winning combination of collaborators coming together in Kansas City that I got to interact with and discuss the ideas of the play,” said Cohen.
Describing Schreck as “brilliant,” Cohen said the playwright encouraged her to consider whether language needed to be added or updated. But, Cohen said, the play “works with the language as written.”
Cohen noted that, in the stage directions, Schreck encouraged actors who are playing the role of Heidi to “update the statistics, update all of the language that talks about violence against women, against Indigenous women, immigrants ... to make them absolutely current.”
She added, “In terms of Roe v. Wade, it's interesting because this play is autobiographical. And it's a tremendous deep dive into her [Schreck’s] personal connection to the Equal Rights Amendment and the Constitution and how that related to the women in her family. The play is a container for Roe v. Wade being passed and Roe v. Wade being overturned.”
Cohen believes that, by sharing such a personal journey, Schreck helps audiences understand “how the Constitution supports, or in some cases may not support, our world as well as when it was first conceived over 200 years ago.”
A play, not a lecture
Growing up in Ohio, director Craig Wells remembers only minimal exposure to studying the Constitution. He’s excited about the ways in which the play uses stories and humor to engage audiences.
“It's smart in a way that is accessible,” he said. “It's smart in a way that makes you laugh. It's the personal side of Heidi's life that she continually brings into the piece in conjunction with the Constitution.”
Designed by Jimmy Cuomo, the set is a reconstructed American Legion hall, which, according to Wells, is “based on Heidi's memories and dreams of what that space was like.”
He added, “There's this element of audience participation that makes the piece fun, especially at the end, when we have this debate on stage where the audience is involved with deciding whether or not we should rewrite the Constitution or keep it as it is. And that adds a whole other layer to the piece.”
A universal story
The U.S. Senate website notes that the U.S. Constitution “is the world's longest surviving written charter of government. Its first three words — ‘We The People’ — affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens.”
For Robyn Cohen, those words — and Heidi Schreck’s story — resonate deeply. She noted that, since its inception, the play “has galvanized a lot of conversations and discussions about women's rights and about human rights, really, all over the country.”
Cohen added that “the truth of what she's talking about is so profound and so resonating that people in the audiences, I think, are going to come to see this play and, in many ways, feel less alone in their own journeys.”
“These ideas relate to every person in this country,” she added. “It’s the story of this one woman, but it's so specific and so deep and so heartfelt that this story really does become universal.”
Related: Dezart Performs announces $3.2M capital campaign to open theater in Cathedral City
If you go
What: Dezart Performs presents "What the Constitution Means to Me"
When: 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays and 7 p.m. Sundays Jan. 19-28
Where: Pearl McManus Theater at the Palm Springs Woman’s Club, 314 S. Cahuilla Road, Palm Springs
Cost: $55 for Opening Night with Post-Show Wine & Dessert Reception; $48 for evenings/matinees
More info: dezartperforms.org
Barbara Kerr is an award-winning writer and journalist with a passion for stories about people, the arts and special events. Inducted into the Dayton (Ohio) Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame, she is a past chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs theater group stages 'What the Constitution Means to Me'
